The release of the Membury data and the '70 gliders' it will support seems to confirm that not all Vikings are recoverable. That chimes with my rumour that 70-75 Vikings will return. That's not enough for the Vigilant VGS and so I also still believe that only a proportion of Vigilants will return (25-40%). Best case with those numbers would be ~15 VGSs returning to flying and worst case will be a meagre 10 - less than half they started out with.
Why this information is so very 'hush hush' is beyond me - it most definately is NOT of National importance for the main Defence tasks. Now that information is coming out through newspaper articles like this on planning, then it is time for the VGS volunteers to be told. Otherwise, there will only be more vociferous accusations of incompetence within the management to come - I am not talking about a somewhat lowly Gp Capt but the wider RAF Senior Leadership Team, the MOD and the Ministers who also know about this. Trying to hide around the MOD Footrpint Reviews just does not cut it with me - you can announce closures, like they have with Hullavington, without giving away the wider plan. Out of interest, just because Hullavington is shutting it doesn't mean that the resident VGS won't be rebased elsewhere! Likewise, announcing the closure of a VGS does not necessarily mean the closure/disposal of the estate that they fly from!
The latest rumour is that an announcement will be made next week around 26 Feb. Let's hope so as this debacle is turning sour very quickly.
The B Word
