zedder,
Thank you for your most informnative post, however, if you think for a second that I would put friends' initials on here, then you are really stupid. What do you take me for a fool? It wouldn't take a great deal to narrow them down would it? and then what? Up in front of the 'old man at the least I would suspect, maybe even worse.
But I simply ask you this....why would I bull$hit you? What do I have to gain by this?
All I am stating are facts that have been expressed to me by fellow aviators who I have kept in touch with since I left the fleet - and I can assure you that some of them are quite 'senior aviators' so not sprogs or inexperienced guys.
I would just reiterate what I said about the jet being safe for a CT, but when AAR ops are introduced it 'causes a problem' for some of the aircrew. I say that because you effectively agreed with me when you wrote...
'I'm not seeing any great fear of flying the jet. With regard AAR then it is definitely true to say that a lot of people would have an issue with doing that'
A lot of people have an issue with it?
So what is your point?
Are a lot of aircrew afraid of AAR ops as you say?
Does the Stn Cdr really appreciate that?
Whats is he doing about it?
Does AOC 2Gp know?
Is it affecting crew compositions for ops?
Has the BoI honestly concluded?
Military flying is a risky business, of course it is and I would entirely agree with you, and as you say, the aircraft should be as safe as humanly possible - unfortunately it isn't though, is it?
And as for your car... would you take your wife and kids out in it if you had had the brakes fail on you the day before, or would you find out what went wrong first? I rest my case.
You chaps must learn to appreciate that most of us on here are NOT against you or the groundcrew or anyone in any way at all, really. We all have a vested interest because most of us lost friends in 230, and we don't want it to happen again - ever, irrespective of what is costs to fix.
The AAR system was fitted, as you say a long time ago. I know, I did several of the initial flight trials when we got the first jet back from Woodford. JR, MC and a few others of us were all involved (mainly due to our V force background) and it was very much a 'Heath Robinson' affair. But it worked well, and did the job. If you suggesting that the whole cobbled together system has not been looked at in detail since, then that is pretty worrying, especially given the short notice in which it was initially fitted.
Regards
The Winco