Pobjoy
 

The biggest problem is that those at the top of the RAF have very little internal glider maintenance knowlage to turn to and only one supplier of glider CAMO services.

It matters not who you get to fix the gliders when you need to fly them the people who have to sign off the final release to service are the same people who had the rug pulled out from under them by the MAA for maintenance failures.

About a year back these people's support contract ran out and they have been on three month renewals and very recently have had the support contract renewed for a year, it follows that the support contract is up for grabs in a year.

If another company gets the glider recovery contract we are going to see a conflict of interest ? It would be in the CAMO,s interest to make as much trouble for the recovery company in terms of rejecting work on the smallest of grounds and being generally obstructive to prove that the other main player in the game is not fit to run the support contract.

This support contract is a long one and is the big prize in a commercial sence, the MoD will have to be very astute in who they chose, I expect to see the gloves come off in the new year when the support contract bidding starts for real.

If the inter company mud slinging starts losers in this will be the air cadets who's flying curtailed and the tax payer who is not getting the flying they have paid for, the RAF need to be on top of this situation.

My advice to any high ranking officer who has this crock of poo land in his lap would be to get a few reliable members of the RAF GSA to help bring a little specialist advice to the table and safeguard the interests of the people in this who really matter.......... The cadets !

Has anyone had a word in the new boss's ear?

Kate Middleton beams as Prince Philip passes RAF Air Cadets patronage on to her - Telegraph

So really yet another outsource fiasco - we really don't do this stuff well do we..............

When we had MGSP and CGMF manned by service personnel we really did not have these sort of issues.

(MGSP - Mobile Glider Servicing Party for those of you not old enough to remember, later replaced by CGMF (Central Glider Maintenance Flight) when serving was centralised...................)

Arc

Isn't the Chairman of the RAF GSA the previous OC CGS? So in charge of Syerston just preceeding the "pause"?

But the "reputational risk" is much higher with cadets - think "Daily Mail Factor"!

But I understood some of the "issues" went back to "blue suit" days........??

Paperwork lost?
 

"paperwork that assured that the aircraft was safe to operate had been lost or incomplete"

LJ ( #1247) Should the above not read lost, shredded or incomplete?

Hence my earlier post some time ago referring to possible criminal acts.

A 342 (a numerical anagram as well as my old call sign)

Jungle drums in HQ Air are beating that an announcement is imminent following a meeting with the head cheese...

...anyone know what the outcome was? :confused:

Blame the VRT Officers?

Announcement from Fawlty Towers
 

There's a hold up, just waiting for some bad news to bury the 2FTS announcement, so that all the VRT guys completely miss it !

📢

Why bad news ?
 

The proclamation from on high may be good news ! It might be that the MoD has finally awarded the Viking recovery contract.

On the other hand with the current track record ...................

They announced the Viking recovery contract being awarded last month though. Surely can't do it twice?

I think they are all too busy with the pers staff Nativity Play.

No, I'm not making that up...

Http://Twitter.com/comdtac

Some of it you couldn't make up.......

In my experience "they" normally publish bad news at 1659 on the last working day before a two week public holiday.

Tingger
 

While the intention of awarding the Vikng recovery contract was announced a few weeks back to the best of my knowlage ( as of Last Friday ) no one has put their name on the dotted line.

I was told Babcock had signed for 73 of them.

Tingger
 

That was the word on the street and a lot of work has gone into moving in that direction however as of last week no news of a contract being signed had reached me.

Its all very well after a three year pause with next to nil instruction taking place in the Air Cadet organisation. Lovely if your two seat gliders have finally passed their inspection and are found fit to fly.

But meanwhile, what have all the instructors been doing to keep current?

Are the qualifications to be an Air Cadet instructor the same as those required of a civilian instructor? are they interchangeable or not? Long ago when I needed to maintain an aviation medical, I admired a photograph of an RAF fighter plane proudly positioned on the wall of the AME...and in my nosy way, asked the kind doctor how many hours did he have in his logbook.

Three hundred, he replied, and I wished I hadn't asked. This old woman since starting to fly at the age of 50 some time back has over 3,000 hours; 1,800 in gliders and 1,300 in power. More takeoffs and landings than any power pilot can begin to imagine, towing up gliders, practicing launch failures with students, flying in competitions cross country.

It costs so much to fly Her Majesty's aircraft,it is not surprising the average military pilot may not have acquired a lot of experience.

If Air Cadet instructors have gone elsewhere to keep current, they may not wish to return....

Wittering NOTAM
 

B1566/15: Flight information region (FIR) : miscellaneous plain language
Q) EGTT/QAFXX/IV/NBO/E/000/033/5237N00029W005
WITTERING GLIDER SITE, PERMANENTLY WITHDRAWN, PSN 523645N 0002835W
HGT 3000FT AGL/3273FT AMSL.
AIP ENR-5.5 REFERS
FROM: 08 Dec 2015 00:00 GMT TO: Permanent

I don't understand the relevance of the Wittering NOTAM to this thread!