Statistics can be misleading unless you know how they’ve been calculated and other factors in play.
What a way to find out, over Facebook and after the general public.
I’m still angry about the pause. I wonder why it’s taken 2 years for this to be “discovered” and I wonder if creating 2FTS was the best option available. Yes we control out own gliders now (what’s left of them anyway) but I wonder how many more we’d have if we didn’t have the 2FTS staff in the budget and used it to fix them instead.
CAC response and IBN now on SharePoint.
For those of us without SharePoint access, could you possibly copy those statements onto here?
Can’t see it…where was it posted? Got a link?
Hmmmm…sharepoint won’t open for me at the moment. I’ve tried 2 different browsers…
Apologies - my error. Its the link to the Ministerial statement.
Working foe me, but nothing more
The IBN doesn’t say anything different and does not give anything extra, actually the Paliament website gives more detail than the IBN.
It certainly does…
GIC was an integral part of the way VGSs worked. Apart from showing cadets what gliding was about before they decided on a GS it was also the way that new pilots and instructors were brought on and built hours. That fact was what made the VGS system work and accounts for the very high percentage of former staff cadets who stayed on as instructors. It made the system.
To be fair the pause pretty much killed it all anyway. There are no staff cadets in the system any more and I very much doubt that they will be revived. We shall descend to paying unqualified Babcock employees to bully cadets who go gliding as well as AEF.
I am very depressed about the whole affair and the way I feel at the moment I way well retire from the ACO. They have just murdered the best part of the ACO and the only part that made it different from the ACF. I wish you all well with your green activities, they are not for me.
I think that you should remember that Northern Ireland is a member of the United kingdom, so all three celtic countries are being shafted with the closure of 664 VGS, an award winning squadron. As for AEF, currently cadets have to be driven to Belfast International (BFS/EGAA) for a squeezyjet flight to Liverpool and then bussed to Woodvale. If weather poor, sit in crew room all day and then bussed to Speke, squeezyjet back across the Irish sea, Picked up at Aldergrove and taken home and maybe back on the flying list in six months. If weather good, 30 minute trip, with maybe a bit of upside down and then no more AEF in your remaining time in the cadets.
Out of interest does anyone know what the peak number of VGS’s was. What’s the largest amount that have been active at the same time?
This just about sums up the view in the real world As VGS are run by volunteer staffs, this will not result in any job losses while it is the reality this statement effectively is so disrespectful and devaluing to VGS staff, when it is followed by The RAF is extremely grateful for the volunteers that support each VGS; without this support Air Cadet gliding would not be possible. which rubs salt into the wounds.
I really hope that all of the affected VGS staff say no if they ask them to move elsewhere or do other things. I realise this wouldn’t do the Corps any good, but it would teach senior officers and so on who treat volunteers with disdain, a real lesson.
The original series around 1944-1948 had numbers 1 through 204, although not all numbers were used most were.
the, admittedly limited, number of VGS staff i know/have met give me the impression that they are so disheartened by the debacle that additional travelling time would fit nicely into the ‘no chance whatsoever’ box, and would be the cut-off line between sticking with it out of a sense of duty and binning the whole thing.
i also think, again, if only from a limited number of conversations, that if the additional travelling time means that in order to be effective they’d have to stay overnight rather than go home on the saturday night, there are lots of VGS staff who would decide that that was a sacrifice too far - they’ve had two years of spending the weekends with family and friends, anyone who thinks that large numbers will decide that a long drive and over-nights is acceptable will, i fear, find their optimism misplaced…
E2A: and to add, that as one who used to take cadets to the VGS at weekends - about a hour away, and home at a reasonable time - i will not be doing a 4 hour round trip with an overnight stay (or without an overnight stay…). no way, no chance, no how.
that is true but if you follow the file path you’ll see it is not misleading
hours/launches allocated verses the hours/launches achieved
ie for 612
allocated 1350 hours
achieved 1783.50 hours
thus 1783.50/1350 = 132%
ie of the hours/launches HQAC allocated the % indicates how many were achieved
oh the file in question is here
https://sharepoint.bader.mod.uk/ACO%20Document%20Library/Activities/Gliding/STATISTICS/20120112-End%20of%20Year%202011%20Stats-u-flyingaa.xls
The minister wants a kick up the ■■■■, or at least his office. It would have taken 2 minutes to make a call to give them the warning that this was going to be tabled in the HoC then a call when it was done allowing for a formal notion to be issued to those staff who are now displaced. Bad form, very bad form.
I quite like the idea that “further information will be available in due course”. If no one could tell us what the hell was going on for 2 years, why would we believe that we’ll get more information now?
If I didn’t have a sense of duty to my cadets and staff, I’d be resigning tomorrow.
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We have had the IBN with a covering letter from the Commandant at our end. I can understand the move to 2 fleets from 3, but why we can’t maintain some of these locations Vigilant locations with Vikings is beyond me, RAF Halton as an example.