no, I said fixed wg stds and that's what I meant
I refered to the RN's Naval Flying Standards Flight (Fixed Wing), based at Yeovs (who I understand are a detatched unit under FRADU). Their role is Fast Jet Continuation Trg, Fast Jet Familiarisation Trg, convex of rotary to FJ pilots...
According to SDSR, which we are told is driving this whole mess, there won't be any fixed wing aircraft to fly off the new CVS(s) before 2016-2018, so ...? We're going to keep these outfits going in the meantime?
Don't get me wrong, I am glad the guys are still flying. Even if you can argue that we need people flying F-18s for 5 years in preparation for the possibility of future CVS ops, I don't personally think you can justify Fixed Wing Standards. There has to be savings to be made in having that sort of thing subsumed by the joint military flying environment.
PS - why are the RN still training fighter controllers? Is this combined with French language courses in preparation for our Charles de Gaulle ops?
Let's not get picky - we're all feeling it. My point was just that I bit at the previous comment about the RN dismantling their FW system and not crying about it. They haven't which is why they didn't.
But today is mostly about the RAF's pilots and trainee pilots getting seen off, justified by SDSR or not. People are devasted. Hope there's a good supply of old pianos in the Vale of York, Linconshire and Anglesey...