My word Fagin is really trying to create a stir that's not there.
There are some detached, there are some flying and there are some doing maintenance check flights (oh and there's one in Canada getting very cold). Sounds familiar in any fleet in the UK Armed Forces.
I don't recall an AFCS on Merlin ever trying to fly anyone into the ground.
Would someone from Culdrose please get the goat out of the weeds.