A & C
I beg to differ on EASA/CAA airworthiness in respect of pilot licencing, supervision, recency and competence. In fact, I would be so bold to say that in some areas of their responsibility it appears to be non-existent compared the supervision of commercial air transport.
As an EASA licenced pilot there is little supervision of what I do and in the very unlikely event of being caught by the CAA doing something wrong then it can take years for them to do anything about it. I also hear rumours that there are rogue maintainers within the GA community that only get caught out when there is an accident - I think the accidents in Caernarfon and Cranfield in recent years are indicative of that?
So maybe all is not as rosey in EASA/CAA land in the non-commercial sector?
Chug
You often espouse that the MAA is not fit for purpose regarding its independence. What is your suggestion, then? But before you answer I would offer that even if the CAA oversaw MoD aviation then the fact that these are 2 Governent bodies means that they cannot be truly independent? Furthermore, if an independent body were set up outwith the Government then who pays for that? One could argue that it is almost impossible to achieve true independence without taking people out of the loop - everyone has their own centre of gravity to lean one way or another!
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Back to the thread. I believe that taking gliding out of MAA-land and into EASA/CAA/BGA-land would be a good thing. Having a tiny fleet of 75-odd MAA regulated gliders makes no sense at all - in expense, manpower and effort. If we wanted some more independent oversight (but even then not 100% independent) then flying gliders under EASA/CAA/BGA rules and regs would save a whole load of heartache and the ability of enjoying synergy with the civil regustered fleet. You can still put a roundel on a civvy reg aircraft and even apply for an exemption from the CAA to carry military registrations - trying to run them on an airworthiness system from the MAA is just plain dumb...
The vast majority of gliding carried out by the military in the last 26 months (yes, that's how long it has been!) have been on JSAT courses or via the 3 Single Service Gliding Assocs - funny old thing they fly EASA/CAA/BGA gliders that cost about 3/4s of the cost to run one than those on the military register. Taking that example, if we can only afford to run 75 Vikings then we could have 300 Grob 103s running for the same cost. Utter madness...
IMHO of course!
LJ