Can someone please remind me of the RAFAC guidelines regarding minimum duration between AEF sorties and/or the maximum number of flights per week?
(I know it’s an unlikely scenario, but I do have a reason for asking!)
I think it’s one flight a week.
Yup, one flight per 7 days.
Noise exposure? That’s a shoddy excuse. What about scholarship cadets??
Not the use of the word normally… anyone for a 12 month average
They can be fitted with ear protection that it is not considered reasonable to supply for a 30 minute jolly, apparently. There are interim ear protection that are a stop short of the properly fitted ones issued for longer-term use (I’m told).
Oh, right. What’s wrong with an industry standard instead of all different types of ear defenders? Odd. But then again, not my problem haha
Noise exposure … what tosh. This is the same age group that are almost constantly ear/head phones on and have been since the late 70s and then there is going to gigs etc. I can’t think of many gigs where I haven’t come out of and not shouting at people.
This sounds like an excuse more than a reason, but dress it up like they have done and everyone just goes along with it. Glad it wasn’t in my cadet days.
Deafened more than once at the Mildenhall show stood at the crowd barrier on the fast jet line with aircraft starting 30 yards away and taxying out and a wash of hot jet effux as it taxied past. Ah fun days.
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Makes you wonder when people are getting loved up at RIAT, do cadets get given ear defenders or ear plugs to wear all the time?
The RAF have a duty of care for Cadets and damage to hearing is part of this duty.
Pilots wear helmets that are custom fitted to their head which is a time consuming process (when I had a flight in a Jet Provost many years ago it took around 30-40 minutes to fit the helmet with much adjustment with screwdriver needed).
The helmets that Cadets wear for AEF are designed for ease of use and cannot be fitted with the same degree of precision hence do not provide the level of hearing protection as those worn by the pilots therefore there has to be a restriction on the number of flights in a seven day period.
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Every other light aircraft is flown using headsets with no time restriction. Where has this came from? Are the students on ACPS at Tayside at risk?
I would of thought it would have been down to cadets developing bodies being exposed to gravitational forces more than sound…but I dont write the regs
Even then, the ‘new’ syllabus prohibits aerobatics (until near the end) if the cadets want any form of badge.
but also, the pilots wear custom fitted in-ear plugs (can’t remember the squipper name for these) as stated above.
It annoys me, too, but I do understand the reasoning even if I think it’s over-cautious.
Yes they do and have to carry waterand use sun block before anyone asks
In answer to the OPs Q, the maximum number of flights is 1 in 7 days. Cadets should not be exposed for more that 40 mins engine start to engine stop.
Pilots wear IECD’s (In Ear Communication Device).
Those on pilot and Nav schols have these fitted by the SMO at their local Med centre. Squippers then issue the cadet a flying helmet fitted with the harness which is theirs for the duration of their course.
The ruling has been in for at least 5 years.
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Who makes this up? It sounds like the worst sort of risk assessing.
How would 2hr flights in C130s measure up? Or a 6hr one in a Nimrod as we had cadets on once.
Or the flights cadets have had in Merlins and Pumas?
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