So what is causing the delay in going solo?
I know I did mine a long time ago (1984) but started on the Monday went solo on the Friday after 6 hrs 40 and the next 3 weeks was real fun with lots of GH, 1hr Instrument flying and a solo x country before GHT at the end - 20 hrs dual 10 hrs solo - and no I was not sent straight to the front to fly Sopwith Camels.
I understand things have changed a lot but 12hrs seems a lot to get to solo circuit
i thought that the VGS have a 8 hour target for their solosâŚi recognise that there are difference with the Viking being a glider, but the Vigilant is a closer comparison as a powered aircraft and was still achievedâŚ
Not according to this
190 cadets in 2022, 20 of these yet to go on course, of the 170 that have 120 went solo - thats a 71% solo rate last year!
Well, thereâs the official confirmation. Worded as kindly, thoughtfully and respectfully as youâd imagine from an organisation with no empathy or morals.
An absolute shower of incompetence, failure and accepting poor standards and outcomes.
Oh, and itâs not going to change for the future contracts.
Perfect.
Another nail in the coffin of an organisation supposedly âfostering among young men and women a practical interest in aviationâ.
I really hope they are going to look after those kids who have been dumped. Many of them are going to be heart broken, some will have put years of workinto aiming for this, and who actually believes that theyâll be given a place when they turn 18?
I assume the padres/mental health team have been engaged on this?
Well, if they have it makes no mention of it. It just says âif theyâre still with us when they turn 18 weâll prioritise them for a spaceâ.
Someone needs sacking for this. Itâs a disgrace.
I honestly donât see why they couldnât have at least tried to get escorts from asking CFAVs. Does this mean that all camps are going to be over 18 only in order to minimise safeguarding risks?
I know youâre being facetious, but thereâs absolutely no way in hell theyâve been connected like this.
Those kids have been hung out to dry and 99% will bin off the Corps as a result. They wonât wait till theyâre 18 because, generally speaking, those that aim for these schols are doing well academically and wonât want to take the hit in their A levels.
The ATC is now just the TC.
Lack of imagination? Lack of effort? Incompetence? Not caring enough? With 2FTS it could be any of the above.
What itâs does prove is two things; the maximum age for air cadets will not be dropped in the foreseeable future and there is no plan to introduce CFAVs at the age of 18 
Oh I donât know. Bin off O18 cadets and you save all the money on scholarships
Au contraire. Iâd bet there very much is a plan to reduce the age to 18, followed by âwell, cadet scholarships are only open to those 18 and over, and there are no longer any cadets of that age, so we donât need the scholarshipsâ with congratulations all around for reducing budgets and progressing the slow demise of flying.
So basically is is like this then.
The corps spends lots of money for cadets to go on a course to fly but puts nothing in place to look after them while there are there.
Issue happens.
Investigation.
Result is cadets over 18 are adults and therefore do not need supervision.
Problem solved and it didnât cost us anything.
Itâs a daft situation to put ourselves in to limit one of the greatest time and financial investment (per head on a single activity) to those with the least time remaining, reducing ROI through utilisation of their skills and experiences in the training, development, mentoring, and motivating of other cadets.
I was going to say maybe those who go on the big ticket courses would be more likely to stay on as CFAV but as already mentioned. The cadets who go on these sort of courses are likely quite academically intelligent so off to Uni and/or bigger and better things.
Rotate the RCs through there and they can work remotely.
Or the WeXOâs or the TSAâs
it does make me question what kind of experience some of the applicants have of the ATC.
these are 16 and 17 year olds - do the math, when they were 12/13 it was 2018/19 - they just about got their feet under the table, got through the first class training and began to enjoy the opportunities the RAFAC had on offerâŚthen C19, two years+ of all of that taken away and then a slow return in 2022 in some/many cases with a far reduced list of opportunities and those that did take place compromised as a consequence of C19, simply because of how things needed to change of because there are reduced Staff numbers now than we had in 2019.
late 2022 comes along and there is this big ticket item, lifts their mojo again only for their feet to swiped from under themâŚ
obviously those who stayed have some interest in the organisation, they could have gone/not returned post C19 long ago but for those who were borderline i am sure this is a nail in the coffin of what is a very mediocre Cadet experience largely through no fault of their own
I cannot think of any other example where Cadets go to an event without Staff escortâŚtravelling to events/course maybe (JL for instance) but once at the venue there are CAFVs as DSâŚare there other examples where âexternalâ (ie non CFAVs) instructors are used and if so are there no CFAVs attending?
chances are it costs less as there are fewer O18s and therefore fewer applicantsâŚI am not sure if there is a quota/minimum number of places to fill (or even a maximum) but with fewer eligible applicants it could mean fewer applicants
(on the flip side it could be those who do have a higher chance of success due to a smaller pool of Cadets to compete with)
Add in those from Cranditz as well.
If all the above was done, I suspect the situation would soon change.