Originally Posted by
Arclite01
Airbus & Teeters
I must be a dinosaur as I operated under the old system with the MK3 and T21 and also the new plastic system, actually probably one of the few left around to have flown the Swallow, MK3, T21, Valiant (ASW19), Vanguard (ASK21), Viking, Vigilant and Venture under ATC markings !! 
I saw changes, most of them were not terrible in themselves but caused the organisation to die 'a death of a thousand cuts' until operations were not easy. By this I mean things like getting drivers licenced, the Stats return, Cadets fed, the Stats return, travel, the Stats return, flying clothing servicing, fuelling the vehicles, admin of all types (lots), the stats return, liaison with the wing and Sqns and servicing the aircraft (did I mention the Stats return ?) - all the 'administrivia' which on a regular unit on a regular station you have people to do whereas on a 'weekends only' unit at a detached location you just don't..................... these are 'the straws that break the camels back'. You can fly or you can have a complete set of paperwork and shiny vehicles - it seems the system wants the latter if it can't have both with resources available..................
Overall I think the Operation was OK and still working (not as much local authority as under the POBJOY system and not as much output/throughput) until this recent debacle around servicing (lack of, and associated records) which has killed it stone dead. And the people higher up have taken advantage of this fiasco to implement their own personal agendas for the VGS under the cloak of 'reorganisation' required to bring in the required changes to servicing.
I think in 5 years we will barely recognise the organisation we used to operate - and not in a good way.................
and Teeters - I agree about the comments regarding the truck.
Arc
Hi fellow Dinosaur - I myself have flown the Mk3, T 21, Venture, Viking, Valiant and Vigilant on four RAF Stations over a period of 30 years or so, and two of the four RAF Stations were "front line" where standards during the weekend and during courses had, by necessity to be of the highest order in terms of professionalism in every sense, not least of which was latterly operating full air Traffic requirements in a mixed traffic environment.
On two of those VGS Units, I was ( in addition to the flying duties) the Adjutant responsible for the ever mounting requirements of Health and Safety, CRB, Medical liaison, Personnel record keeping, Home to Duty Claims, and general Station liaison, Deputy Flight Safety Officer including attendance at mid week meetings, and whatever other Admin duties were required.
Many times in my latter years I was actually in on the Station, sometimes many weekdays when there was a new requirement. Suffice it to say, that our professionalism led to being held in high regard by successive Station Commanders who supported the VGS to the last word and letter.
The aircraft were maintained by ACCGS Eng, and every Sunday evening at close of play the Eng issues requiring attention were transmitted promptly to them, whilst our local Eng requirements were supervised by our own expert Engineer an ex regular Wg Cdr Eng.
Flying standards were of the highest order, as we regularly had serving and very experienced RAF Pilots as part of our normal staffing, in addition to the usual customary CFS/ACCGS checks. Accidents? - well the only Vigilant accident was the result of a visiting Supervising Officer - not one of the VRT staff of the unit.
The Cadets and Staff alike have been very badly let down by the professionals at higher level, whichever way you stack the cards. If it is/was an Eng issue that caused "
airworthiness concerns", then please be forthcoming and tell the whole world what was found, when and by whom, and at the same time please tell the long suffering taxpayers what endeavours have been made to legally remediate and recover our losses, and what disciplinary measures have been taken to hold those responsible for supervision of the maintenance of the fleet - after all the reported £9.4M cost of the maintenance contract IS OUR BUSINESS - WE TAXPAYERS FUNDED IT !!! Equally it is not subject to national security constraints, thus please come clean - I think we all realise we are being conned somewhere, but we don't quite know where !!
Equally, please come clean about the disposal of the Vigilant fleet - are they going to be trashed by a JCB, or, as I suspect, re-appearing at an airfield near you as possibly RAF GSA or Army GS or civilian club ?
Another question, if the "airworthiness concerns" were uniformly distributed across Viking and Vigilant, why can almost 100% of Vikings be recovered, but only 15 Vigilants and then only for a short period of time ?
As for the future - PTT's plus perhaps a half hour Tutor jolly once a year, with a day's travel to a Viking Super centre plagued by low stratus - is that what is going to make the Air Cadets join up ? I think not, and certainly isn't going to make large numbers of Adults pledge their weekends into infinity. Time alone will tell, but I suspect it's not looking like a good future.
Still the party line is being broadcast, the latest being the farcical Westminster "debate" where the Under Secretary more or less repeated verbatim his earlier speech in the House of Commons.
!
