BEagle.
I realise I'm not likely to change your mind about any of this so I'm probably wasting my time typing. The problem is that you just keep banging the same old drum and as a guy who retired several years ago you just come across as a curmudgeonly old fool at times I'm afraid.
Times have changed. It is not the Air Force you joined. It's probably not even the Air Force you left. You ask me to offer solutions but maybe I don't have any. You offer none in return. You just keep banging on about the same problems.
I have experienced contractoristion and I have experienced MFTS. What I see is a system that is still upholding the standards that RAF training has always held dear. It is not perfect but then what has ever been perfect in the eyes of everyone?
We could sit and whine about it or just get on with life.
I am a PAS Flt Lt. I don't make policy and never will. What I can do is try to give value to every student I fly with.
I am happy in my own little sphere of operations and that's why I'm in no rush to leave. There are many more like me all over the RAF. Maybe Brize isn't as happy but I'm not going to pretend I know what life is like there.
As much as the giant RAF of yesteryear would have been an amazing place to be, I'm sure, we must also accept that it probably didn't provide great value for money and maybe, dare I say it, didn't provide the best standard of training.
In the modern world every pound of public money spent is scrutinised. You talk on another thread of First Class travel for senior officers. That was common place years ago but not any more. Complaining about things like that just shows that you haven't moved with the times.
To give a work slant on it I used to teach map and stopwatch evasion on a Hawk T1. Now it's all OTMs and Radar trails on the Hawk T2. One is not better than the other. They're just different.
I'll give it a rest now since I will start to go round in circles. I just hope I got my point across.
BV