That has to rank as one of the most utterly stupid questions that I have read on pprune.

S_H

LCG III last time I looked.

DTMA?

Don't Try to Move Anything?

Oh they are so, so, TRYING!!!

DTMA?
 

Chaps,

DTMA is dead. Long live DSCOM (Defence Supply Chain, Operations and Movements). Still means the Prince of Darkness has a very long screwdriver.

Embrace change!

As an AT driver I have absolutley f**k all to do with planning where I pick-up and drop-off my non-tactical load. Don't lay the blame at the feet of the operators for your long bus drive/load issues - put it through the tasking agencies!!!

As an ex-AAR driver I used to try f**king hard to do plan where to pick-up and drop-off my role support personnel load. Lay the blame at the feet of the operators for your long bus drive/load issues if they haven't at least tried to put it through the tasking agencies!!!

Another helpful comment from the Cold War.....:hmm:

And that from some rubber desk Johnny.....

2 lorry loads of paper clips, is it?

It IS about balancing the needs of all. Assuming that the extra flying time involved is do-able within Crew Duty limits, the airfield requested is suitable, equipped, and prepared to open outside hours (assuming this is necessary - often they are not, as what budget holder has the spare cash to open his airfield out of hours these days?), your load is not so large it precludes the delivery leg by taking up wieght required for the extra fuel involved, and many other factors in the process, requests by 'customers' for 'home airhead' loading / unloading CAN be accomodated......IF the 'customer' is prepared to foot the (often significant) extra costs involved - which they very often are not.

Even if the above applied, many other things can stand in the way. The general paucity of AT assets, and flying hours available on them will always be a factor nowadays. Also, if your task takes an extra 10 hours (not uncommon when you factor in transit time to you 'manor', loading and unloading time, and transit time back to the the AT MOB), that is 10 hours that somebody else cannot make use of the AT asset for, which would preclude, for example, an entire Gib resupply taking place.

Many customers of AT, understandably, fail to grasp the way the AT world operates - although to you, your tasking / deployment / exercise / freight move is the most important thing in the world, so is everybody elses! We serve a much wider community than you might imagine and in the current climate it is the norm for the few serviceable airframes we can offer to be continuously tasked in between periods of maintenance and rectification - therefore every hour added to a task for your convenience will mean an hour less for somebody else. It has to come from somewhere!

In days gone by we had the airframes (less knackered and with plenty of flying hours) and the crews, to have much more flexibility over these issues. With today's Op tempo, an ageing fleet that we have to stretch out to meet in-service dates of long-awaited replacements, and ever-shrinking budgets everywhere, sadly we cannot do for you what we really would like to be able to - to make your moves as hassle-free as possible.

BEagle, I know it has been some time since you operated on a front line sqn, and even then you certainly were not put under the pressures that are currently being felt be our present trukkie crews, but are you seriously suggesting that during the often 20 to 24 hr down time spent back at our home-bases, we just pop into the Sqn and start questioning a laid down itinerary.

No - and I hope that you get as much time away from work as you can when you're back from the places you go to these days. You all deserve it!

Meanwhile, today at Wattisham:

http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s...1242little.jpg

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...d/IMG_6016.jpg


First of many I hope!

And all happening over a weekend, just demonstrates how importantly this is viewed and the local ability to provide the required services I guess. Mind you I guess the cost of airtesting and transiting a number of helos to get them back from BN may well far exceed the cost of the delivery direct to where they are required.

There was talk about a purpose built air movements airhead at Wattisham some time back, anyone know if this is still on the backburner or whether it has now been discounted?

HEDP

I find it a tad embarrassing that we are now having to employ our former 'foe' to move our military hardware around :O

MadMark!!! :mad:

A similar piece of Commie crap just came thundering over Witney at very low altitude (approx 1750 UTC).

Perhaps these cheap and nasty contract outfits have as similar a disregard for other rules as they do for following published departure procedures?

I've never seen anything that big that low over the town in the 23 years I've lived here.....:mad:

I would have thought the cost of flattening the Southern HAS Site would be prohibitive, after all, these shelters are designed to be moderately difficult to destroy.

Note that the HAS sites at Alconbury, Upper Heyford, Bentwaters etc still stand, even if they are just used for car/grain storage etc. Even the new landowners must have baulked at the cost of demolishing them.

As you can see some very high tec kit is needed to load and appache onto a C17.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v8...02-019_155.jpg

Clearance when loading is also a facotr.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v8...02-019_170.jpg

There is also not a lot of room as our C17 have the extended range tanks.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v8...02-019_162.jpg

You should see how crammed it is with 2 Apaches squeezed in.

You can understand why they want to do it a Brize.