keg,
not sure what you are driving at with regards getting zapped in a storm - the DJ blokes go out at the same time as the QF blokes when a storm warning is received from BoM - I spent a good 45 minutes the other night waiting for BoM to cancel the warning -
seeing as you can get zapped from 30 odd miles it seems a little strange at times!
with regards delays in getting things entered into the maintenance system - I am not sure... the defects/deferrals are entered in the log onboard immediately and appear within a few hours on a web based status system operated by maintenance watch, it is dependent upon the engineer faxing a copy of the paperwork to maintenance watch - if he is busy with a couple of aircraft it may take a few hours to fax the sheets off...
as for the maintenance system not sure how long it takes - none of the pilots see that bit so whilst you may get some answers the truth is that we wouldn't know.
i thought virgin were in a spares pool operated by boeing that shifts the majority of the spares holding to a third party - but am not sure about that.
i wouldn't be too surprised if a lot of the critics are driven by the fact that the engineering workforce is basically contracted to third parties