Be careful what you wish for.
Are you assuming that if the AEF’s were to go an alternative would be better and provide more opportunities for cadets?
The restructure of Air Cadet Gliding has reduced the number of VGS from 25 to 10. This will undoubtedly lead to fewer gliding opportunities?
Do you really think that a restructure of Air Cadet flying will be better than it is now and offer more?
I don’t understand where your belief comes from that AEF staff aren’t there for cadets? Not my experience!
AFAIA we piggy back for aircraft and associated support from the UAS and from some of the comments above the UAS seems to be ring fenced and if that is true, AEF will continue to exist as it does now. I would imagine some of HQAC’s funding goes directly to support that.
However this doesn’t get away from the lack of delivery and what has happened to any UAS served by the troubled AEFs, more exactly 3 and 10, given 5 is able to fly unhindered during the week.
AEFs are embedded within their associated UAS. AEF staff are made up from serving QSP’s, retired QSP’s and QNSP’s. The latter two are VRT officers.
It’s not AEF staff, in the past I’ve been when the weather has either meant a delayed start or early finish and the pilots have got nearly all cadets up, but it’s those in the formations controlling / responsible for AEFs.
The restructure of VGS does make you think we should be looking at a purely civilian model with 2 FTS doing due diligence etc, right up their admin centric passage and just keep a skeleton fleet for GS and similarly with AEF, although the FS has been contracted out for years, so there could be a similar model for GS.
Personally I don’t care where we get cadet’s the experience they will have heard about and should be getting and not based on a postcode lottery of which AEF you come under. I’ve met a few old cadets and mates who are stunned at how poor the Corps is now compared to their memories.
As for the experience, our children were taken on flights by a chap I know from the Legion. He let them take control similar to what many cadets experience and they came back buzzing and our son still has a hankering to do his PPL and has paid him to go on flights since. It wasn’t particularly cheap, but money well spent.
I think it’s vitally important where cadets get their experience from. One of the problems with outsourcing would be managing how that experience is delivered. It would have to be robust enough to survive the scrutiny of CFS. Some organisations out there may not want or appreciate that scrutiny for the sake of flying cadets?
At the risk of sounding facetious, it certainly couldn’t be worse for my cadets. I’d imagine that they currently have a greater chance of winning the national lottery and buying their own plane, than they do getting any AEF flying for the forseable future!
Just out of interest, what would your solution to 10, 5, and 3 AEFs’ problems?
I appreciate the circumstances for your squadron could be better and I guess others are in a similar position?
I am aware of the runway at Woodvale, but not of the issues at the other AEF’s you mention?
Unfortunately I cannot give solutions as I have no direct involvement.
I hope the situation improves for you, but for some things there aren’t any quick fixes.
As has already been suggested on this thread, I would advise using your chain of command to raise your concerns. Your Wing Flying/Gliding Officer should probably be your first port of call?
10 AEF serves (I think!) - Merseyside, Cumbria and Lancs, Northern Ireland, and Greater Manchester wings. At a rough guess, that’s about 4000 cadets affected?
It has been raised within our wing, and as far as I know, the Wing Co. will continue to push. But in the meantime, I have to explain to my cadets that there is no flying, and will be no flying for the foreseeable. Whether they hang around waiting for it to be sorted is anyone’s guess!
I’m quite lucky in that respect as the flying at 5 AEF had been started to be scaled down and we had bad luck with weather 3 times before the move, and the cadets I currently have, have no experience of flying at an AEF and some of them have been in for nearly 3 years. As a result flying is outside their normal experience and we won’t mention the ‘g’ word. The only AEF cadets have had in those years is at camp, if they were lucky.
I think in your situation it depends largely on their perception of the importance of AEF to the overall experience for older cadets. If it’s something that gets spoken about in exciting and glowing terms and you aren’t able to access it, it might be problematic, as they may leave and if the younger ones feel disappointed may leave as well.
and some CCFs, presumably roughly the same areas
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we serve
Cumbria & Lancs Wing
Merseyside Wing
2 Welsh Wing
NI Wing
Staffs Wing
totalling about 4000 cadets PLUS we look after some 700 CCF cadets and are the third largest AEF in the country
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Don’t go there!
Agree with Chaz. Would be a bit of a nightmare getting civilian pilots up to a standard where CFS would be content to let them fly cadets.
Why would CFS get involved? All you want is to get cadets into a small aircraft and get that experience as opposed to flying in buses.
The problem we have in this organisation is too many people protecting their empires and watering down the cadet experience.
CFS think they are more competent than the CAA in deciding who is able to fly passengers and through manoeuvring, short-sightedness and paranoia this organisation has handed that remit to them.
Providing a flying experience to civilians though the military infrastructure and under the iron fist of the MAA was never going to result in an effective, efficient and affordable flying infrastructure. The proper military struggles to function in that environment!
Not only paranoia but keeping mates in a job. I doubt that it wouldn’t be seen as the right thing to do if HQAC’s lack lustre seat warmers advocated someone else doing it and mates losing soft well paid jobs as a result. That process might trickle into HQAC. I think we could save enough to fund external cadet flying by removing some of HQAC’s management.
Agreed. Cadets are young people and as such precious cargo. Can’t see the Air Force or ACO relaxing on that one?
If they are that precious then we need to remove the risk and cease flying altogether.
I’d like to see a comparison between flying and the other transport we routinely employ - SOVs, personal cars, trains, hired coaches…
There has to be an acceptance that the current AEF set up isn’t fit for purpose in terms of delivery and that won’t happen while a few are still delivering a ‘normal’ service.
Currently I would suggest that a 25% - 33% of cadets aren’t getting what they should and the other AEFs can’t really fill the gap, as it will impinge on their area of service.
Completely different. Any reputational and publicity risk probably quadruples as soon as a cadet gets into an aeroplane. Just as it would if a cadet was badly injured or killed conducting an AT activity.