Originally Posted by
KBW10101
A fair point,except the Airborne specialist badge IS the WSO/WSOp Flying badge- its blatantly been ripped off to look like it, and had the crown removed. You might as well go full tilt and leave the crown in place in order to devalue the WSO/WSOp Flying badge even more.
What next? dont bother giving WSOp's a job evaluation like the rest of the entire military, and leave them with a lower trade score than RAFP/Regt/Movs? oh wait... that happenned already.
If CC can wear the awarded Flying Badge (approved by branch sponsor of course) then will the CC trade sponsor allow MSO/Purser aircrew to wear their CC wings without completing any CC pre requiiste courses prior to Voyager academy? I think not.
Well played CC.
If youre going to roll in test engineers to that cadre- then why on earth would you omit GE's ? they complete pre -requisite courses, hold BCR's... and perform an airborne role on numerous AM platforms. But are they getting conisdered? of course not.
The question is, do the GEs have a role whilst the aircraft is aloft? I don’t just mean assist the flight crew, but be required to operate equipment on the aircraft whilst it is airborne in a bespoke role. We already have Airborne Techs who come from TG1 that are now classified as Airborne Specialists too. They operate equipment on the E3D and Rivet Joint having,
most importantly, completed an OCU to do so as part of the crew operating the aircraft. If you are saying that GEs do complete an OCU (I’m pretty sure they don’t) then they would be worth consideration too.
As for the Flight Test Engineers (FTEs), I believe all are currently Engineering Officers, bar one that is a WSO (with their own flying badge), They complete the entire 50 week Empire Test Pilots’ School (ETPS) syllabus. They run airborne trials and test plans, operate trials equipment on board the aircraft, they are
jointly responsible for the safety of the aircraft with the Test Pilot and pre-flight are responsible for constructing the test plan. That is certainly comparable to an OCU for the rest. That is what is being considered (rightly so, in my opinion).
On the CC badge - it is one or the other. If the CCs do become Airborne Specialists they will
forfeit their CC badges. Now as a WSOp, if you want to trade in your WSOp Flying Badge for a CC one then go ahead - you can also go and serve tea and stickies in the Mess during your ground tour too.
The Airborne Specialist to WSO/WSOp to Pilot Flying Badges makes a natural progression. From now on the ground branches and trades employed on flying duties have a flying badge without a Crown, the WSO/WSOp (as Officer Aircrew and Non-Commissioned Officers (NCA)) get a flying badge with a Crown, then the Pilots (who can these days only be the Captain of the aircraft) get a second wing to their flying badge with Crown. It’s all very neat and obvious when you look at all 3 side by side.
Finally, not sure about your “
RAFP/Regt/Movs” quote. They are all in the same pay-supplement as NCA - Pay Supplement 2. The NCA were placed in Supplement 2 because their previous Job Eval (JE) was too out of date and there wasn’t time to do a full one for PAY16. Pay Supp 2 or 3 was probably where they should have placed according to most - so really the difference is about a couple of quid a day. But don’t forget that none of the “RAFP/Regt/Movs” get at least £8/day extra RRP(F) (flying pay for the old and bold) nor do they get access to a specialist pay spine like PAS. Also, the “RAFP/Regt/Movs” will take at least 12 years of service to reach OR6 Sgt. Finally, a Herculean JE is just about to wind up soon with huge amounts of involvement by the NCA. So if the NCA score the same this time around, then maybe the evaluation was correct all along? If not, they will go to Pay Supp 3.