Originally Posted by
BEagle
Indeed pr00ne! Not just RAFAT, but even UASs have precious few QFIs these days, sadly.
There was enough 'fat' in the system pre-GW1 to spring some QFIs back to the front line after a couple of weeks of refresher flying, but with the advent of MFTS any flexibility has long since disappeared.
A surge in pilot training simply couldn't happen these days - there aren't enough aircraft, aerodromes, instructors or ground crew capable of coping with any large demand.
I read recently that the largest UAS was only capable of achieving 6 first solos, 2 first solo sector recces and 1 first aerobatic solo in an entire year......
Not sure how much of that was down to QFI availability and how much of that was down to aircraft? The Tutor has had some pretty dreadful availability the last couple of years (prop, control surfaces, etc), and every time it comes back you immediately lose all the QFIs to refreshing AEF staff.