1.3
Slight thread drift, I know, but the MAA has approached the RAeS about hosting a conference - "Military Air Safety" - on 24th-25th October 2012. Tucumseh, you should plan to attend and ask some searching questions!
I’m afraid I would find it rather stressful sitting listening to the senior members of the MAA chuntering on about how they’ve spent two years dipping a few toes in the airworthiness pond, decided to quickly step back and dry them off while reinventing a few wheels. And a quick straw poll of the practical airworthiness staffs I’ve known in MoD tells me not a single one has ever been approached by the MAA.
What would be
very interesting, and highly entertaining, is listening to the pro and anti airworthiness lobbies in the RAeS. The main question I’d want to ask is why the latter (i.e. the retired RAF senior officer cadre) demanded that the “3 Fellows” (Captains Kohn, MacDonald and Hadlow) “burn” their report on the Mull of Kintyre crash. I wonder if these retired VSOs, like Alcock, Graydon etc, will turn up to receive heartfelt thanks from the MAA? After all, the MAA owe their jobs to the actions of these people.
Finally, before attending, “delegates” should be required to read and inwardly digest the main airworthiness submission to Lord Philip, which subsumes the main submission to Haddon-Cave. Especially the documents that form the Bibliography (many of which MoD deny the existence of). Preferably, they should be examined on it. Then they’d realise how simple it was to avoid a host of accidents. Only with that understanding can they hope to contribute.