As a licensed guy working as a contractor to SRT in BAH at present I can say that the ADD levels have and will go up for a while.
The reason is simply this - the aircraft have not had proper maintenance for a very long time. Signing off defects to have them re-raised again is not fixing anything.
What we are doing is raising defect cards when we find things wrong so we can order sparesagainst said defects. This is all in the process of fixing things, yet there is a long lead time in getting general spares which you would think be available (bonding leads for example).
However from what I have seen over the last few months things are starting to get better, spares are arriving and things are starting to get fixed. However there is a bit of a battle as GF line are busy creating ADD's as fast as we can clear them as they are too busy to investigate defects on arrival due to an increase in movements through BAH and a shortage of manpower.
Just my pennies worth of a view point. For my own view things will get a bit worse before they get better. A consequence of 15 years of limited maintenance. The 767's are the worst yet it goes to show how robust the aircraft actually is if it can still operate after 15 years of service like that!
Flying Spanner
