All - completely agree with ALL of your POVs. Sometimes I wonder where we go wrong and I think its because we skitter around ideas and never really commit to anything. The latest mantra from the Conceptual Component (which is a rather grand name for a 3-4 person think-tank) is "Thinking to Win" (T2W) -
http://www.raf.mod.uk/rafcms/mediafi...3B147E9F02.pdf
Whilst I believe the intent is right, we just don't have the numbers of people with the spare time to deliver much against this. The bright ideas that we keep coming up with belies the fact that we are only 31,000 strong that's trying to deliver what we used to do with 45,000. If T2W is really going to succeed then we need to KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) and that means more trust in the basics - why on earth do we need 2-star approval for a £100 EasyJet flight to Inverness for a staff visit to Lossie when to drive for a 1/2 day visit will be a 3-day extravaganza in an MT vehicle? If I didn't have to chase the paperwork to justify this then I might spend the 1-2hrs on prepping for the visit or doing more ASIMS analysis. It also means taking the glaringly obvious solution. The idiotic estimate process taught at the so called "College of Knowledge" at Shriv is another excuse for weak minds with low levels of expertise - someone with experience in that particular field being 'estimated' knows the answer in seconds! Also, as Melchy pointed out we seem to be encouraging shorter careers which means that our Suitably Qualified and Experienced Persons (SQEPs) turn into SQePs or even SQPs where the experience is non-existent. We saw this with the creation of the Flt Ops branch where ops rooms used to be filled with the 'old and bold' aviators/ATCOs/Engs but now is filled with Flt Ops personnel that are suitably qualified but have very little first-hand experience relevant to the actual operational task. That's not their fault, it's just that a 14 week course is never going to give the E in SQEP. Then these individuals end up working in diverse posts ranging from SFSOs to the Aerodrome Operator with few ever having the experience of being an operator. A similar issue has happened in Chug's area of concern where SQEPs have been thinned out to an alarming level. When you lose the E in SQEP you lose sound balanced judgement and qualifications alone will not give you that.
When we consider SQEP this extract from the Flt Ops webpage really worries me:
The Flight Operations specialisation is still very much in its infancy. Nevertheless, graduates have already made positive impressions in the ops rooms to which they have been posted. The successful transition to having ops rooms run by professional ops officers has meant that 350 more posts have recently been transferred from the GD (Air) branch to the Flt Ops specialisation.
Because it echoes this from Chug's post:
Ages ago, like when I was around, we had a silent dedicated army of skilled engineers such as our own tucumseh who ensured that the aircraft that I flew were airworthy when released to service and remained airworthy until finally withdrawn from service. Those dedicated engineers were replaced by unskilled non-engineers who were prepared to suborn the regs and thus make savings at the cost of safety.
Further, the 'Whole Force' appears equally flawed. Until we actually start treating Regular, Reserve, Civil Service (CS) and Contractor in the same manner it will always be a 'Divided Force' - this means allowing our contractors and CS to do the other stuff that we do such as secondary duties, ceremonial events, sports activities, community work, etc... These cost us next to nothing but allow the CS and contractors to feel more included. However, if we pay them JNCO wages then really we should only be giving them responsibilities at that level; otherwise you will be attracting quite a few individuals who perform at the level that you pay them. The old "quality vs quantity" comes into play here and I would rather have a one good individual paid twice as much as having two mediocre individuals.
Now you may be thinking "LJ why don't you just leave?". In answer to that is I believe that is the cowards way out and as many of my friends are now reaching the dizzying heights of 1, 2 and even 3 star then I hope that a discussion over a beer or coffee may bear some fruit in the future. If we all do our bit in a respectful manner with old mates then we may be able to influence a brighter future.
LJ