Helping Out
B-pants your assessment of the situation is confirmed by the response to the situation on this thread.
It was quite obvious to those who had experienced the organisation when it actually was 'organised' to see quite clearly how far apart from reality it had drifted, and how there was a complete loss of competent leadership.
The equipment we are talking about were basic SLMG (powered by a converted car engine) and a fleet of simple conventional gliders. All this equipment is also used by clubs and private owners all over the World and in many case's the owners actually take part in the maintenance program. There were hundreds of competent staff on the schools who already had 'powered' experience and I suspect would have had no problem being approved to provide 'duplicate checks' and basic servicing. Syerston as the flying HQ should have picked up on the fact that aircraft were not being repaired and indeed one wonders what quality control was in place to oversee the basic day to day requirements.
GRP repairs are not quite as simple as the previous fleet but the knowledge is out there to keep control on what is acceptable or not. For the Air Cadet organisation not to have an overall engineering oversight for this is negligent, and there is no excuse as the GSA operated a satisfactory system for their machines so a template was there. For aviation to operate there has to be a sound 'engineering' base looking after equipment. The PFA and latterly the LAA have shown that this is possible using a volunteer element that are qualified to undertake inspections and actual building of complete aircraft.
The volunteer element of the ATC has not been found wanting but has been let down by the complete absence of capability and competence by the very people paid to organise it.