Originally Posted by
multum in parvo
I totally agree with tucumseh in terms of the original decision to ground both fleets; if the safety audit trail is suspect then there is no option but to act. However, without knowing the contractual background, the decision to spend a considerable amount of money in an attempt to refurbish aircraft rather than dispose of both fleets and go for new airframes seems at first glance to be the wrong one. It will be interesting to see if the full facts of this saga ever see the light of day.
I can only speak about the Viking gliders. Grob no longer make gliders and there are very few 2-seat training gliders available. The favourite is probably the AS K21, who build only a few every year. It would take 20 years or so to replaces all the Vikings with K21s, or whatever the RAF decided to call them. Lead time for an order is 9 months or more and they only build 20 or so per year. *if* the aircadets managed to buy 3 per year then in 20 years they would have a fleet of 60, less of course any they have terminally bent in the interim.