DV
Can I just remind you of what you wrote:
"I remember the days when "S" meant fully "S" to perform most roles. The line, and eng co-ord (as it was known) decided which aircraft to fly. This was usually determined by flying hours to the next in-depth servicing, and/or the speed of recovery. I beleive that is what "Mighty Hunter" is calling for. Ops decide on the mission, and the engineers should decide which airframe is offered for the task. It's not rocket science it's KISS"
Now, in your latest contribution you say:
para 1 says that you were not suggesting they were all 'S'
para 2 says that it took time to 'mod' all 45 airframes
and Your para 3 says that I should 'always remember that it is not just the flying programme that has to be accommodated, but also the maintenance programme'
So I guess I was right then when I said that all of the jets were NOT all serviceable to the same standard, or were at the same mod state?
As for remembering the maintenance programme, I can't agree with you there either I'm afraid. Why should I be involved in that as a flyer? Isn't that your job? One of the things that you guys always bleated on about when I was on the fleet was that the jets were neverf on the ground long enough for you to fix all the snags. I agree with you on that entirely, so put the jet u/s, end of story or out of hours. Whats the problem?
Please don't blame the squadrons for the flying programme (certainly not in the 70' and 80's anyway) Tasking was almost always decided by group, NOT the squadrons. Yes, we would occasionally ask for a trip if we needed some specific training etc, but you make it out as though we all sat in the crew room and dictated the flypro every day. If you were in ops or on the line then you should remember that, certainly I do.
I was there too Sir, and whilst I am grateful to you for generating aircraft for me and my crew, please don't think that the generation was done at the request of myself or any other aircrew. And as for your comment about 'preffered' airframes, you belittle yourself with comments like that. You and I both know that is just plain silly.
TSM
ps rafmatt, you're a spoof right? You're not for real are you?