From the ANO*:
Quote:
Flight crew licence requirement – Exception for members of HM Forces
58. A person may act as a member of the flight crew of an aircraft registered in the United Kingdom without being the holder of an appropriate licence if, in so doing, the person is acting in the course of his or her duty as a member of any of Her Majesty’s naval, military or air forces.
TT, I've no doubt that the piloting and engineering at Ryanair are quite fine. But working for a company whose actual product is of such a nature must surely throw some doubt on the motives of those prepared to work for it?
Yes. That motive would be paying my mortgage and keeping my kids in school. Perhaps you are unfamiliar with the concept of duty and responsibility, Beagle, but
most parents would take a job they hate if it provides well for their family.
Regarding maintenance, with new aircraft Ryanair has the huge advantage of being on the plateau of the maintainability bucket curve - whereas most RAF ME aircraft are now crawling up the right hand side....
I'm not sure what side of the argument you're siding with this, but for those that seem to think that RYR buy new aircraft because they are unable to maintain them, then you ought to know that RYR maintenance is all in-house (except if an aircraft goes tech as a non-base destination) using its own hangars at Prestwick, Stansted and Dublin with its own, mostly ex-RAF and FAA engineers. They sell them off before going through the heavy C checks or D checks because by that age, their resale values start dropping. That may be about to change, though, as the last 50 aircraft are to be delivered soon and there are no more existing follow ups to continue replacing the older fleet members.
With over Eu3bn in the bank and a net profit last year of over Eu270m, despite the fuel price and volcano issues, the company does not need to cut corners on maintenance. Sadly, the same cannot be said of the Forces, whose budgets have been slashed year after year by incompetent and uncaring politicians who force the Services to mend and make do with worn out, defunct relics and a lack of spares and maintenance budget. It's testament to the Services' engineers abilities that they can keep such old equipment going on such a shoe string.