B Word,
I'd like to offer a response to your post of yesterday, where you mentioned the:
"ridiculous over-engineering and regulatory shackles of MAA land"
and said that:
"MAA regs were written for high performance war fighting jets and helos - you couldn't get any further away with a Grob 115E, a Grob 109 or a Grob Acro..."
I'd be the last person to defend the MAA - I firmly believe that their approach to the business of regulating military aircraft has been frankly poor, and has led to a loss of emphasis on the key elements of airworthiness. I really do understand your frustration.
But the problem that has afflicted the ATC glider fleet is not the MAA regulations. The grounding of this fleet of aircraft (and that's what is it - not some 'pause' nonsense) is down to basic failures to implement existing pre-MAA regulations between the mid 90s and 2014, when the whole cart came off the rails. The MoD and the RAF have failed to get anywhere near the standard of professionalism and basic competence required to bring simple aircraft into service on the military aircraft register.
Let's be clear - the RAF has been flying civilian school children in aircraft that were not safe. They were not safe because the MoD and the RAF chose not to carry out the very basic, straightforward, simple, well known (I've run out of adjectives here, but you get the point) procedures required to purchase aircraft and operate them in a safe manner. As the whole issue is being (conveniently) held under a cloud, let me offer, once more, a list of my guesses (and that's all they are) as to what they have failed to do:
1. Define the build standard of the aircraft being purchased
2. Contract with a fully authorised Aircraft Design Organisation (ADO)
3. Provide the repair manuals required to support the aircraft
4. Issue a legal RTS
5. Control the sub-contracted maintenance of the fleet
6. Carry out adequate QA checks of the aircraft
7. Carry out adequate QA checks of the documentation
8. Properly control modifications
Please note, all of this predates the establishment of the MAA.
Who's responsible? Start with the people who signed off the RTS, and make sure you give your senior air engineers a good kicking on the way past. And let's start getting this whole sorry mess pulled out into the open. If whistleblowing is what it takes, then let's get leaking.
Very Best Regards as ever to those who are now picking up the pieces,
Engines