Air Cadets grounded?

[EnigmAviation]

The "cover up" strategy

and documentation essential to any statement of airworthiness has been inadvertently destroyed

Or could we substitute another word for inadvertently .............like deliberately ???? If evidence tends to prove negligence, then far easier to say it's been destroyed inadvertently ! I think a lot more people know a lot more about the paper trail.............. people at all levels who were involved in repair and maintenance in both the RAF and the latterly appointed contractors, should be required to be interviewed formally and under caution.


( There now follows an excerpt from "Yes Minister" - Q - "what shall we say about the missing maintenance records etc ????" - A - "Just say they were destroyed inadvertently - old Joe our cleaner, is very short sighted, and a bit deaf, and when he was cleaning out our filing room, he overheard one of the fitters saying "he'd got piles" , and thought he'd been told to get rid of the Files ! " - reply by Questioner "that sounds a good enough , the Minister will run along with that and we can just say inadvertently" )


In similar "modus operandi" , most of the former locally held VGS data on VGS performance have similarly been destroyed - or to be accurate......have been sent to waste dump or recycling in a skip on the orders of Pippa. Why ? well some would say it is no great shakes, but if we are to substantiate pre-2014 "pause" performance of VGS activity, with the now somewhat stumbling and terribly poor performance we witness in 2018, we no longer have official data on hand, unless some people have failed to put everything in a skip !!


I've just been looking back and in 2001 we had 77 Viking T Mk1, and 55 Vigilant T Mk 1. The RAF under the direction of Pippa, will attempt to "recover" 15 Vigilant, of which 6 are allegedly recovered thus far, ( 2 @ RAF Topcliffe and 4 @ ACCGS RAF Syerston) with the added rider that only 1 is currently flying, and that itself is restricted to Circuits only. Thus a reduction of 72 % operational capacity on Vigilant alone, using the 15 allegedly recovered; if we recover and use a lot less than 15, then it's even more dramatic loss of capacity.


As a taxpayer, I'd like the Defence Ministry to tell us all:-

1. The costs of recovery per airframe of the Vigilant T Mk 1
2. The sum spent thus far on the recovered aircraft
3. Where are the remaining (up to 40) airframes
4. What is currently being done to at least protect them from deterioration
5. What is being done with the remainder - sale by tender, sale by contract agreement - price per airframe realised or target price
6. What would be the market value of each non-recovered Vigilant airframe if sold in the open market.

This is information that we, as taxpayers should be told. My understanding is that there is a "deal" whereby the original manufacturer takes the remainder back at zero cost in return for "recovery" work done on the "up to fifteen" A/C. They will then refit, to a Mk2 standard incl new engine and avionics/panel etc and sell to another EU Air Force for a not small sum.


Should we also know the economics of this ? Public information Disclosure Act ?? I think so.


I'm not familiar with the ACTUAL recovered number or planned recovered numbers for Viking T Mk 1, but suffice to say, there are substantially less numbers operating at this moment, and probably for some considerable time to come with the channel of "recovery" being limited to 1 contractor.


I think that it's hardly surprising that Official Cadet membership figures show a marked drop, as the Part task trainers,( PTT's) and the very odd "jolly" for 25mins in an AEF Tutor or at a one off jolly in another RAF Aerospace camp are absolutely nothing compared to the huge numbers of Cadets who received partial training or training to solo standard under the pre-2014 regime.


I understand that Pippa is set to depart this year in August - and may be heading to or linked with ..............the following.........announcement.........


"A £15m state-of-the-art Aviation Academy is set to open at RAF Syerston in Nottinghamshire in 2019 in a joint venture between the RAF Air Cadets and Aviation Skills Partnership"


It may well be that "managed failure" of Air Cadet VGS activity is a part of the plan for the future, masterminded by ....................well I couldn't possibly say! Even Ministers are prevented from immediately taking posts in the companies that they have held to account in their HMG role, not so in Defence Circles.