RAF Merlin Crews Screwed
 

With the impending doom upon the Merlin force does anyone know of any slots for pilots or crewmen, flying or ground tours, coming available in the next 12 - 18 months? Escape tunnel digging must commence....

:mad:

Try asking PMA?

Serious question - could you not transfer into the RN?

Probably a silly question but does this mean the transfer to the RN is actually occurring? What about marinisation of the airframe, folding tail etc? Are they going to be based at Yeovilton or Culdrose?

As for the aircrew - presumably you are being offered slots with the Chinook Force?

Yep. RAF told in no uncertain terms to get on with it and stop waffling / stalling / prevaricating.

It still should be not too much to expect the chain of command to provide all folk on the squadrons (not just the aircrew) some broad information on what posting opportunities are planned.

The same is true for the wider station infrastructure.

This is in no way a suprise. There must be a plan. (That is just me being an optomist).

No, It isn't going to the RN.

If it was, then surely chopabeefer would have been on here to eat humble pie?....

http://www.pprune.org/military-aircr...urvive-16.html

Nimrod folk went through this when that was scrapped, guess who has had to reduce their branch numbers by 50% between last year and 2015. Unfortunatly something similar must be coming the way of the Merlin crews now as other flying or ground jobs just arent there!

GT,
Do you mean that some crew will go to the states for years to sit in the ex-presidential 101's waiting for some future delivery to the RAF of a totally unrelated craft?

Procrastinating, shurely?

Err, prevaricating fits as well - it means being evasive...:confused:

And stop calling him Shirley...:}

Althenick

Can't just transfer to the RN - they've always maintained that their numbers are spot on and that they can fully man the Merlin, so surely there aren't any slots for RAF aircrew to transfer into ? Apparently all of their costings for the transfer have always been spot on too. Looking forward to seeing them published - then we can all see if this is all worth it.

Pheasant

Yes, it is going ahead - I know in the past I've said it wouldn't but it is very much so. Humble pie being eaten here for you Tourist. Don't know anything about the marinisitation of the cabs, the biggest challenge is going to get the crews trained against the background of operations whilst the RAF guys also try and get released into other jobs. No, the RAF will not automatically pick up a Chinook cockpit, or a Puma cockpit or any other cockpit.the original plan was 28 merlin's for 24 new chinooks - that ain't happening, go figure.

We started by procrastinating and when that didn't work moved onto prevaricating. Neither seems to have worked in the grand scheme of things.

And whilst Merlin may have been a political choice foisted on the Air Force many moons ago rather than the military preference, those cries throughout the intervening years of get rid of it and give us Chinook would now seem to fall into the bracket of be careful what you wish for given the uncertainty being created in the current fiscally constrained times.

It was only the chinook force making those cries, I believe.

this isnt just affecting the rotary guys. unfortunately, other streams are being affected by not enough cockpits for pilots, with light at the end of the tunnel, situation reversed in 2-3 years.

The easiest solution bearing in mind there are absolutely no quality desk jobs out there for development would be to let some of us take a bloody good break after 9 years flat out doing some local community work or even go back do a masters etc. Unfortunately, there seems to be no emphasis on stability or development, as manning unfortunately dont have the jobs for people to go to it seems.

Vin.

What light at the end of the tunnel ?

The light at the end of the tunnel has been switched off to save money (£0.22 annual saving).
While this cost saving measure is in place MoD has asked the defense industry to design a new lightweight multi role light bulb and has set aside a budget of 1.9 million over three years. The team will be headed by 1x 3 star and 2x 2 star and 1x 1star, these will all be new appointments and thus ensure that the HM Forces maintains more stars than cars.

Brilliant TACQ. Thanks ! :ok:

There's always the old saying "grass is greener on the other side" :) In this case its finding work in the Land of Black Gold, the land of plentiful curry spices, textiles etc and a former French colony via a nice interview and maybe a checkride or two in an office in the middle of a classic Somerset town!

Then again flying training for the former French colony operators seems to be taking place a lot in a former Nimrod colony lately :)

How many people were posted to the New Nimrod? before it was cancelled...

How many hired by Soteria (SAR-H) before SARH was cancelled (I know a few)...

Navy crew training at Benson - Gee, I am worried.

It's staying.:ok: