Well said that man
"I felt the need to point out that the the Gliding Schools (VGS) have been providing safe flying training for over 70 years using volunteer staff and are being let down by an overcomplication of the system backing them up." ( Pobjoy post)
It's very important to emphasise this fact, and to remember that despite the massive over-reaction and scaremongering in the current crisis, the VGS staff have not been involved in ANY Cadet fatality since August 1995, which is a better record than the AEF's where experienced RAF pilots were involved in no less than 3 Cadet fatalities in short time a few years ago.
This crisis is tragic considered the continued loss of real flying experience and flying training for Air Cadets , remembering the name of the organisation with that very important word - AIR. Not only is it the loss to Cadets, but also the loss of some extremely well experienced and extremely hard working VGS staff who have given their all for the benefit of our air minded youth and the fulfilment of the aspirations of many past, serving and trainee RAF Pilots.
As a former Aeronautical Engineer and 30 yr+ VGS staff man now retired, with experience on 5 types of VGS powered and conventional aircraft over the years , I know that F700's, paper trails and QA are an important and vital part of the machinery of producing safe and reliable operations. Equally, I have seen nothing yet, that would cause me to think that the aircraft that I flew until 2006 were anything other than totally safe and airworthy. ( and my RAF PTC Flight Safety award tells me that I'm quite good at spotting the non-airworthy machines !)
What I have seen, is that for reasons of availability and commercial considerations, the Engineering and maintenance contract was outsourced without adequate Managerial oversight and supervision, which has resulted in the present crisis.
One of the fundamental issues for ALL HMG departments and RAF Air Command is to ensure that civilian contracts are placed where expertise is evident and proven, and more importantly, that Supervision is ever present, not just an occasional oversight visit. Sub contracting is not an easy option if it is to be executed correctly - on the face of it, it is an accountant's dream, but as we have now found, it can be a practical nightmare, and indeed is just that.
Sadly for Air Cadets and VGS staff, the outcomes are not going to be good, and may well involve much reduced capacity, much increased travel distances, loss of very experienced staff, possible loss of aircraft and far less availability overall. Some units have already almost bled to death and if we go on much longer, they will be beyond resuscitation. As for using surplus AEF hours, this will provide only air experience and not instruction and participation, not to mention Flight staff Cadet experience as a grounding for future careers in the RAF.
Surely CAS can inject a little common sense into this, as he is a very pragmatic man ? Has anyone up there ever hear of "Action this day " ???