I have to ask why they were ever put on the military register? The ridiculous red-tape and espoused hand-wringing nonsense coming from the so-called “Airworthiness Authorities” both pre and post Haddon Cave is an absolute joke for a glider and a motor glider - it is this nonsensical drive for a military airworthiness standard that has led to the disaster we have today. It would have been so much easier to operate these under the umbrella of the BGA and the CAA/EASA. We could have skipped the endless MAA regulations and ‘gold plating’ of what is a very simple aircraft to operate. Having all the volunteer pilots on SPLs and PPLs using Class 2 medicals conducting Introductory Flights would have been fine.
inquiries, witch-hunting the senior leadership and carping on about the good old days will do no good. We need leadership and (forgive me) blue-sky thinking to resolve this. My proposal would be to set up 2FTS as Declared Training Organisation, train up the staff to a minimum of EASA PPL/SPL and then buy some aircraft on the civvy register and put some roundels on them. Use a Part-M organisation to do outsourced servicing, then go flying! I reckon this could be achieved inside 6 months. In fact, these organisations already exist with 13x RAFFCA, 7x RAFGSA and 1x RAFMFA clubs - just tag onto the side of those through the RAF Directorate of Sport (which is also 22 Gp owned).
It beggars belief...