".....co-pilots who are fully CR etc are doing almost back to back dets - because they are the guys who are spammed up to do the job out there."
So how can there conceivably be a ME pilot 'surplus'? An imbalance, perhaps. But it strikes me that the aircraft:crew manning ratio must be complete bolleaux if some people are having to do back-to-back OOA detachments and yet Binnsworth claim that there's a 'surplus'?
Doesn't give anyone huge confidence in other beancounter pet panaceas such as FSTA and MFTS, does it?
Crisis? It's certainly looking like there might be one coming to this theatre soon......
Too much has been cut and there is evidently insufficient flexibility in today's cut-to-the-bone RAF to cope.