Exrigger,
Many thanks for a really useful post - the RA makes interesting reading. It also illustrates a key point that I and many others on this thread have been making. There is absolutely nothing in this MAA RA that should not have been happening on a routine basis for many years. To labour the point - there is not a single element of this RA that is new. Not a one. It's not new stuff.
In my direct experience, the checks the RA calls out would all have been covered by a variety of reviews. Not a complete list, but these would have included:
1. Internal QA checks of documentation and aircraft carried out on the unit - about every 3 to 6 months
2. Monthly checks of modification returns and TI compliance by station tech Support Cell
3. Regular checks on aircraft state and documentation carried out by air station or ship inspections team - around every 12 months
4. Annual inspections of aircraft and documents carried out by Station MTP (every 12 months)
5. Further checks carried out during Command inspections (every 12 months)
6. Documentation and condition checks every time an aircraft was transferred between units or entered second line work - around every 18 months
7. For the RAF, external Quality Audits (EQAs) every 2 years or so.
8. for the RN, MARTSU inspections of aircraft every 12 months - full teardown and removal of every panel and all sound proofing.
Viewed in this light, I'd ask whether the RA is actually sufficient. The 'sample checks' of modifications and components against the ADS aren't, in my view. Just my opinion.
I'm not listing all this to show how fab we all were 'back then'. We weren't. Our checks revealed many errors and omissions, which were almost inevitable in a system that depended on manual data entry. But at least we had a system that had a decent chance of catching the errors.
Sorry to repeat. Everything in the RA, plus a lot more beside, should have already been taking place from the day the gliders entered service. Every day. Every week. Every month. Every year. Normal, routine, standard, stuff. On gliders, about as easy an engineering task as you could devise. So, the big questions:
What in h*ll was going on to allow the whole glider fleet to get into a state where it couldn't pass the low bar set by the RA?
Who in h*ll didn't do their jobs? (Hint - many, many people, not just the contractors)
Why did the MAA give the RAF four years to carry out a review that should have required no more than attaching copies of the last inspections?
I sincerely apologise if this sounds a tad dyspeptic - I am honestly struggling to understand how any normal military aircraft fleet could possibly fail the MAA RA, let alone this one.
Best regards as ever to all those doing the checking - lives depend on them
Engines
Last edited by Engines; 22nd Nov 2016 at 19:17.