Originally Posted by
POBJOY
El Bunt The Sting is a very nice 'kit plane' but is not able to be certified as suitable for 'public transport'. It is extremely unlikely that in the current situation of the lack of a quality RAF tech system to even inspect this aircraft that anyone would be seen to officially even fly 'Air Cadets' in the machine let alone train.
The excellent LAA (formerly PFA) system is superb, and well endowed with competence, however it is very much based on the premise that the homebuilt aircraft in use are not burdened with the cost of certification to a level not required for 'private use'.
The Air Cadet Organisation have made it abundantly clear that Cadets are only flown in fully certified aircraft by qualified pilots, and there is no way that the LAA can change their operation of inspection and control to upgrade to the likes of British Aerospace or Grob.
The RAF itself are hardly the experts in all this type of 'self build' so are in no position to certify a machine even if it suited them.
Judging by the most recent Vigilant ops being stopped it hardly bodes well for the 'capability' or competence of those in charge of ATC flying who are quite unable to organise anything remotely sensible or actually indicating they had a clue about anything. Huge amounts of public money are still being spent NOT PROVIDING A FLYING SERVICE IT WAS SUPPOSED TO, and jobs/ranks continue to expand at 2FTS just soaking up the budget. This is what happens when there is a total lack of ability in the system, NO LEADERSHIP, and the system becomes a home for pension top ups and non producers.
HQ Air Cadets sponsored 'Microlight Flying Scholarships' at Halton in 1996/97 using Chevvron 2-32c aircraft. These were operated by the Ridge Runners Flying Centre but HQAC 'pulled' the funding after 19 cadets had got their wings presented by the AOC and gained either a PPL(M) or Restricted PPL(M).
Later in about 1998 or '99, further courses were run at Halton using a Cyclone AX2000, but I had been 'sacked' by my Wg Cdr by then and had no further association with Halton so I don't know any details of these.
In both cases the aircraft were civil registered using instructors with a 'full' rating, one of whom had definitely been 'assessed' by CFS.