When I was first on the FunBus in 1984, I was taught to stand on my own two feet when 'down route' - and to check in with Ascot Ops whenever I arrived at my overnight stop. Didn't matter whether that was Block 101 in Akrotiri or the Royal Hawaiian - phone Ascot Ops, give them the info and the contact no.
But then came that inadequately testiculated little git (now out on redundancy - good riddance!) who didn't understand that OpCon rested with Ascot Ops when down route. So captains then had to check in not only with Ascot Ops, but also with Stn Ops and the pointless sqn 'Duty Auth' - some legacy of the PTC/FJ world who served only to erode the traditional AT/AAR Captain's authority.... Bloody nonsense.
When overseas trips had an element of flexibility, things weren't so bad. But towards the end of my time on the ancient FunBus it was obvious that the beancounters were leaning on the itinerary writers and the schedules they insisted upon just wouldn't work, given the abysmal serviceability we had at the time - a legacy of the idiot Kelvin Rucksack who had ruined the engineers' morale by splitting them from the aircrew sqns. (Rucksack has now also left on redundancy - no loss.) So we were being pulled in all directions by impossible itineraries, poor serviceability and ridiculous micromanagement.... Add to that the lowering of manning levels at Ascot Ops and the advent of the useless Phone Answering Branch and things went from good to not so good to appalling in a very short space of time. A proven system totally wrecked by complete idiots.
With sufficient staff, reasonable itineraries and no interference from sqn micromanagement, there is no reason why Ascot Ops shouldn't do the good job it did in the '80s and early '90s. I trained my student captains to look after themselves and to work with Ascot Ops when away from base, it's just a pity that other people always wanted to stick their worthless oars in....which eroded much of the authority of both Ascot Ops and the AARC cell when one was down route.
Last edited by BEagle; 16th Jun 2005 at 22:00.