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Old 1st Jun 2014, 14:51
  #774 (permalink)  
tucumseh
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
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All RTSs are viewable on the RAF Fixed Wing RTS MoD intranet web site, including Airseeker.
That's very interesting. It should include full details of the waiver. I wonder if, with the passage of time and loss of corporate knowledge, the regs governing RTSs are no longer regarded as mandated. Or perhaps there are very few left who would recognise a non-compliant one?

Certainly, when the complete Chinook RTS from 1993/4 was eventually obtained in 2011 it didn't seem to cross MoD's mind that, because it was around 95% non-compliant, it was rather handing the case on a plate to campaigners. (For those who haven't read the evidence, the RTS described an aircraft with little or no avionics, that was not permitted to fly). Similarly, for example, the Sea King ASaC one in 2003, which was more akin to an AEW Mk2 from about 1985 and certainly positively dangerous in places (to coin a phrase) if applied to a Mk7. The reason I use these examples is that both had "Interim" releases initially (Chinook until 1996 and ASaC until late 2002), which by definition means some or all of the aircraft could "not be relied upon in any way" - and Rivet Joint is the same.

So the real question is what does the "interim" caveat relate to - noting MoD still stand by their evidence from 1995 that there is no such thing as an "interim release"! Again, see ZD576 evidence. This is where you get the clues about the sheer scale of confusion in MoD. One department still stands by this policy, and another (MAA) knowingly contradicts it; yet no attempt is made to deconflict. It smacks of making these things up as they go along, which is why you have mandated regs.
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