Listening to the distant jungle drum beat I hear that about half a dozen Vigilants will be airworthy at Syerston by the autumn and there are absolutely no Vikings airworthy yet - the latter despite there being several agencies working on them and one being a well respected sailplane maintenance organisation!
I'm guessing there must be some really significant issues as its now nearly 18 months since they 'pulled stumps' (or pause, grounded, gone tech, or whatever you want to call it!
).
Obviously, a new HQ and Hangar comes out of a different budget to potentially newly purchased gliders (the old RDEL/CDEL game). But from a taxpayers viewpoint supporting a great youth organisation, it does seem a bit 'arse about face' sorting out the infra whilst everything else is knackered. I'm also hearing rumours of a new runway at Syerston - I have to say, what's wrong with the grass? Defence and the Public Purse is supposed to be skint!
There are still some big 'elephants in the room' as well as the Vigilants were originally getting new engines and PowerFLARM fitted from 2015. I don't believe that the current work to return the aircraft to flying status will address these (unless anyone else knows different)?
LJ