AT, expeditions and issuing greens!
Stuff the greens, buy the staff all Gilets!
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Beard, gilets and kayaks. That flying crap is done with.
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Join the Scouts 
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It’s not from the RAFAC budget though, so would just disappear into the MOD black hole.
Don’t care where the saving goes really if every cadet gets to fly!
Keep the Kayaks, buy every Cadet a SUP!
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Ok that’s enough of that please.
But that’s it they wont get to fly. Say to the RAF we dont need any money for a glider maintenance contract and they’ll say ta very much we’ll run this typhoon for a couple more hours. Wouldn’t end up buying BGA spare capacity (if that much existed).
Yep indeed
It’s been fun discussing. Final thoughts, what I think will actually happen:
The message gets through that unless it’s like a drive thru McDonald’s and they can fly instantly and leave, cadets aren’t that committed to flying.
CFAV aren’t that committed to taking cadets flying. Half would rather be comparing MTP patches and the other half are all in staff officer Teams meetings giving PowerPoint presentations to each other about the latest Wing and Regional management posts being created.
The airfield infrastructure and dispersed maintenance for VGS is unaffordable.
3 regional gliding centres are formed at Syerston, Little Rissington and Kenley. Army pull the plug on Upavon and Topcliffe is unaffordable to take on. Everywhere else is long gone. Gliding scholarships and flying camps will be the focus.
AEFs continue as is. Currently delivering 14000-16000 sorties per year pre COVID (open fact if you look up on what do they know) which easily has capacity for 20000-25000. Capacity to fly 50% of the organisation per year is deemed sufficient.
2FTS is broadened to deliver wider range of Youth aerospace opportunities with increased focus on drones and space. A number of CFAV are moved under 2FTS command and control.
Best wishes to those of you in the organisation. I’m off to revise for a sim, might actually do the day job sometime soon.
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The most valid thing you’ve said! This is too true 
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This is the bit I don’t believe. At least, only until the Tutor OSD.
I’m not convinced the RAF will replace them. The UAS’ don’t need them for EFT, so they could save a gob of money doing more synthetic flying training, and once a year flying camps. Co-located AEFs will be told that they’re not affordable on their own. The RAF bins off the fleet as it doesn’t require a primary trainer any more.
As a result of that plus 2FTS becoming more ‘efficient’… Air cadets will fly maybe once in their careers (average air cadet stay is 18 months, tbf).
Why?
To waste more money and opportunity?
That it not at all what is being said and you know it. We all want more flying. The problem is that provision seems to be limited to only a few units with other units getting next to nothing offered. Then for those that get slots, with what appears to be an increase in last minute cancellations it becomes harder for everyone to get motivated to take all the extra steps in order to attend (for cadets getting permission to leave school - in fact some schools probably stop giving permission after cancellations- and for staff using annual leave which is already heavily hit by the organisation insisting on pointless meetings and events instead of flying provision).
I think we all want to fly but after years of catastrophic mismanagement under John Middleton (I still think you are JM btw) and Dawn “look at my selfie” McCafferty which has resulted in most cadets never flying is it any suprise that most of us here are somewhat skeptical of flying being offered by RAFAC and are looking elsewhere?
I’ve been fortunate that my previous contingent (prior to closure and reopening as a single school rather than partnership) was offered a number of flying slots. Bar one (which I tried to offer back but the SSI caused problems meaning it got wasted for which I am still feeling guilty that other cadets couldn’t fill the slot) we filled each slot given to us at the AEF although ultimately only 25% of those places actually flew. I also took 10 cadets in total to the “local” VGS for the PTT which the cadets enjoyed but felt we could do that just as easily on the simulator at school without having the long minibus journey for a few cadets at a time.
None of this is intended as a slight to the volunteers at AEFs and VGS. I know they are just as frustrated as we are. But the sad fact is that the new administration has a massive mountain to climb to restore not only flying but more importantly trust.
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Far from it. Whilst it is the USP, it’s still just another activity. As such it has an effort:reward ratio like any other - and the fact is the amount of effort to get cadets flying currently outweighs the likely reward when you look at the activity holistically.
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This is the key bit. I can offer a lot more activity to a lot more cadets in the time given if I take them out map reading or climbing then in the same amount of time that it takes to take a smaller number of cadets to aef.
This may be true from a training perspective but what is the cadet going to remember/motivate them into a career etc:
The time they went map reading round the local village, or the time they had their first taste of flight and got to take the controls of an aircraft?
The reward to the cadet when AEF/VGS works is massive.
When you bump into ex cadets from many many years ago they normally tell you what squadron they were from and what they flew in…
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That’s why I said when you look at the activity holistically. On an individual basis the reward I agree is large (if and when it works); but the fact is a lot more cadets go into that system and don’t get that reward. So overall the ratio is on the wrong side when we want to provide the most benefit to all.
This is said from.your perspective of someone who enjoys flying. Flying didn’t motivate me into a career as a cadet; I found it boring and still do. It was the overall experience of being a cadet and gaining a mix of skills and experience I wouldn’t have got anywhere else. I’ve never talked about what I flew and when in an interview. But then I’m sure some have as they got more out of it.
I appreciate that - but this is why we need to make flying work in a way that is efficient in terms of getting those that want to fly in the air.
Flying by its nature will always be hard work, and take effort to arrange, however we do it.
But I’m sure you’d feel much better about it if it were a little easier to achieve and wasn’t costing eye watering sums of money.
Flying will always be a more expensive activity though.
And like if we said we were going to drop all AT staff would leave in their droves, it might not be as many, but stop all chance of flying and change the syllabus away from aviation and the same thing will happen just with air minded staff.
There’s a balance here - that we’re currently not achieving and it’s toxic;
It’s breeding resentment between CFAV’s
It’s breeding resentment over budgets
It’s misleading cadets
It’s frustrating staff and turning them off of the activity of flying
It’s frustrating cadets and turning them off of the activity of flying
All from what should be a fantastically positive experience for everybody.
Quite honestly the state we have got in really and very genuinely makes me very sad.
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