TBH
Rigga, I really was
probably over-trained but it meant I could do stuff "out of Trade" for things like Corporate and, far more importantly, even today in D-I-Y there's not much that I balk at!!!!!!
It also gave me a good all-round appreciation for "Engineering". At RNEC Manadon I even did pattern-making and casting - never used that I'll confess!!!! But a staff Chief Tech in the JSGC at Bicester (not sure if he was Sooty or a Rigger) was most surprised when I showed him that his lathe wasn't "a stinking pile of cr@p" ....... you just don't take 1mm+ cuts into steel when the raw bar was 1cm. He was most bemused that a Navy Av even knew what a lathe was ....... let alone was advising him on using one. To his credit he asked for a quick summary of pointers before I left after my 2-week "loaf-Ex" (a.m. glider maintenance - p.m. hoofing around in thermals in said gliders!!!!!)! I left him well happy with his lathe and milling machine!
WRT the new courses, of course if things were no longer repairable at even 3rd Line, why train for it? No-one had a problem with that tho many questions were asked regarding the Navy way of doing many repairs at sea without any back-up from ashore. So the first thing we hoped would happen was that "Ranging and Scaling" would place the right stores in the right places to effect "Repair by Replacement" Maintenance Policies at sea and how much that all cost. But the bigger concerns came, for example, when cuts were proposed for more general things such as "1st Line Servicing" training. All that means is that the Training Squadrons had to take a lower-quality product and ensure they were safe to service and do see-offs and see-ins on the live aircraft with live aircrew on board. The training load was effectively being transferred from Training School to the Squadron. Different cost-centre I guess (or is that me being cynical? Moi???????)!
The final thing I recalled being discussed with sadness over beers was the acknowledgement that Forces Engineering Training was really the Govt up-skilling the future Commercial (Manufacturing and Servicing) Engineers and Technicians for UK plc. Of course, UK Engineering plc is now a shadow of the '70's and 80's (with some amazing high-tech exceptions such as F1 motorsport!). Maybe it was all a Govt conspiracy to drive out Engineering from the UK and hence why bother to up-skill your future civvy workforce in the Armed Forces?
I'm just really grateful I got to have such a quality in-depth Engineering education - and had a great time too! Damn, I sound old!!!!!!!!!!!!
