Not sure about that shade of blue...

http://imgproc.airliners.net/photos/...v=v46408847634

Just came back to this thread.

Au Contraire pr00ne!

At Cranwell there was 'Short Course' for the likes of me, from Swinderby, UAS etc, and 'Long Course' made up of ab initio's. The Long Course, as I recall, mainly had extra sorties in the early stages i.e Straight and Level, and usually an extra sortie or 2 for each new skill like formation, nav etc.

Looks like someone left their Learjet out in the rain

Mm, it's certainly not the most elegant of bizjets, is it?

And not on G- registrations?

Looks like that's still in Brazil with the manufacturer, are they getting G reg or is that a mil serial under the black strip?

Or robust for students....good for city hopping though, and yes I have been flown in one for a demonstration. Grob 120 looks and sounds lovely though.

Can anyone explain how since contract agreement (2008 was it), they have only finally managed to get 5 Phenom aircraft, 23 Grobs, a few Texans and been provided with the Hawk (which admittedly has been going a few years now)

How much has been spent on this so far to replace a system that works?

(no comment on the helo side as I know nothing about them whatsoever)

Sanggiovese, probably being run by the same people who fo¢ked the Air cadet fleet. No apologies for the language, it's appropriate for the situation.

A342

To be military registered as ZM333 to ZM337. PH-PRK is ZM334.

But it doesn't work that well, does it? There have been enormous difficulties over the years caused by (and I generalize) poor availability of the existing fleet (Tutor, Tucano and Hawk have all been grounded for significant periods at some point). I'm not expecting the new aircraft to be perfect but the issues on the legacy fleet have been one of the causes of the carnage in the training system for quite some period.

The other main cause (ie inconsistency at Government level about how many people need to be trained) will create as much havoc in the brave new world of MFTS as it always has done. Something of a shame that the civil serpents couldn't see that when they recommended we take this path.

Quite a few ab initio went direct to the JP5 at Cranwell during the period when Linton had already moved to the Tucano and the JP3 had long-since retired.

Cranwell converted to the Tucano well before Linton.

Towards the end of the JP at Linton there were one or two courses that were straight through on the JP Mk 5, but the Mk 3 was still going to almost the end. Most of those who started BFTS were ex-UAS/EFT, There were a few who had the toughest deal of having done just enough PPL/Flying Scholarship to be denied the EFT - but these were a minority. I am fairly sure nobody flew the JP as their very first experience in the period of late-80's through to the end of the JP in 1993.

I did, also a few of my compatriots in the late 80s.

In those days if you had a PPL the first aircraft you flew was the either the JP3 at Linton or the JP5 at Cranwell. If you didn't have a PPL you went to FSS (Flying Selection Squadron(?)) for 15 hours in the Chipmunk before BFTS in the JP.

'twas EFTS on the Chipmunk in my day...
https://guideimg.alibaba.com/images/..._22616097.jpeg

How come the Phenom isn't painted in the high-contrast black paint scheme as a trainer. Or is that another piece of RAF corporate knowledge thrown away?

https://i0.wp.com/www.aeroresource.c...720&h=514&crop

The old Grob isn't Black.

The KingAir 200 and GT aren't Black.

The Jetstream was still around when the Dom went Black but it stayed Red.

Camelspyder

The Grob "Plastic Pig" can't be painted black as it will go a bit 'saggy'! :ok:

IIRC the King Air's had dark blue (nearly black) undersides to contrast with a sky backdrop and white on top to be easily seen if low level from above?

http://www.military-airshows.co.uk/p...8/img_6157.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped..._Lofting-1.jpg

LJ

I know about the Grobs and being white it makes them a menace in congested airspace.

My point was - not all RAF trainers are black.

The KA are owned by RBS - hence blue and white?

I was told* that the King Airs were painted that scheme because the OC45(R) of the day liked the look. Little or no consideration given to the conspicuity study which saw Tucano, Hawk, Dominie & helicopters featuring predominantly black schemes.

*second hand info - caution, may not be true!