As a former groundie at LYE, the reason the groundcrew "acquire" the left over rations, is so that MAMS don't get them.

Thats' got to be a good thing! For keeping both traditions going....

The Herc W2 was the best ......Met Office civvies didn't seem to eat their hot food, and kindly gave it all to us!

spanners 123.
 

Wow.....

.........."As for the rubbish of free rations on guard"......

All I can say to that is you demonstratably have no knowledge of duty of care, maintenance of morale and the well-being of your subordinates however temporary your or their positions! :ugh:

toddbabe
 

I'm reminded of that scene from the film 'Airplane' when the refuller reaches up to the DV window with his credit card machine for the captain to pay for the fuel.

Can't be long now before the in-flight refuelling hose has a similar 'swipe machine' attached for aircrew food, presumably the menue will be presented for selection and they only pay for what they order, imagine being charged for a prawn cocktail you never had!

"As a former groundie at LYE, the reason the groundcrew "acquire" the left over rations, is so that MAMS don't get them."

Gaz,

I love that sentiment mate, I always advised ALM's to box up the stuff for the line and put it on the bunk/flightdeck floor which pretty much ensured the thieving pikey gypsy movers didn't pinch stuff the second they got on board :ok:

Parabellum, I don't know if it was intentional but your prawn cocktail is exactly the reason for flight rations without potentially lethal foods being served. Also to ensure that the pilots eat different foods.

I agree though that the real argument was over the 1-4 hour rations, essentially the shorter range aircraft.

well done you all managed to produce 9 pages of crap before you started on the movers.

mojocvh
 

"All I can say to that is you demonstratably have no knowledge of duty of care, maintenance of morale and the well-being of your subordinates however temporary your or their positions! :ugh:"

To the best of my knowledge, meals for guards was scrapped about 10 years ago where I was based at the time, so surely its time to put that one to bed!

I don't pre-judge you, please don't do it to me!

Just before the mods put this to bed, may I offer my own final contribution.

This thread originated about the possible loss of aircrew in-flight rations. A decision which, for all the reasons that have been repeatedly pointed out here, will not happen IMHO.

Sadly, a couple of the groundcrew saw it as an opportunity to take a swipe at the aircrew, by continuously asking them to 'justify' why they get rationned for free during flight, despite reasons that were more than forthcoming from a miriad of posters, none moreso than those posted by SFFP. He elequently explains the reasoning behind rationing, and I fail to see why the likes of toddbabe cannot understand what he points out to her in very simple English.

Likewise, I cannot understand why the groundcrew element here feel it is a good thing that aircrew rations cease. As others have explained, whenever you have flown in one of HM aircraft, you will have been fed and watered, without any charge whatsoever. Did you think that was fair? or did you refuse the food offered to you and pull out your own box of goodies?

Nevertheless, I have very little doubt that this withdrawl of rations will happen. As far as the civilian world is concerned, this is a massive flight safety issue, and I cannot believe that even todays RAF will allow aircrew to go flying without the required sustinance to sustain safe flight ops. If they do, then they pose a serious risk.

To TSM, I understand your frustration with the groundcrew on some of their remarks, and their inability to grasp the points you make my dear chap, but I hope that your threat to 'grass them up' was just a bit of aircrew 'bravado' and nothing too serious. We all need to get on together, and you obviously have a valid point when it comes to the 'illegal' removal of rations, but involving the RAFP will open the biggest can of worms the service has ever seen, I would suggest.

Finally, one last word for the groundcrew:
There is another thread on here about the loss of free food for those attending courses etc. and it is without doubt an utter disgrace and should be reversed immediately. However, I doubt it will. If the aircrew were to come onto that forum, shouting with joy and repeatedly arguing for you guys to justify free food when you are on courses, then you would be mighty pi$$ed off. Perhaps then, you will see why the attitude of some of you has clearly had an adverse effect on us mere aircrew??

The Winco

You get flight meals?
 

Flight meals? You guys get flight meals and you don't have to pay for them? Are you serious? Holy smokes that's cool.

Here is what we do in the Marine Corps when we are sick of eating MREs.

1. Land at any Air Force Base.
2. Look for the Chow Hall.
3. Enter the Chow Hall with your flight bag.
4. Steal as much chow as you can fit in the bag as well as napkins, and plastic forks. Make sure you have enough for your next 13 hour DASC mission.
5. Go to the head and steal all the toilet paper. (Marines often have to bring their own on a flight since our squadrons won't pay for it.)
6. Run like hell for your airplane!
7. Eat in peace once on track.


Or, talk to the airfield manager order a bunch of food and have him bill you for misc. ramp fees and put it all on a from 44 or charge it on the white card.

It would appear that many have missed the point here and turned it into a you and us thread. Surely it is not too much for HM forces to expect that people turn in for work properly fed and watered, if they are to fly over a meal time then it is provisioned for properly and when they return, they go home and get the food that their wages provide for them. All the tosh about duty of care is irrelevant outside of the normal meal time flying. If you are on a long trail or going on ops then of course you should be provisioned.

But mincing around the UK for a couple of hours should not allow rations to be claimed in lieu, put in T bars and used whilst watching cricket/wimbledon in the crewroom. It happens, I have seen it and I have done it but it doesnt mean its right. If the crews are provisioned to fly and dont have time to eat it, or dont want to and the ground crew take it off at the end of the trip then so what. However when 20 odd curries/bombay potatoes come off an E3D and are immediately taken home by crews then that is where the waste is and it is this I believe that the consideration is being directed at.

In summary what appears to be on the table is - Ration for the flight, no more and no less. What is all the fuss about, at least then, possibly the Nimrod IPT would not be having to spend millions re-designing the Nimrod crew seats for the increades airworthiness requirements of overweight rearcrew.

At a down-route stop recently an entire crew fell into a pool of Piranha,
apparently they ate half of them and took the rest home.:}

Winco, Sffp, Swinger I am not Groundcrew or a ground based trade despite your best beliefs! You can try and guess what I am and suspect you wouldn't like the truth one bit! but I have had my say regardless.
Because you don't want to hear it doesn't mean it isn't true.
Good luck and keep those blinkers on!

You aren't Pang are you Toddpig?

Surely Pang isn't still around??

toddbae,
You indicate in a previous posting that you are NCA, and so I therefore assume that you are in a ground tour somewhere, presumably Kinloss. If you are NCAcan only assume that you either missed, failed or didn't bother to turn up for the AMTC lectures?
The Winco

She must be still around, unless you crabs managed to foist her onto the unsuspecting AAC. We would not have fallen for it twice!

I had the great misfortune to be on the water ski club beach in Kokinelli where Pang, our Nav at the time, joined us dressed in a one piece swim costume.......I have never ever seen a spider with that many feckin legs before :eek:

Blondey,

I am not sure I ever referred to you as groundcrew as that would be a bit of an snub at those fine folk who fix the things we break but I am pretty sure I was inferring that you were a bit of a dizzy mare who needed recalling by the factory to have the logic chip retrospectively fitted :rolleyes: