Easy. 2FTS say wings should have s PTT that meats X specification, either purchase approved system from RC Simulations or whoever, or request an inspection.
If an inspection is requested, 2FTS should send someone to that wing who can check that the system meets the spec.
i don’t disagree - but it is easier for 2FTS to set the standard and keep it in house
the trouble that the house isn’t convenient for the rest of us is a lower priority
would 2FTS pay for that?
its worded as if its down to the Wings to fund.
it still doesn’t solve the issue.
PTT’s in the wrong place ie not at the point of flying.
for some in our Wing that’s a 30 minute journey in one direction for flying, and 30 minutes flying in another for PTT.
If you have all PTT at the point of flying, you have a low volume of PTT and you eat up time at the flying establishment watching power point and playing on a simulator, reducing throughput.
You’d need to make it work as an efficient production line: Get the briefing aspect done generically before arrival, then feed them through the sim, kit the cadet out, feed them through the flights, then feed them back into the waiting room.
AEFs would also need to be brought up to that system.
Well 2FTS didn’t pay for the current ones, but if they could secure funding for 2 PTT’s per wing, great. But that should not stop wings from expanding their fleet if they desire so you still need some sort of 2FTS accreditation system.
And wing PTT’s should complement AEF/VGS PTT’s, with Blue and maybe Bronze wings delivered on Wing PTT’s.
Ive already had 2 x RAFCT bid requests fall through that i suspect is due to such things like PTT’s and other things that HQAC have plundered them for, i am sure i am not alone in saying i can give much more value getting a grant from them than a piddly simulator at 10x the cost will.
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Well of course that depends who is doing the valuation.
I would struggle to value a cadet sitting on a simulator for an hour or two at any price with the PTT’s we have.
I remember to this day, the feelings and excitement i had from my first winch launch, i will die with that memory.
I later on in my cadet career got to have 10 mins play in a multi million pound harrier sim, lets just say it was a little underwhelming and a few cadets asked if we could go back to the fire section after having a go on it.
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I know ex-cadets who when on a camp still talk about standing under a Vulcan with the handling team as it started up ready to go on exercise Cloudy Chorus at 5am. This was in the early 80s.
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I was, at Christmas, chatting to a lad I went on my first Germany camp with in about 1990 - we managed to scrounge a flight in an AAC Gazelle at RAF Wildenrath and we were giggling like kids when reminiscing about it. We did a rather excellent dive bombing manoeuvre over JHQ Rhiendhalen and scabbed a load of AAC t-shirts (is it any coincidence that we both ended up joining the Army rather than RAF?).
I think we had a go in the Phantom Simulator, but I can’t remember anything about it…
Simulator: null points.
Real Aircraft: twelvety billion points.
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Cadets don’t need to do the computer game to go flying, they just don’t get a badge until they’ve been on the computer game. This for me is a no brainer. If i get my cadets into aeroplanes and not a badge in sight IMO that’s job done.
TBPH I’d sooner send cadets to the AEF and get that experience, after all we are the AIR Cadets not the sit in a chair and pretend to go flying to get a badge Cadets. Well not quite yet, until HQAC et al in an eject teddies tantrum. Which we see periodically when people are getting on with getting cadets doing things and paying little attention to HQAC’s wants where they can.
Might have been me then. Sorry about the noise! 
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Like quite a few things the PTTs seem to have appeared without any planning strategy to how they would really contribute to what we do. They have produced some photo opportunities though. Add in everything else going on around them it now appears even more of a mess. Initially they had no support to speak of, eventually a syllabus appeared, they are scattered around the country and we now have a load of them based on an aircraft we don’t operate. Dare I also mention the immobile ACE platforms?
When describing the Cadet aviation offering, even taking into account the new younger cadets who aren’t allowed on the airfield who were to use them, the PTT was always going to create a bottle neck. Was this ever looked into? Now there is only conventional gliding available you really want everyone out on the airfield making the magic happen with cadets that can get out there. On a gliding day who really wants to be stuck inside in a hot room sitting in a bath tub? Also, they are single points of failure in the system in certain locations.
In terms of teaching for Silver Wings, the PTT does have great potential to nail and program into a cadet some basic principles that would save valuable time in the air, but there are also big limitations with the device. It would now be good, having operated them for a bit of time now, for 2FTS to get some feedback so the syllabus can be refined from Instructors’ experiences. It was suggested last year, and then never happened.
The Fam and Blue courses, often combined, could do with a little adjustment but it kills me to see pictures of 12 cadets sitting around a PTT looking pretty vacant whilst one of them goes through the motions. Also, not so great is the deflating disappointment of not being able to fly the approach and landing bit at the end, which with some small changes could generally be achieved. This needs to be a positive experience.
From the Aerospace Camp a couple of years ago I note that 614 VGS had adjusted some of the Fam and Blue content based on what is taught in the air to counteract these issues. They also conducted the sessions in smaller half day groups with other activities for the cadets to do. One Officer there put a lot of effort into arranging all this along with trying to intercept Squadrons about to or had recently been flying. I understand the feedback on the PTT visits was generally quite positive because of his efforts. Unfortunately, they now cannot offer such sessions as in the past due to their new relocation.
It would be great if the simulators at the Squadron could be utilised more with materials and people trained to teach on them. One important component part of the system is standardisation in terms lessons, teaching process and phraseology. It is really hard to re-program all this if done incorrectly when a student rocks up for their Silver Wings course, putting them at a big disadvantage. I overheard the results of this issue this last summer as a local Flying Instructor was de-briefing to a cadet’s parents following a trial flying lessons. He was good at flying, but the Instructor was very concerned that his head was permanently stuck in the cockpit looking at the instruments after spending hours on his Squadron’s flight simulator. Dangerous, and it now will take now a bit longer to de-program this out of him. Teaching correctly is really important to achieving success, and why the CFS/ CGS/ VGS teams worked extremely hard on their instructing standards. Trust me it is not a Sky God complex, it is to get as many Cadets as possible to that all important life changing solo.
At Squadron level it may takes some effort to do this, but not impossible. You may find that you need to ask (insist and insist again) that your BA Training Captain/ Flying Instructor/ Flight Sim Expert, or whoever who would love to do this has to learnt some standard phraseology, patter, ensure the teaching points are made and follow a correct syllabus. As I said, this can be hard, but not impossible with some help, 2FTS?
However, that all said, what Air Cadets really need is to get their backsides into the air, and not in a PTT, badges awarded, or not. The message everyone should be sending/ pushing is to get gliding and flying meaningfully back into the Air Cadets, leave the PTTs for rainy days and supporting training and not taking over it.
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@Cloud9 you have hit the nail on the head with
without any planning strategy
this just about sums up HQAC in all things, let alone the debacle of 2 FTS.
We took cadets to the PTT in the middle of last year and in their words “it’s exactly the same as we’ve done on the squadron”. The member of staff who went described it as a day he’ll never get back. Now coming back with a message like that to their mates is not a selling point. We’ve not been since as no cadets have put their names up, not even the lure of a badge has any effect. The only thing to force cadets to go is a childish toy chucking episode at HQAC and 2 FTS, with a no PTT session no real flying message.
If, and it’s too late now, HQAC and or 2 FTS had provided squadrons with the same basic sim set up that anyone with a bit of basic instruction could use, so they could do whatever it is they do at the PTT locations. As it is squadrons have from all singing and dancing to basic set ups, depending on budget and expertise among staff. Although there is the spectre of the winger master race’s need to hang onto as much as possible.
Yeh. But if the winged master race didn’t hang onto it, imagine the mess we’d be in then…
Er hem, nothing wrong with the DOUBLE winged master race… 
(I used to wear my single brevet - AE - behind my lapel just in case.)
It’s a flight sim not a real aircraft.
What would be taught would be no more than squadron staff have been instructing on in terms of the effect of control and control surface movement and relative movement of the aircraft, for years before someone looking to create jobs, came up with the notion of using flight sims as a precursor for bog standard air experience flying and who knows gliding at some point in the future.
What is being taught would need some standardisation. We have that at the moment with the PTT syllabus/instructors. What we don’t want is for HQRAFAC to allow sqn staff loose with a poor quality flight sim game authorised to tick off blue/bronze ground school.
The problem is lack of suitable PTTs in the right places.
This is why I suggested that the best route would be a specification set out that anyone who wants to build PTT’s can meet and get certified.
Besides, are you pretending that current PTT’s don’t just run XPlane or Prepar3D. . .
Or just do away with the PTT element of the Blue Badge entirely, keep Blue in keeping with everything else and make the theory bit something that can be delivered at Squadron Level such as the Airmanship elelment of the First Class Log Book with ten practical bit being the first AEF session.
Saves a lot of money, simplifies things the way they are supposed to be and means that every Cadet who does AEF gets Blue Wings. It also frees up the PTT time to focus on Bronze.
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Well sure.