Oh no, a backbencher is going to write a letter and ask a question, bet the minister is shaking in his boots now!
Fact of the matter is if your MP is in Government they will be told to shut up by the Whips and if they are in opposition they will be ignored/palmed off with the same reply the petition received.
Oh no, Oh no. Please please don’t rock the boat. Someone might get wet.
We need questions to be asked in Parliament.
So what if some people up the chain get egg on their faces, their lack of action has to be accounted for and them be brought to account. Just because they are officers in the armed forces doesn’t mean they can’t be called to account for their actions or in this case lack of it.
What I find intriguing is that on here at least people seem to be accepting of a plan with no time line. Go up to your manager today and say I want to start a project but I don’t no how long it will last or cost or even if it will come to fruition. Which is the political line we have been spun. We have been promised jam tomorrow when those promising it don’t know if or when there will be a delivery or even a harvest to provide the fruit to make the jam.
By now we should have been given a definite time line for this. But, should we even be in this position of waiting for a plan?
My manager with a line like this would be thinking that I’m trying it on a day early.
As I said public finances are in a parlous state, which seems to have spawned at least one more VGS (614) site being sold off and who knows where it will end. We may even find that the promised extra AEFs and or Tutors get reduced and or the gliders earmarked for repair get reduced or the idea binned altogether, if the money isn’t there.
When you think of the probable struggles our leaders’ forebears went through to give us the flying set up we have today, our current batch aren’t even worthy to be mentioned in the same breath.
Why do people think that there is a need to question decisions in parliament any time they happen to be unhappy with them?
As far as I see the organisation is under no obligation to the citizens to offer any particular opportunities or to provide any set level or type of aviation experience. they really don’t need to answer to us in how they decide to organise things or what they intend to provide.
You might as well tear up the original Charter & close down the AIR Cadet Orgsnisation then.
That seems a little extreme, given that we are doing a sterling job of providing an aviation-themed experience alongside numerous other activities. While it may not stand up to every individual’s idea of how it should achieve the aims laid out in the Royal Warrant, it meets and exceeds those in the eyes of others.
There seem to be a perception of entitlement coming from certain areas of the organisation, particularly from within the ranks of the Silver Winged Master Race on Vigilants who have been rudely surprised to find out that the Organisation doesn’t revolve around them.
As it stands we have had zero gliding for two years which has had absolutely zero impact on my recruitment and retention of cadets. If we get some gliding back in an unspecified time then good as it will give my cadets a greater experience of actual flying. Until then I will continue to throw DofE and AT opportunities at my cadets to ensure that they get the best cadet experience I can provide.
I am far more concerned with the impact the negative press surrounding gliding will have on the recruitment of new cadets than i am around the actual lack of gliding. (Since not gliding has been proven over the past few years to have zero impact on my Squadron recruitment as already stated).
OK I’ll take the bait…
I’m not sure “entitlement” is the right word; I would express it as more disposing of the very experienced VGS cadre who have given extensive support to cadet flying over the years - I can’t think of another activity within the ACO that requires more or less continuous weekend attendance.
For one sqn, good for you, but looking at the big picture - over the entire ACO, it has been accepted that retention (& recruitment) is down. As we all know, the different options that can be offered by sqns depends on location, staff qualifications & availability, etc, etc. Yes, we have to make the most of different activities, but flying is a CORE activity & must remain so.
As Teflon indicated, accountability is paramount; also, if the “business 'plan” failed here, what else needs to be looked at…?
You last paragraph would be better written:
“I am far more concerned with the lack of communication, seeming lack of contingency planning, poor use of resources & inability to coordinate with the BGA.”:
Very interesting Press Release from the The Honourable Company of Air Pilots. One extract:
We call for a new approach, and offer to co-ordinate a new form of funding initiative between Central Government, the RAF and the UK aviation industry that could procure an additional, modern training fleet for the UK Air Cadet flight-training organization to make its benefits widely available across the country.
From a quote elsewhere:
It’s so frustrating that the best single gliding organisation in the world has been totally decimated and is no where near out of the woods yet. All that time from everyone, effort, perseverance. Gone.
What a waste.
But the most important aspect is the door it opened for me to get my foot into a Commercial aviation career. Willing to bet most reading this know of any number of cadets who have gone from nowhere through a VGS into Mil or Civ careers that would otherwise be unavailable.
