Originally Posted by
KBW10101
If you’re handing out flying badges to cabin crew retrospectively, without an appropriate aircrew course or even selection and promoting them all to Sgt, does that mean you’ll award GE’s flying badge too? - as they operate in an airborne role and already qualify for RRP ( FC).
They’ll of course then qualify for RRP (Fly) not RRP (FC) - quite a bit of staff work there involved; good luck.
So whilst the MAA acknowledges their aircrew role, how do you propose the instant elevation in rank to sgt tor all cabin crew and the uplift in RRP be laid for? Who would you choose to lose out in order to pay for this endeavour?
It’s a fantastic idea you’ve put forward and defended for every post, but the costs involved I feel you’re side- stepping but it merits equal vigour from your end if you feel so strongly about it.
who would you ‘select’ to take an RRP cut or pay cut to afford to pay for the uplift in wages on rank and uplift of RRP ( fly)? Or do you believe they shouldn’t be paid as aircrew, once elevated to flying badge aircrew status.
Just a question, as I’m sure you’ve thought of the answer
I won't be handing out flying badges, sgts chevrons, or even Brevets, as you well know. If the RAF has got itself into a corner where
it is handing out aircrew badges to those who perform their duties from the ground while withholding them from those who perform them in the air and as part of a crew, then it is for the RAF to resolve this absurdity, not me. As to the cost, it can be merely the cost of the badges. Unless of course the RAF decides more must be spent. That would then be its decision, not mine.
Again and again we get patronising and superior posts all sharing the same theme; that cabin staff are airborne waiters and waitresses and not fit to be recognised as aircrew. That is not only wrong, it undermines their role and is not helped by recruiting them into a ground trade, from which they are alternately posted to air and ground duties.
The reason there are 8 of them on a Voyager isn't because the cabin service requires that number, it is because each one of them is allocated to one of 8 exits from which at a moments notice they must evacuate all the passengers, of which there can be as many as 291. In those frantic seconds the only supervision that counts is what they have learned and practised in training. If those that they are desperately trying to save have an attitude about their status, ability, or fitness to perform those duties then that compromises both their role and Flight Safety.
What is needed is an unambiguous sign that they are full members of the crew and share that unique RAF mark of being aircrew, the aircrew badge. Until then they will be seen by the ignorant and prejudiced as being mere airborne waiters and waitresses. That is no doubt convenient for the bean counters, for staffing, and for those who simply view them with disdain. Those people won't necessarily be onboard though come the time that a Voyager packed full of pax has a major fire emergency culminating in a mass evacuation down the slides. But you might be, so let's give them the training, the support, and the recognition that enables that day to be viewed in retrospect as a vindication of having recognised this latest addition to the varied lists of aircrew, by awarding them an aircrew badge.