Much of the benefit of the old UAS system to students was being able to talk to experienced pilots and learn about what they had done on their previous tours. We had people who'd flown V-bombers, Canberras, Belvederes, Seafires.....all had interesting stories to recount. Many of my colleagues who wouldn't otherwise have thought about joining the RAF only did so after meeting such people during their flying training on Chipmunks. It was also the reward of flying training which kept many of us going at University; double thermodynamics on Friday mornings somehow didn't seem quite so bad when you knew that you'd be off to the aerodrome for the weekend a few hours later.....
This sort of life carried on at UASs for the next 23 years; the Chipmunk went and the Bulldog came in. The syllabus changed slightly, but it was still the goal of all students to gain their PIFG and later their PFBs...
Then some utter ar$e decided to meddle with the system and introduced the ludicrous notion of 'streaming' students for BFT depending on their success at UAS. Complete and utter nonsense - and everyone on any UAS knew it. But still it went on... How do you combine a degree in something like Aero Eng with the demands of sufficient currency to progress satisfactorily at UAS whilst trying to pay off a student loan? Impossible.
Then 'they' decided that they couldn't even afford a few lightplanes of their own, and the Rental Air Farce started using Das Teutor with all its civil register limitations. Unbelievable. But still the students are a well-motivated bunch enjoying excellent flying training, albeit much of it conducted by rather ancient FTRS officers.
But what of the future? Would anyone really be sufficiently motivated to join the RAF after running around playing pine pole games and listening to boring Air Power lectures for 3 years in their few hours of spare time? With a mere 10 hours of flying per annum? I very much doubt it. Not when there are better alternatives around to attract quality people from universities. Even 90-ish hours seemed mean, 30 is an utter joke.
In the 'traditional' UAS era, we'd just have finished July's Summer Camp at an operational RAF station. But even that is beyond the reach of the RAF of today; those few operational stations left have insufficient accommodation and the beancounters won't stump up for anything else.
I sincerely hope that the questions raised by Sir Tim Garden in Parliament will have positive effect and that the current threat to the UAS system is consigned to the rubbish bin of history where it rightly belongs.