I’m starting to find this thread boring, yet hilarious, by the comments made by people who were once in the ATC, or to call it by its more modern acronym, the ACO, those remembering the glory days when cadets could feel the fresh air around their gills as they flew in open cockpits.
We are where we are. There are many rumours and conjectures being written here, blaming certain areas for non-compliance, raising this and that as an excuse. The ACO and RAF know exactly where we stand. A strategy to get the fleet back into an airborne condition is being devised by those in the know and will be promulgated to sqns in due course. Whilst it is taking longer than we were originally told, is it affecting what is happening at sqn level? No.
So, how many people on this thread are actually current members of the ACO; I am for one, and proud to be serving in the best uniformed youth organisation out there. Whilst cadets may not frequent this forum, it certainly shows that, if they did, they would see just how people who think they know what is happening in the ACO are happy to whinge about something that is out of their control.
Fine, bang on about the H-C Report and what should be done. But in reality it didn’t, that’s why we are in the mess we are. Mods were done to airframes, documents not kept current, etc; that was/is the responsibility of individuals who should be held to account. The individuals who carried out work and/or sign-off work should be held accountable for their action, but as the general populous, we will never know the outcome.
Whilst the ‘pause’ in gliding is not ideal, it is not having a massive affect on sqn numbers or retention; and any OC Sqn saying different needs to look closely at what their sqn is delivering to cadets. Cadets join to ‘have a go’ at many things during their time within the ACO, it just happens that flying and gliding is top of the list of activities as we are parented by the RAF.
As for where we should place the VGSs, etc, they will be placed where agreed. Look at what happened with the AEF reshuffle back in the late 90s, the ACO moved 1 AEF out of Manston to Boscombe Down; outcome was sqns from the south-east had to travel up to Wyton. The RAF agreed with the ACO this was going to happen, and it did. Whilst it’s a pain to travel, no one openly whinges, they just get on with it; the same with happen with VGS when/if it happens. I remember doing a camp at Valley, and having to drive cadets to Woodvale for AEF on summer camp. Welcome to the life of a volunteer; we just get on with it for the benefit of the cadets.
Give it a rest and wait for the official response on what is happening; the constant ping-pong of comments is getting tedious.
Rant over.