Yep, I did that route - ACO Gliding Scholarship, ACO Flying Scholarship (the 30 hrs deal), RAF pilot, now commercial pilot. That’s one reason why I feel so passionate about cadet flying & that the detailed background for this “gliding pause” has to be brought to light, & if heads have to roll, so be it.
EDIT - money matters…
Contracts - £2.5m for 25 winches (I assume for subsequent maintenance, awarded in the middle of the “pause” - great planning. Via Hansard:
Glider Maintenance at RAF Syerston
£9,400,034
3 February 2008 - 31 March 2015
That’s a bucket load of money for “simple” aircraft over 7 yrs - & it obviously didn’t work properly…
It’s a side effect of having smoke blown up their bums for so long. Starts to cloud their vision.
I love the VGSs don’t get me wrong, but I do wonder why there are so many complaints, incidents, accidents (no airborne ones) solely related to VGS staff.
Try being Squadron Commander!
No-individual or individual group is bigger than the Organisation as a whole and if you read the Social Media posts from the VGS staff there is a very large amount of chip on the shoulder “only we get cadets flying solo therefore we are more important than anyone else and I can’t believe they don’t need us anymore the ACO is finished”.
Last time I checked AEF was still running, Flying has never stopped and to paint the loss of the Vigilants as the end of Flying in the ACO is dishonest.
I will repeat once again the simple fact, there is NO MONEY to get the Vigilants back operational again. All that these petitions and the whinging to MPs will achieve is more people being fobbed off with the same explanation that was given in the Telegraph Article further up the page, with the added side effect of some negative press for the Organisation which WILL directly affect recruitment of new cadets.
There seems to be a misconception that “heads will roll” nothing of the sort is going to happen, just as there will be no big public enquiry and only the deluded would think otherwise.
That sound interesting but something that would worry me would be the potential of cadet “selection”
The RAF do it as an open to all policy but would the aviation industry do it to the same effect or would they be looking for “results” for example take 10’cadets who have passed a certain grading and give them a FS at the end of it. Great for the intellectual cadets but what about the younger and the ones that struggle with exams would they have the same opportunity for AEF/ GIC if the private sector was involved??
I know it’s all talk but something that would need to be thought about before agreeing to Anything…
A return in some ways to the system that we had when I got a FS, involving a trip to OASC at RAF Biggin Hill to prove my worth and a report to the RAF after a final flying test at the end of the scholarship.
Poor delegation skills! 
AEF flying is exactly that - air experience rather than the opportunity to be trained to fly & go solo. For those under the 5AEF umbrella, it has been a rather sparse yr = no flying due the ATC cover debacle at Wittering.
When you have parents ask “what about the idiots who have caused this mess?” (referring to the gliding “pause”), I don’t think we have to worry about adverse publicity if some cleaning up is required. if anything, it would be received in a much more positive way than the apparent hiding of information that has been seemingly prevalent over the last 2 yrs.
Don’t forget that the Membury planning application is still in limbo = the timescale to get repairs underway is moving continuously to the right…
They are still repairing Vikings without the new buildings
Linking the planning application to the job advertisements, it would seem that the bulk of the repairs were/are to be scheduled in the new buildings. A “drip feed” repair schedule elsewhere will make little difference to the overall programme.
Of course, until the building construction status is known, who in their right mind would leave their current employment & apply for a job that has no fixed location or start date yet?
All three of their bays at SS being occupied with Vikings and then three new bays is more than a drip feed. More of a momentary loss of the civilian fixing capacity until the new build is built
Whilst any repairs are a bonus, it is still a limited capability.
We should have been providing financial input, VGS instructors & cadets to BGA facilities well over a year ago. At least that would have maintained some gliding capacity & more importantly considering the grounding timescale, instructor currency wouldn’t be so much of an issue as it will be.
But that would be far to easy for them MikeJenvey! Surely you should know that the MoD never take the easy route?
I wonder perhaps if instead of a petition to “tell the government that we’re not happy” and expecting them to magic more money out of thin air, someone could set up a funding page. If all those people griping and making demands instead chipped in £100 each we might actually get another airframe fixed.
wonder how far this is gone, not going to lie, I do agree with most people here. The publicity has dropped and has made no significance to developing cadets and to be fair, many cadets I have spoken to are quite happy with the change.