Onceapilot,

But it's the British way..

Who else would

Try to close Hospital departments that work, to aid ones elsewhere that don't.

Close schools that fail teaching standards, then need to build more.

Close working and viable coal power stations rather than convert to gas, without replacements in place to take up the slack in generating capacity (something that in the light of the Russian gas being held as ransom over our heads maybe wasn't a clever thing to do)

Close working coal burning power stations to meet EU "pollution" requirements, only to have the said power station sold to the Chinese who up'd it sticks and all and transferred it to China, where it continues to pour out "pollution" into the atmosphere free from EU directives.

So, £1,500,000 per day for 2t/hr less fuel burn. Where is the Public Accounts Committee on this!

OAP

Is one going to RAFM?

No. Too big, too costly to move by road. They're still trying to get the VC-10 moved to Cosford

Too bad. Presume too big to fly into Cosford? If nothing else, would be nice to see one as BZZ gate guardian.

Gate guard at BZN.....how much longer will BZN be an airbase with so few aircraft there!!!!!

SQUIRREL:"Is one going to RAFM?"

No! They should have been holding the line for 15 more years!:ugh:

OAP

Will "Damien" fight back the cutters torch? !!

15 more years!

I'll have a pint of what he's drinking....

I'll have a pint of what he's drinking....

You'd be so lucky! Where is the sense in this? A good sound airframe does not need to be scrapped if it can still perform its role well. Look at the Canberra, Hunter, B52, KC135 and KC10! The cutting edge of technology has not made the A330 a better AT/AAR platform than well maintained TriStar, except in fuel burn, but renting FSTA costs ten times as much as the TriStar we already have (had)!
As the USAF found, why buy a new "B52" when the one you already have does the job?
Spilt milk now, but some of the "mighty VSO's" we see in pictures on the pages, should be ashamed of this waste of the defence budget when other important capabilities have just been lost due to "cost"!.:mad:

OAP

Onceapilot wrote:'Well maintained' is the crux. As the age of the TriStar approaches the right hand side of the bucket curve, the cost of maintenance would obviously increase hugely, with spares becoming rare and costly. But perhaps not to £1.2M per day.....

The ZD949 scandal wasted mi££ions and yielded nothing. Perhaps if that Tab bunch of metal bashers had converted it on time and on budget, then someone had warmed over the TriStar wing AAR pod issue again, it would have been worth keeping the TriStars until 2020-ish at least.

But then there's an exclusivity clause in the PFI deal which has stitched the RAF like a kipper. Which wouldn't be quite so bad if the Voyager actually met its user requirements....eh, Arty Fufkin? High speed variable drag drogues working yet? Or the centreline FRU? Or the MPS.....??? As a dual-aisle people-tube, it works as well as a grey-painted A330 should, apart from the still-unexplained mysterious 9 Feb Turkish plummet, but as for the full AAR clearance and support for other NATO receivers - such as those the TriStar could support.....:\

I understand that the band will play a special version of "big yellow taxi" at the TriStar hangar bash.
"Don't it always seem to go-that you don't know what you've got till it's gone...":\

OAP

Only had 4 flights in the Tri* - Brize-Ascension-Mount Pleasant, and back. But what a lovely aeroplane to fly in, and hasn't it served the RASF, and the other Services well. Very sad to see it go, and IMHO a bit of a bum decision to ditch it and the VC10 in favour of the PFI. Anyone seen a PFI in any Government department actually work in the public interest? Hat, coat................

Timmy retirement
 

I was a crew chief on TriStars and it's sad to see them go, a great bus to many parties. 2 Tristars 949 & 706 are at Cambridge as scrap, 952 at Kemble, 705, 704 and 1 tanker at Bruntingthorpe yesterday and today. Only 3 tankers left to die at the end if the month.

Any 216 Sqn posters know when the hangar bash is planned for? Is the Standard being laid up or 'stored' in the Rotunda @ Cranditz?

Anyone with genuine interest should phone Brize Norton. Bona fides will apply.

OAP

Wander00 - For the sake of playing devil's advocate -

When the government had (have!) no capital to spend on capital purchases, they went down the PFI route. Thus enabling the provision of the service required. Albeit under more restrictive terms than ownership would have allowed.

If it is in the public interest to have a new hospital, because the old one is Victorian and not fit for purpose by modern standards, then if PFI delivers a new hospital, is it not serving the public interest?

The fact that the government will be paying for it on the never-never forever is immaterial to those who need the service today.

It's all swings and roundabouts. If the government had not done PFIs, and issued more bonds (i.e. increased whatever the PSBR is called this week), then they would still have to replay those bonds. Further, issuing too many bonds raises the public debt to unsustainable levels. With PFIs, they do not borrow the money themselves, yet the payments are still due under the contracts for the service being provided. But these come out of a different "bucket", so all is good. Apparently.

I'm not a very good devil's advocate!

Flight: RAF TriStars to be scrapped after US sale falls through
I/C

One hears a rumour that, even though MoD failed to flog the TriStars to the US, the scrappy at Bruntingthorpe has had better luck - and is likely to do very nicely out of the deal.....

Or is that complete bolleaux?

I've heard a rumour one will be kept as a 'runner'.

Also heard that the man from Lockheed was there yesterday and withdrew the certification of the Tristar once the last one had parked up and switched off the engines.