"His predecessors have included Bastard Bill and Pete Ruddock so plenty of stars there."

Yikes. Pete Ruddock was/is a nice bloke, Bill.....well....ask Mrs Bill about the TV license. Oh, and I remember the bumper cars incident as well....too old? Hahahaha. Ha. Hahaha.

And what exactly is AVM Bell doing now? Other than nothing?

Not sure. Why not give him a ring?

I believe he is undertaking 'a review' in the Capability area.....so not a made up job at all. :=

Best reply on PPrune ever! :D

LAL,

I saw a friend had reached AVM at Shape. I rang the deskie at Innsworth who by coincidence had just left our station. He gave me his number. I then rang and was straight through.

Just shows AVMs, especially at Shape, didn't have much to do :)

Errrrr....Bell. Ring. Ring the Bell?

time for a glass of Bell`s.........

Mostly Toyota pickups when I was there.

So that will be another major role to go the way of the Harriers and the kipper fleet courtesy of another aircrew mate trying to pretend to be a switched on staff officer?

sisemen

Harsh.

I suspect you do not know the target of your comment.

He deserves better.

Purely a comment on the innate ability of RAFs penchant for putting excellent aircrew into staff appointments where they have little or no ability and who then proceed to produce "questionable" decisions which then get blamed on "blunties".

(I have a foot in both pilot and blunty camps so feel able to comment :E)

I've run across Sean Bell a few times since we served together on London UAS. He always struck me as being a gifted pilot, an intelligent, decent, honourable and switched on officer, and as a most capable operator.

He was always an example of the kind of chap one would have hoped would reach senior rank, and who seemed to be an exception to the anecdotal rule that so many blokes who might have been a lion in the cockpit, a great Squadron CO or a great Staish then become administrative mice when they are promoted beyond that point.

I hope that this doesn't disadvantage Sean, as he's a bloke who ought to go further, and whose further rise would be a good thing for the service, and for the country.

Back Hander
 

In the middle east we call it "baksheesh".

Boils down to the same thing though.:)

And to be fair to the aircrew mate fraternity, the Nimrod decision can be firmly laid at the door of a number of "engineers" and one in particular.

and pray which 'bluntie' can we pin JPA on sisemen?!

Your penchant to generalise aircrew says much about your deep-rooted resentments in that area.

Probably Air Member for Personnel who happens to be .....er.....aircrew :E

And it's not a penchant - it's purely a reaction for every dumb-assed decision regarding capability, equipment and operational matters being pinned on "blunties" when the culprit is another branch. But by all means kick a blunty as hard as you can if they deserve it. It's the only way that some of them learn that their job is to support the front-end.

Note of fact: JPA was a joint decision wit the Army taking the lead under DCDS Pers who was an AVM. It was recommended on the back of the 'success' of the CS HRMS system.

Let's not confuse JPA (the system) with JSP 752 - the revised and harmonised pay and allowances - albeit introduced at the same time. JPA didn't introduce capped actual - the JSP did!

So, back to the thread: where is AVM Bell now - and who has moved to head MODSAP,

There's always someone who has to spoil a good debate/argument by introducing some facts.... :*

I was told that 2* and above are "appointed", and if there is no job at the end of their "appointment", they are given a P45.

Was this the case for Shaun Bell, as there wouldnt have been a job for him to go to after the sudden end to his "appointment", unless of course, he was shuffled into a hastily-created post.

However, blunties can take months to staff an Establishment Variation Form - I know as a simple one to merely re-title several posts (with no +/- in numbers) took the best part of 6 months, so how come his post was created so quickly? ;)