Station Commanders rank
 

Can anyone help with a simple request:-

At RAF Leuchars the Station Commanders rank is Air Commodore, whilst at RAF Coningsby the Station Commanders rank is Group Captain.

To an outsider Coningsby looks to be the larger station i.e more squadrons etc. so why the lower rank?

First post, please be gentle!

At Leuchars the boss is AOSNI (Air Officer Scotland and Northern Ireland)

At Coningsby he's just the CO...

cs

The Leuchars staish is dual hatted. As well as being Station Commander he is also Air Officer Scotland. Hence the post is filled by an Air Commodore.



Ah, answer crossed in the ether.

OK - curiosity has the better of me - what is AOSNI's role? Do we have regional Air Officer's? Is the Staish at Valley Air Officer Wales? Scotland isn't a seperate command yet is it, or is it all gearing up for the planned Scottish independance when AOS will lead his stations in the defence of Bonnie Scotland against the southern hourdes!

Meetings, conferences, tea drinking, morale boosting inspections, tea drinking, cocktail parties, dressing up in glittery medals for morale boosting inspections, tea drinking etc etc etc

Yes - there is an Air Officer for Wales - and not the Princes.

What, in anyones experience, has been the lowest rank held by a Station (not unit) Commander?

Flying Officer.......

It depends a lot on how you define a 'Station'!

Do you mean a flying station with at least one operational squadron? Or will you accept some odd signals unit up Troodos?

The Courier: Taking you to the heart of Tayside and Fife

Harry Staish

Now that the Stn Cdr, Leuchars, is only Air Officer Scotland, the Stn Cdr at Aldergrove is also titled Senior RAF Officer, Northern Ireland, which is a GOTBO, given the lack of competition!

Finger Poking,

You t!t, I suggest you have a look at CAS's career history and see exactly what he has done in his time.:ugh::ugh::ugh:

Ivor

One recalls that in the early days of TTTE at Cottesmore the staish was an Air Commodore.

SRAFOR

(Senior RAF Officer Rutland?)

For many years, the Station Commander at RAF St Athan was 'dual hatted' as Air Officer Wales in the rank of Air Commodore. I would imagine that now St Athan is a shadow of its former self in the guise of MoD St Athan this is no longer the case.

How about having an Air Cdre staish in each county? Air Cdre Norfolk has a certain je ne c'est quoi.

OTOH the Rutland SO could be a sqn ldr or wg cdr.

I guess Waddo, Digby, Scampton and Coningsby would dip out to Cranwell but as there are 4 stations maybe they should have an AVM. The Commandant would be pleased if he got promoted.

BTW, this is not as daft as it seems. Under the old group and command structure there were plenty of stars in the bazars - Bawtry, Mildenhall, Brampton, Rudloe Manor, Pitreavie, Mountbatten, Upavon, Bentley Priory and I can't remember where 11 Gp and 12Gp, and 23Gp had their HQ, and 90Gp, Maintanance Command, Signals Command etc etc.

Whilst a number of stations have had an Air Cdre Staish, very few have gone the whole hog and escalated the whole management structure to match. One exception was Lyneham in the late 60s/early 70s which not only had an Air Cdre but also had three GP Capts - Ops, Eng and Admin. I believe one of the reasons it was discontinued is that 46 Gp HQ was forced to operate one level higher in order to match rank levels which distorted the whole staffing process.

And they are not still distorted today :eek:

bspatz,

Was that not the case for both Brize Norton and Akrotiri at one time?

To the best of my knowledge the lowest I've seen a squadron leader at RAF Woodvale.

Mind you the station only holds two UASs and an AEF.

Pr00ne

Not sure about Akrotiri but I do not believe that Brize followed the Lyneham example.