Good news for RAF Student Pilots:
208 Sqn was folded in 2016 when IV Sqn was to be able to take the student output. The T1a and T2 are totally different airframes (avionics and performance) and so the QFIs from 208 would need converting to T2 before they could instruct - some made the crossover, some went elsewhere and some went back to the frontline or staff jobs.
Honestly, the closure of 208 was not just taken on a whim. There was not enough hours on T1a to keep the flying rate of 208 going and those hours were needed for other things - such as providing live radar and BFM targets for 29 Sqn’s OCU sorties! The only way to fix that is to get some jets to replace the ones that the T1a is used for, but again that also takes time. One of the biggest T1a tasks being Air Support to Defence Operational Training (ASDOT) - https://defense-update.com/20180318_asdot.html
Honestly, the closure of 208 was not just taken on a whim. There was not enough hours on T1a to keep the flying rate of 208 going and those hours were needed for other things - such as providing live radar and BFM targets for 29 Sqn’s OCU sorties! The only way to fix that is to get some jets to replace the ones that the T1a is used for, but again that also takes time. One of the biggest T1a tasks being Air Support to Defence Operational Training (ASDOT) - https://defense-update.com/20180318_asdot.html
So, to summarise UK Flying training at the moment as I understand these forums (fora?.):
Multi engine students are going to L3
FJ students are going to the USA
The helicopters are too small for the rear crew and the Prefect is too small for tall pilots.
Years of holding are common
29 are not happy with those that do make it out of Valley.
What else can go wrong - oh yes, we haven’t got the T6 at Valley yet!
Multi engine students are going to L3
FJ students are going to the USA
The helicopters are too small for the rear crew and the Prefect is too small for tall pilots.
Years of holding are common
29 are not happy with those that do make it out of Valley.
What else can go wrong - oh yes, we haven’t got the T6 at Valley yet!
Last edited by Timelord; 30th Sep 2018 at 17:10.
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So, to summarise UK Flying training at the moment as I understand these forums (fora?.):
Multi engine students are going to L3
FJ students are going to the USA
The helicopters are too small for the rear crew and the Prefect is too small for tall pilots.
Years of holding are common
29 are not happy with those that do make it out of Valley.
What else can go wrong - oh yes, we haven’t got the T6 at Valley yet!
Multi engine students are going to L3
FJ students are going to the USA
The helicopters are too small for the rear crew and the Prefect is too small for tall pilots.
Years of holding are common
29 are not happy with those that do make it out of Valley.
What else can go wrong - oh yes, we haven’t got the T6 at Valley yet!
They just aren't allowed to fly them.
This just gets more absurd every day. Imagine trying to explain this kind of farce to Oliver Cromwell.
We have bought new weapons for the army, to fight in the next war, and we want to use the people that we beat in the last war, to train our troops. Presumably not because they are so good, since we beat them.
However, the people that we saved, by beating the people who we now want to use as teachers, have got together with some of the other people we beat, and other people that we saved, and they have decided that we can't use the new weapons.
We can't buy other weapons, that we would be allowed to use, made here by our own people, because we spent all the money buying weapons made by foreigners.
The reason that we can't use the weapons, due to the rules imposed by the people we beat and the people we saved, is that Parliament agreed to abide by the rules of the people we beat etc. etc.
At which point Cromwell would have you run through with a sword for being stupid, and then march on Parliament, to ask what the **** they are up to?
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So, to summarise UK Flying training at the moment as I understand these forums (fora?.):
Multi engine students are going to L3
FJ students are going to the USA
The helicopters are too small for the rear crew and the Prefect is too small for tall pilots.
Years of holding are common
29 are not happy with those that do make it out of Valley.
What else can go wrong - oh yes, we haven’t got the T6 at Valley yet!
Multi engine students are going to L3
FJ students are going to the USA
The helicopters are too small for the rear crew and the Prefect is too small for tall pilots.
Years of holding are common
29 are not happy with those that do make it out of Valley.
What else can go wrong - oh yes, we haven’t got the T6 at Valley yet!
I’d be curious to know how the pilots graduating from ENJJPT compare, and so what the impact on 29 would be.
The training programme is is a long sausage machine, with all parts interconnected: changing one part in isolation is bound to come with some knock-on impact.
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Question regarding the weather.
Someone mentioned that the weather is better in the Southern States. This allows for more consistent and regular flying and therefore can be done quicker, but are US trained pilots at a disadvantage when they return, because they don't have the experience flying with the crappy weather we often get in the UK?
Someone mentioned that the weather is better in the Southern States. This allows for more consistent and regular flying and therefore can be done quicker, but are US trained pilots at a disadvantage when they return, because they don't have the experience flying with the crappy weather we often get in the UK?
By the way, is there still any RAF involvement at the Canadian NATO school?
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Martin the Martian (#48),
.
We did the same in WWII, I did a month's "UK familiarisation" on return from the Arnold Scheme in the USA in March, 1942, before going on to a Spitfire OTU.
Germany and the Netherlands used to run courses for their new pilots who had returned from the US to acclimatise to European weather conditons, airspace and the general way of doing things before they started OCU training
We did the same in WWII, I did a month's "UK familiarisation" on return from the Arnold Scheme in the USA in March, 1942, before going on to a Spitfire OTU.
