The reality is that RAFAC does not have the resources to provide the required operating and engineering assurance
If only there was some organisation that provided such assurance for civilian aircraft in the UK. Perhaps we could call it the ‘Civil Aviation Authority’? 
This debacle reminds me of the definition of an engineer, which is certainly reflected in this latest missive from the Commandant :
Someone who solves a problem you didn’t know you had in a way you don’t understand.
Think closer to home - our headline flying opportunity of ACPS is done at a civvie flying club.
I thought exactly this yesterday! RAFAC driving tests as the DVLA can’t be audietd/assured by HQAC?
Sorry. What? Obviously I can imagine what this means, but this is not going solo.
And what does this mean for safety standards/quality of training? We can all guess.
Yikes.
No, you forget, thats activity on land so we’ll have to follow army regs. probably need a TOPL for it too.
They’ve been doing that for years, either candidates hasn’t met the mark, can’t be trusted or time/weather constraints mean they have to conduct their solo with pilot just sitting in cockpit 
Wheni was a cadet someone got the GS blue wings for getting to solo standard but for medical reasons couldn’t be alone in the vigi so did a ghosted solo
But who will QA the public footpath. Or the Stiles. Or the cadets walking boots.
It’s okay. We have NGB holders for that.
But wait. Have HQAC approved them? How can we ensure they are meeting our high and exacting standards???
When I was a Cadet you could still get Silver Wing on a Ghosted Solo as long as the pilot had no interaction. (There was a period where it was all ghosted).
I dare someone to request TOPL permission from DfT for driving down the M6.
And I agree for the occasional need for “ghosted” solos, especially with the current farce of procuring a CAA medical.
But if they’re being effectively told they have to go in conditions that would almost certainly require instructor intervention its unfair, one recent example the student had never done a landing on the runway in that direction. (Not including the gusty crosswind)
I’m tempted to mock up a TOPA form - training in public Air, submit it into the system & pretends it’s a real form that hasn’t recently been communicated & it’s a new part of the process with the IBN being updated but we are working off an email authority for the time being.
Before anyone works out what’s happen, the event will have been approved and implemented and then policy will be retrofitted so that there was never a mistake in the first place (because we don’t mistakes here!) & the ‘new’ form was the correct process.
think even closer to home…
how do Jersey Cadets or indeed NI wing get flying opportunities in service aircraft???
Don’t they fly over to the UK to then get bussed to their allocated AEF?
and what about camps, i know NI Cadets and Staff have flown over the Irish sea in place of a ferry to get to camps in the past…
NI wing fly at Aldergrove (13AEF)
Tayside is hardly a ‘flying club’… and is inspected thoroughly including instructors being standardised by CFS ‘trappers’
i thought as much - but I have also heard of them flying into Liverpool, bussed to an airfield only for it to be fogged off and so return the journey with no experience other than knowing what the inside of a EasyJet aircraft looks like.
perhaps it is gliding I am thinking of? either way, NI do not reach the UK using service aircraft
Closer to a flying club than an MOD flying establishment.
13AEF is a relatively recent thing so they used to
No they don’t need to. They are already in the UK. They do use commercial aircraft to get to GB though
Highways England, surely? Whack a PME in to the Interceptors too.
And I’m sure they do it all properly when CFS is doing their inspection… as for the rest of the time 
Nope I am not being pedantic just that there is a different level of risk when flying on airbus 320 and a glider so it is not the same thing and no one says you cannot get a airline flight which is what was being alluded to.
Do you havecany evidence of breaches or recklessness then report it…Guess us you haven’t