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Old 2nd Sep 2017, 11:13
  #3671 (permalink)  
Engines
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
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Enigma and ACW,

Many thanks for the information. They shed further light on Ministerial statements that there were shortcomings of quality management. Sending an NCO to carry out a quality audit is, in my view, a total abdication of responsibility by the engineer officers concerned. Don't get me wrong - any QA effort I ran included plenty of NCOs to ensure that we covered all the detail, using their skill and experience. But finishing an audit by lunchtime smacks of a casual and wholly unacceptable attitude. Sadly, this is not the first time I've heard of it happening in RAF managed units. 'Low level of supervision by an inexperienced Jengo' - so where was the OC Eng? Who cleared the Jengo to do the job? Was he properly trained?

Th idea that when these fleets were procured (in the 80s and 90s) the RAF didn't know how to handle GRP repairs is, I'm afraid, incorrect. I did courses at Swanton Morley in the early 80s where we covered inspection and repair of composite structures in great detail. The RAF had lavishly equipped and manned specialist teams to develop repair schemes for composite aircraft, and the training courses for these repairs were certainly in place by then. I can see where there might have been a lack of in-service experience in maintaining light aircraft piston engines, but who approved the (mandatory at that time) support plan as part of the aircraft procurement? Where were the training courses? Why no support from the contractor? Why try to do it in-house when the basic training wasn't there? Seriously, this is not rocket science, and it never was. You don't need one year long Training Needs Analysis efforts (a favourite activity of RAF engineering organisations I worked with) to construct a safe and effective support system for simple aircraft and engines like these. For heaven's sake, this is the RAF we're talking about here. Are we seriously saying that looking after a fleet of gliders was too difficult for them?

"One could argue that....the more senior ranks should have reasonably foreseen that the expertise was simply just not there'. No, you should have damn well demanded that your highly paid (and extremely numerous) aircraft engineers (especially SO2 and upwards) did their job properly. What on earth were they thinking when they bought these aircraft and started flying kids in them?

And here's the nitty gritty. Something seriously bad was happening in the RAF's procurement and engineering organisations at this time. It was a 'systemic' failure. It continued happening throughout the 90s and the 'noughties'. This has been well documented. It didn't stop then, either. I personally saw undocumented repairs flying around on front line RAF aircraft after 2010.

So, what level of assurance does anyone have that the same systemic problems aren't happening now? And by the way, don't think that a new set of regs have done the trick.

Best Regards as ever to all those working at the coal face to get the job done,

Engines
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