That's great, Mary, but those cadets are probably being paid for by the bank of mum and dad. I understand there are some training bursaries out there, but they simply can't hope to replace the scale of what the air cadets once did.
If we pull out the maps of where the planned sites will be, we will notice hoofing great holes in the poorest areas of the U.K. One sqn in Scotland (Assuming they can make the airfield operable.) nothing in Wales, nothing in NI and, once the last of the Vigilants go from Topcliffe and Woodvale, nothing North of Syerston in Nottinghamshire until you reach Kirknewton. If you live in places like the Home Counties and the Cotswolds, then it's damn close to business as usual.
What truly beggars belief are the figures I've heard thrown around concerning the amount of money that will be required to upgrade these sites so they can operate Vikings safely. And please bear in mind, that all of these places are backwaters as far as the wider MoD is concerned. Millions are being spent to upgrade places like Little Riss and Upavon when it could be spend on aircraft. To be sure, the Viking operation is perhaps a more inclusive affair for day visitors doing Fam/GIC but as a TRAINING platform, the vigilant was far more flexible in terms of its ability to deploy elsewhere, the ability to integrate with other airfield users, the smaller amount of support equipment it needed and far fewer people required to operate them. There was a very good reason why there has always been a gaggle of de-rigged Vikings at Syerston- they ran out of places to put them. What's more, the Vigliant was never used it to its full potential. For example, for the cost of installing a GMC or even just a directional gyro, it could have been used to teach nav courses in addition to ab initio training.
I firmly believe that the solution put forward was Middleton's plan from the beginning. It wasn't a secret that he was opposed to volunteer non-QSPs flying powered aircraft while he was RC North. I've been in the room with him when he said he didn't understand the need for Vigilant and Tutor for AEF and UAS (albeit this was while the Tutor was grounded so he seemed to imply that the Vigilant could perhaps be used for both- as was being mooted elsewhere.) VSOs and ministers don't make up policy in a vacuum. Unless it's something of central importance to them, they'll tend to choose the path of least resistance and pick what ever has been dressed up to be the most palatable by the "sponsor", as has already been discussed.
Instead, the ACO has committed to the far more expensive Tutor to provide powered flying. And all it will do is put bums in the air instead of providing TRAINING. I can't wait to find out where 6FTS intend to find pilots for these larger and more numerous AEFs since most of them already have quite severe manning problems, the RAF is getting ever smaller and EASA regs are putting more pressure on volunteer QSPs who now fly in the commercial sector.
I think most people who understand the Air Cadets- which sadly doesn't include the bevy of FTRS has-beens in the White House at Cranwell- also understand that this is yet another blow from which they will not recover. Cadet numbers will continue to fall as they realise that the ACO offers little more than a myriad of other organisation do. Volunteers will see how badly even the most committed amongst them will be treated and also vote with their feet. They will continue to see that their parent service continues to let them down as support dwindles, timelines slip, admin burdens increase along with pressure to provide a "light blue footprint" at one dog and pony show after another, which accomplish little but to further detract from the things the kids joined up to do.