Originally Posted by
Flying Lawyer
Interesting that the CAS is being criticised for the decision when:
- it's not known with certainty whether he made it,
- if he did, his reasons,
- if he did, what information and advice he was given by those with VC10 expertise and experience,
nor
- if it was a CAS decision, which CAS.
Thank you for a refreshingly reasonable post FL! While I'm certainly not happy about the current VC10 retirement plans a lot of people are very quick to point fingers and we need to keep our heads cool here. Shouting and pointing won't resolve anything.
Whoever decided not to land XR808 at Cosford most likely had a good reason for it, and since neither of us was going to be at the pointy end of the aircraft in question, we don't get a say in this.
ICM made a good point:
But I repeat, this should all have been sorted out ages ago - long before there was any question of CAS' manhood being called into question. It's a very sorry end to a most creditable era in RAF history.
Talk of Bob going to Cosford has been around for quite some time, without checking I'll echo the two years that have been mentioned. It would have saved us all a lot of shouting and fussing if the plans had been finalised long before today. Right now we've got one party stating that XR808 will stay at Brunty and will be kept live, conditional on the paperwork and funding, and we've got claims of XR808 being roaded to Cosford. Also we've had the announcement a while ago that ZD241 would stay at Brunty to be kept live. What will happen now?
I really feel that the RAF Museum should have a VC10 to commemorate its 47 years of service. This VC10 would have a secure future and would be preserved in a museum condition. Not everyone agrees with keeping aircraft idle in a hangar or on an airfield which is why there is also room for a 'runner' at Bruntingthorpe. Whether this should be another C1K or a different version, I don't care but if we can achieve two preserved military VC10s then we've got the best of both worlds.
Let's hope that we can get to this point.