Shouldn't this post now read: Air Cadets STILL Grounded ?.

Airframes recovered
 

24+ airframes out of SS to date. Although SS are the only 'approved' company doing the actual work they have to 'work' under the auspices of the 'larger' fish in the system which does not speed things up.
So the airframes are out there, but not much in evidence yet.
Lots of 'containers' appearing at 626.

Totally agree.(But don't forget the girls too)

Olympia 463
 

Olympia it would seem to me that you are showing your age a bit with your “ young men “ comments, the ATC has been open to female cadets for as long as I can remember.

Take my advice and refer to the cadets as young people that way you can stay on the right side of the PC brigade and not offend males ,females and those who are not sure.

"Higher ranks with fancy titles"
Retired RAF officers with military pensions and who are friends of the group captain?
Its only taxpayers money after all.

Sorry if I excluded the girls senior moment. I trained many girls to fly in civilian gliding clubs and was the 'go to' instructor for girls in one club.

I was authorised to recruit female cadets wef 1 Jan 85 (1811 Marlow Sqdn); other squadrons were a few years earlier. The criteria was the squadron HQ must have at least 2 toilets, one of which must be females only.
This meant those squadrons with 'new build' standard huts were the first to take on girls as they already had 2 toilets whereas my building being an old TA Centre had only the one toilet, so they converted a small storeroom next to it to a second toilet complete with an incinerator!

Over half are out in the "field" with more bunching to go to the next stand up site and a handful in acceptance checks. They aren't all sat at syerston doing nothing.

As for aging out not all the VGS were in the crusty zone at the start of the pause and even at the end have an average age in the late 20's not mid 60's

Tinger

You seem to have your finger on the pulse. Which site(s) are stood up at the moment ?, which sites are next, how many aircraft and winches at each site, how many staff and can you give a picture of how things are going 'on the ground' ?

I'm genuinely interested.


Thanks

Arc

622 @ Upavon
637 @ Little Riss (621 embedded
644 @ Syerston
645 @ Topcliffe (631 embedded)

Are all cleared to fly cadets

632 are flying at Ternhill with CGS doing RTF, all of which is freely publicised on their Facebook pages. 3 ac assigned to the sites, varies with maintenance obviously.

No idea how many instructors at each site but enough to be operating autonomously

Tinnger (spelt correctly this time)

That is encouraging news.

Thanks for the update.

Regards

Arc

Arclite

Try two G's and one N

ACW

Doh !!

I was trying to be nice - honest Guv !!

Arc

Only another 7858 hits and this thread reaches 1 million !

Well, I'll add to the total by saying it would be very nice to see 615 active again at Kenley before the swifts arrive this year. Please...

615? Not before JM builds his fence to keep the dog walkers out!

The Kenley 'Fence'
 

Rather a conflict of interest's here as the City of London 'commons' own the land and want the public to have greater scope to explore this historic site.

No doubt even now someone will be 'reading' the lease to see who has the right to do what.
Because the public can now access the location from many different places the fencing would have to be 'comprehensive' and quite costly.
In fact they have already spent thousands on a previous fence which proved to be unsuitable.
In practice once ATC gliding starts again the public will get used to the situation and it should not be a reason to curtail activities.
The 'listed' blast bays are well away from the operational area and the old camp area under private ownership. Me thinks it is the responsibility of the City of London to 'secure' their area of interest without reducing the operational part of the airfield. Be interesting to see how 2FTS play this one as they are now the 'authority' for the MOD interest's at the location.
There are few safety case's for a fence as it could be said they are a hazard to aviation when close to an operational area, and the aviation interest should be paramount whilst the MOD keep the lease active.

They should fence it in accordance with the old AM blocks which are still to be found in the undergrowth in my view :-)

Seriously though, there does need to be some sort of barrier because sooner or later someone will be hurt either because of operations or because of their own stupidity.................. either way it will put the tin hat on operations at Kenley and will have wider ramifications.

So lets get the fence built - I expect JM is currently saying 'We will build a fence - and the City of London will pay for it.....................' (one for all you Trumpsters out there)

Arc

Fencing at Kenley
 

Kenley is already limited in size and any fencing should be more of a frangible statement of no go area's rather than a stock proof construction. This famous survivor of 100 years of RAF service deserves some special consideration so it remains 'in use' for Cadet flying.
Whilst still in use it has 'life' and what more fitting place to enthuse Cadets; it having served our country so well in two major conflicts.
I feel a watershed has arrived that should 'protect' its place for future generations of both young aviators and the 'walkers' that both can respect its place in our history.
If the City of London play it correctly it will only enhance the location for the future, as an unique time warp of modern history at a time when the whole of our country was in real peril. It was a typical 'British' solution to an immediate need, and was born into conflict despite it being a Surrey common.
Its main test came in 1940 and it played its part in keeping this country free at a time when all seemed lost. The Luftwaffe failed to kill it off in Aug 1940 so I dammed sure we will not let current 'crats' try it again. The 'fretwork fighters' kept an aviation presence for decades lets hope the 'Vikings' rise again to carry on the fight.

Pobjoy, I am with you on that, had a number of great days at Kenley accompanying cadet from 1924(Shirley) some years back.