You lot have no idea how hard it can be to fill those slots, to arrange CFAV to transport, and/or to get kids to actually believe they will fly after 3 black flag trips…
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2.5 hours drive to the nearest VGS, and even with staff mad enough to drive we don’t get spaces anyway… I’ve been back as staff for a while and have seen cadets go their whole cadet career without the chance to even bid on a glider flight.
We do OK for powered flying at AEF (mainly because we fulfil our tiny allocation but will make ourselves available at very short notice to mop up any spare spots…) - but VGS just non-existent.
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Please some one put that on the crest - its the best line ever
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I wonder how many BGA sites we would drive past if we were to ever get a slot…
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Sorry, just seen this on the Telegraph:
Exclusive: RAF’s daring race against time to vaccinate Ascension Island in world-first mission
Faulty aircraft was an early scare in operation to make remote British overseas territory the first island to be fully inoculated in one hit.
Just felt ironic that our parent service would have a faulty aircraft on what must have been a perfectly planned mission after how we have just been schooled about how inferior civvie street is.
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I’ve been honest with my feedback… I paid particular attention to expecting 2 staff members to take cadets to the VGS. Ones hard enough to find but 2 to cover duty hours plus driving when you have Staff Cadets FSCs on site that could be used.
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Have to say that the week long paragliding course I did as a cadet was vastly better than any “actual flying” I did over seven years. (7x Tutor sorties, 3x Vigilant sorties).
I drive past one on the way to the squadron from my house. Yet not a single one of my cadets has ever flown in a glider as part of the ATC, quite a few did in the scouts. Rather embarrassing really
We are talking about VGS.
We arent talking about paying for a cadets ppl.
But taking cadets gliding.
The VGSs dont operate with ATC, or positive radar cover etc etc etc. So suggest you back off.
Also. As a matter of cast iron fact, the CAA does inspect ALL operators and providers of flight training.
This also occurs through periodic checks and associated assurances of currency, certification etc.
But I forget… 'ALL HAIL THE TUTOR UBERSKYGODS"
give it a rest.
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As someone involved heavily with one of these said scholarships I can tell you if we suddenly started receiving tens of thousands of air cadet applications we would simply as trustees have no option but to filter them all out.
- The MOD provides flying for their cadets so they have opportunity already.
- The trustees have to ensure opportunity is spread around fairly.
I suspect this advertising widely of the civi scholarships will backfire massively.
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On the topic of Tutor flying, I know of a period where some did more or at least an equal amount with the Navy as they did with the RAF/RAFAC.
I’ve gone back further, this time to 2018:
13 cadets flown something between 2018-now
12 x tutor sorties. 7 Viking (although those 7 were probably made up of a couple of short flights each, so 14 minutes on type is probably 2 launches).
I wouldn’t be surprised if I had around 70 cadets or more in that time, so tell me, how can the quantity get any lower?
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Also I want to pick you up on this in regards to your reply to me.
If you deploy AEF Resources to other remote areas (my understanding - send the Tutor to other non AEF Bases for periods of time) - surely you’re more than likely loosing the ATC & Traffic Service you so highly regarded in your reply - or am I mistaken with what you mean by deploy?
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And, importantly, what happens for those cadets left in the area the AEF has just deployed from? Now they’re missing out.
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The problem with cadets is they are a temporary fixture and only really in the here and now, which doesn’t work well for the Air Cadets at the top levels which operates in a comparatively geological time scale. Just think about staff surveys and how long it takes for the results to materialise and then for any sort of action in relation to these things. HQAC is not dynamic enough and nor does it control all it surveys.
Imagine doing a cadet only survey on activities and say flying and or gliding was high on the list. How long do you think it would take HQAC to act and to get something in place? We’d be 3 or 4 CAC’s down the line with those who completed the survey would be married with kids old enough to join the Air Cadets.
I recall a review / questionnaire circulated by HQAC in the late 90s which we debated at the OC’s conference. We were all quite up as it was the first time anyone could remember the hoi polio were asked about these things with a sense of potentially influencing the future. Sadly every single survey since has had more or less the same questions; recruiting and retaining staff and cadets, flying, gliding, camps (we were beginning to feel the first real effects of RAF closures at that time), shooting, AT etc. The fact that these still crop up I think this is a damning reflection on the ineffectiveness of HQAC and the way we as an organisation is treated. There might lots of fine words from all quarters but they’re all a bit empty.
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Report only shows active cadets
Went back to 2016 but report shows:
2018: 2 Viking and 3 Tutor (so prob 3 Viking and 8 Tutor based on numbers in usual allocation)
2019: 5 Tutor and 1 Chinook (8 Tutor no gliding as each slot wx cx - CH on camp)
We get 8 Tutor slots a year normally for a Sqn of 40-50 and sometimes have trouble filling as we keep getting weekday slots now so tends to be the 6th formers who take them rather than the younger cadets
Ah I didn’t know that. That is annoying. I wonder why that is?
We lost several years worth of AEF flights when 10AEF stopped flying cadets due to a degraded runway. When it suggested that 10AEF deploy for short periods to make up.the shortfall, it was apparently much too difficult to deploy to Blackpool airport (a few miles away), due to ATC, Hangerage, crash cover, squippers contracts…
I’ll believe it when I see it.
Frankly, this isn’t enough.
We have (well… had) ~40,000 cadets. 40,000 cadet sorties per year should be an absolute minimum.
Allowing for distribution and scholarships etc we should really be aiming for something closer to 80,000 - 100,000 sorties.
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That’s great for AEF.
VGS should be three times that.
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