Air Cadets grounded?

[Engines]

Perhaps I can shed a little light on this issue of 'documentation' - particularly for those aircrew who might be reading some of the recent posts with both bemusement and exasperation.

First, thank as ever to Tuc for another piece of evidence about the organisational chaos that hit the MoD in the 90s. I can attest to the fact that when the department I worked in moved to Abbey Wood in 95, a newly drafted in civil service 'admin expert' set a target of 70% of all files to be 'disposed of'. She then declined to set any guidelines or instructions for said 'disposal'.

I thought it might be helpful to give a brief summary of the types of 'documentation' held by the MoD that may have gone missing, and why they are important.

The first and most obvious one is the maintenance documentation. That is, the documents that record what happened to the aircraft after it was delivered to the RAF. These will have recorded all servicing (including application of technical instructions) repairs and modifications. The key documents would be the servicing records, rectification records (MF707), modification record log cards, and the airframe and component log cards. In sum, these documents assure the condition and configuration of the aircraft presented to the aircrew for flight. This set of documents is maintained by what is now called the 'CAMO' - basically, the 'in service' engineering teams based on stations and at support units. Back in the day, as documents were filled in, they were sent off for long term storage. As Tuc has posted, here's the first potential source of gaps - many have been destroyed.

The next back are the documents normally held by the organisation that managed that front line support. In the case of the gliders, we're looking here at the engineering staffs in 22Gp. These are important, because they have key roles to play in ensuring that the stuff at the front line is happening properly, and also in developing and applying technical instructions. Their documentation would have mainly been in the form of files containing correspondence, and particularly records of decisions that affected airworthiness. This would have included the results of 22Gp's supervision and quality assurance checks being applied to maintenance carried out in service as well as any that was contracted out. They would also have included records of any amendments to maintenance publications, as well as records of compliance with modification programmes and tech instructions.

Many of these files should have been marked as 'airworthiness files' and subjected to controls similar to those applied to classified information - held in secure cabinets, signed in and out, regularly reviewed and any destruction requiring special authorisation. Looking at the recent MAA report on the Hawk XX156 fatality, where 22Gp were unable to find any records of a long series of meetings related to the development of a safety critical TI, it's possible that there might be some gaps here.

The next set of key documents would have been those held by the departments that procured the aircraft and provided the ongoing support. In the old days, the procurement was carried out by the MoD(PE), and support was provided by DGSM, who became DLO, who became...well, too many acronyms. These two functions were merged and nowadays, it's the DE&S PT that holds the information.

Again, there would be a set of files recording all decisions and purchases made for the aircraft fleets. I'd also expect there to be a set of files holding key documents such as certificates of design, modification leaflets, drawings, repair schemes, technical instructions, results of technical investigations, as well as all the safety related information and the RTS. They would also hold the 'safety case' - the controlled suite of documents (almost all of the above) that specify the configuration of the aircraft, demonstrate that its design is safe and can be released to service as per the RTS. There should be a lot more 'airworthiness' files here, see my earlier posts on how some areas of DE&S have forgotten how to manage these. Again, looking at XX156, where the PT didn't even hold a safety case for the ejection seat, one gets an idea of the possible gaps in the glider fleet documentation.

In the really old days, MoD Project Offices would have held a thing called a 'Tech Data Pack', or TDP. This was a set of documents comprising drawings, certificates and technical information that were maintained by the Design Authority under a dedicated PDS contract, and copies delivered to the Project Office. Regular updates were supplied and incorporated into the TDP. As Tuc will confirm, the supply of these TDPs was one of the casualties of the spending cuts, and the responsibility for holding the documentation was passed on to the Design Authority. If you were dealing with a company that knew their way around the various DefStans and requirements, and had a decent contract, this wasn't too much of an issue. However, I could see that an outfit like Grob, responding to a requirement for a quick contract agreement (if it was an in year underspend purchase) would probably have had some issues in complying with all the MoD documentation requirements. Or not, I'm really speculating here. The real damage done in this area was the wholesale slashing of the budgets for the PDS contracts that (among other things) existed to pay the companies to maintain these documents.

Really sorry if this has bored some readers - but I thought it might help some of the pilots understand what might have gone missing and who might be responsible. My final point - this might look like a really complicated picture, and one might think 'no wonder they had problems'. Dead wrong. This was once a well understood and straightforward system. It required a bit of experience in key posts, and people putting in a proper days' work. For a fleet of off the shelf gliders with no engines, no power flying controls, almost no avionics and simple strong airframes, it should have been an absolute doddle. The RAF need to find out why it wasn't. And fast.

Best Regards as ever to those having to wade through my ramblings,

Engines