7 Reg AAC disbanding
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7 Reg AAC disbanding
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So what will happen to Netheravon if the Gazelles are mothballed? I assume it will go into care and maintenance or just be used for the exercises that take place? Unless it stays open just for the Parachute School...
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A brilliant idea to bin 7 Regt. 
Their main role was to offload the overburdened regular regiments of UK tasking. Cheap as chips. Part time pilots flying dirt cheap aircraft to off load the over-worked operational regiments....and that was long before we committed to Iraqistan. It was primarily to save airframe hours on Lynx.
Who is going to cover the role now or is the entire UK tasking (plus overseas exercise support) just going to 'disappear' too? I very much doubt it.
No? Ah, that’s right; the over-worked, over-deployed regular regiments are going to take up the slack. Well, 9 Regiment for the UK and 1 Regiment for the rest of Europe as I doubt 3 & 4 would be much use with only AH (and they are failry busy too).
And just where do they propose they are going to firstly find spare crews and secondly spare hours from? 7 Regt fly their Gazelles solo for almost all their tasking. It'll be doubled up for Lynx of course. Some may say its a good way of giving guys flying hours but we all know it wont work like that as I will bet the hours come off the current budget which means in reality, no extra hours will be given as it would defeat the object of the cut.
Like the knackered Lynx? Not as if they aren’t well beyond their sell-by date already as well as getting ragged in the sandpit. So have they budgeted the AFT accordingly? I'll wager the figures are way higher in real terms than 7 Regt ever cost.
If the Gazelle is 'so expensive', why not contract out the airframes? Mmm, say a dozen or so Squirrels but still have TA pilots fly them?
Fcuking idiots.
One more reason why every member of this government should be shot in the face.
Their main role was to offload the overburdened regular regiments of UK tasking. Cheap as chips. Part time pilots flying dirt cheap aircraft to off load the over-worked operational regiments....and that was long before we committed to Iraqistan. It was primarily to save airframe hours on Lynx.
Who is going to cover the role now or is the entire UK tasking (plus overseas exercise support) just going to 'disappear' too? I very much doubt it.
No? Ah, that’s right; the over-worked, over-deployed regular regiments are going to take up the slack. Well, 9 Regiment for the UK and 1 Regiment for the rest of Europe as I doubt 3 & 4 would be much use with only AH (and they are failry busy too).
And just where do they propose they are going to firstly find spare crews and secondly spare hours from? 7 Regt fly their Gazelles solo for almost all their tasking. It'll be doubled up for Lynx of course. Some may say its a good way of giving guys flying hours but we all know it wont work like that as I will bet the hours come off the current budget which means in reality, no extra hours will be given as it would defeat the object of the cut.
"other AAC aircraft would be used in place of 7 Regiment's helicopters where there is a task requirement".
If the Gazelle is 'so expensive', why not contract out the airframes? Mmm, say a dozen or so Squirrels but still have TA pilots fly them?
Fcuking idiots.
One more reason why every member of this government should be shot in the face.
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They're not quite disbanding yet...they're in Jersey teaching us the rigger/marshaller and landing point commander course this week, then giving us a lift to our exercise. Top lads 
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It would be particularly relevant to look at what tasking is being done by the Gazelles in support of hard pressed operational fleets as well as the other support.
Chinook, Apache and Lynx hours are being mitigated by use of the Gazelles in a variety of tasks including NVG/NVS recces. Apache only achieves half of the hours required of it on UK training tasks so when you add back in the hours requirement post Gazelle then the training hours will be further denuded.
What price one multi engine hour on the above types when balanced against a 'cheap as chips' hour on a Gazelle?
False economy springs to mind.......
Chinook, Apache and Lynx hours are being mitigated by use of the Gazelles in a variety of tasks including NVG/NVS recces. Apache only achieves half of the hours required of it on UK training tasks so when you add back in the hours requirement post Gazelle then the training hours will be further denuded.
What price one multi engine hour on the above types when balanced against a 'cheap as chips' hour on a Gazelle?
False economy springs to mind.......
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Loss of Expertise
I have heard the contrary view of 7 Regt as a glorified flying club for 'old and bold aircrew' at HMG's expense. However, the Regt's utility for loadsharing since 9/11 can't be denied - it just boils down to the cost of replacing the Gazelles.
It'll be interesting to see how many of 7 Regt elect to stay in the TA and migrate to 6 Regt, the groundies especially. The aircrew will probably not fancy the prospect of watchkeeping in sandy places so all that expertise will go out of the door....
It'll be interesting to see how many of 7 Regt elect to stay in the TA and migrate to 6 Regt, the groundies especially. The aircrew will probably not fancy the prospect of watchkeeping in sandy places so all that expertise will go out of the door....
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Taking routine tasking away from the front line Sqns was indeed a cheap way of maintaining the illusion of a highly skilled and capable cohort of Army Aviators. Yet whilst a generation of Generals were able to get a bit of stick time with their favorite 5000hr WO1s en-route to meetings up and down the country, average experience levels elsewhere across the Corps plummeted.
When I joined my first Sqn, we had 2000hr Sgts on the books as pilots marking time until one of the 6 aircraft commander LSNs became available (and still suffering financially for it, today - but that is another story). Two years later, as flight commander I was one of only four aircraft commanders in the Flt, and despite having fewer than 600hrs total was still not the least experienced commander. Was this the fault of 7 Regt AAC? Maybe not. But its continued existence merely served to mask the terrible state the AAC had got itself into, and for my money should count itself extremely fortunate not to have been chopped a decade ago.
The only reason no-one previously decried this glorified old boy's flying club was that we all harboured a secret desire to join someday and ride that gravy-train ourselves - and we certainly did not want to prejudice our chances by rocking the boat. I'm just as guilty of this as the next guy. 7 Regt AAC will indeed be missed (especially by those who come 7th and 8th on this year's Sqn Comd board!), but for purely selfish reasons - lets not kid anybody about this.
7 Regt AAC was, quite frankly, a disgraceful example of AAC window dressing which existed thanks to the patronage of a bunch of Generals who enjoyed the status of having a personal helicopter taxi service, but failed to secure the funding that was necessary to maintain a genuine Avn capability.
Mind you, it wasn't just the AAC getting seen off. The HQ LF T&S budget ran out in Q3 last year, so its desk officers were told not to attend any more meetings unless personnel from other HQs were prepared to travel to Wilton ...
Meanwhile at Netheravon ...
"Helicopter for one to Chelsea Barracks? Certainly Sir"
When I joined my first Sqn, we had 2000hr Sgts on the books as pilots marking time until one of the 6 aircraft commander LSNs became available (and still suffering financially for it, today - but that is another story). Two years later, as flight commander I was one of only four aircraft commanders in the Flt, and despite having fewer than 600hrs total was still not the least experienced commander. Was this the fault of 7 Regt AAC? Maybe not. But its continued existence merely served to mask the terrible state the AAC had got itself into, and for my money should count itself extremely fortunate not to have been chopped a decade ago.
The only reason no-one previously decried this glorified old boy's flying club was that we all harboured a secret desire to join someday and ride that gravy-train ourselves - and we certainly did not want to prejudice our chances by rocking the boat. I'm just as guilty of this as the next guy. 7 Regt AAC will indeed be missed (especially by those who come 7th and 8th on this year's Sqn Comd board!), but for purely selfish reasons - lets not kid anybody about this.
7 Regt AAC was, quite frankly, a disgraceful example of AAC window dressing which existed thanks to the patronage of a bunch of Generals who enjoyed the status of having a personal helicopter taxi service, but failed to secure the funding that was necessary to maintain a genuine Avn capability.
Mind you, it wasn't just the AAC getting seen off. The HQ LF T&S budget ran out in Q3 last year, so its desk officers were told not to attend any more meetings unless personnel from other HQs were prepared to travel to Wilton ...
Meanwhile at Netheravon ...
"Helicopter for one to Chelsea Barracks? Certainly Sir"
