It would appear that the new First Class subject ‘Flying Operations’ was released on the training hub and withdrawn less than 24hrs later.
The link says it has been removed pending a personal review by the Cmdt and there is no timescale for its re-instatement.
The obvious question is why? Is this the norm for all new subjects?
In short yes. Commandant has probably finally realised that the old materials were so dire that he no longer trusts anyone making training materials. Poor Comms to release it and then recall it but in a way good that the senior bod is taking an interest in what is in the training materials (as long as he doesn’t try and change it to more cyber stuff)
I don’t think that’s completely fair to say that he doesn’t trust anyone to make new training materials. There are a few volunteers who are working really hard to update training material as quickly as possible and they have been since before the pandemic. Lots of new things have been released and a few of the volunteers have met with members of the Commandant’s staff team, who are happy with what’s been released so far. Progress is much slower than it should be because of a supposed ban on recruitment of volunteers at HQ level, even in secondary positions.
I don’t know why the Commandant has decided to personally review these materials, as they were released after an IBN, but I’d guess that it’s more to do with internal communication issues within HQ RAFAC and the permanent staff’s extended period of leave, rather than the quality of the materials.
I’m sure the current crop of people, led by yourself, are more than up to the job. But if I came in to the org and looked at what was pre-existing I would want to oversee the new stuff as well.
Its not a great look though, is it… overseeing/agreeing the release of an IBN that says the training syllabus will be released before 1st Jan 2022. That not happening. Delayed syllabus is eventually released. Syllabus is withdrawn within 24 hours of release. And the only thing you can say on the matter is, “There is currently no timescale for re-instatement!”
Doesn’t really help the staff and cadets who want to crack on with classification training.
Not great news either for the cadets who have a AEF flight under their belt, have done the sim sortie and just need this Flying Operations subject for the award of the new blue wings.
I agree. The way it’s been handled has been typical. But the underlying idea is a good one, or at least not a terrible one
Does anyone have a copy to share?
Just do the old subject and sign it off. If we wait for HQAC they’ll age out without the badge.
Edit to add: Hang on, Flying operations is part of first class - cadets shouldn’t be going on AEF without being first class cadet or having completed this subject first anyway?
Correct. It’s just a replacement for Airmanship in first class. We won’t be asking every cadet to redo that, only those doing first class from now on (or from whenever it’s re-released).
Yes, so carry on doing Airmanship until then.
So…my understanding, having spoken to WAvnO and RAvnO is that any cadet who wants to claim the new blue badge from the 1st Jan 2022, must have completed Flying Operations, done the sim sortie on sqn and had a flight at VGS or AEF.
So the current situation (Flying Ops withdrawn and back to Airmanship for first class) is fine for cadets on a purely classification level. But, should a flying opportunity come up in the future, they will still need to cover the Flying Ops syllabus before attending the VGS or AEF, (assuming it has been re-instated by then!).
It is more of a problem for those cadets who have already done a flight at an AEF but couldn’t be awarded wings because the groundschool and PTT slots were so few and far between, they stood no chance of getting one.
With this latest change to the flying/gliding syllabus, cadets who have previously flown, (no matter how long ago), can be awarded a blue badge as soon as they have completed the Flying Ops lesson and done the 10 sortie on a squadron flight sim.
This has not been communicated anywhere else and is not the case in my Wing / Region.
While it’s very in keeping with making everything about flying more difficult, I find it pretty unlikely.
They will have to if they want to go flying in future.
In summary;
Any cadet who has not flown before.
Flying Operations + sortie on sqn sim + flight at VGS/AEF = Blue ATP badge
Any cadet who has flown before 1st Jan 2022, but doesn’t have wings due to lack of groundschool & PTT.
Proof of previous flight + Flying Operations + sortie on sqn sim = Blue ATP badge
Of course, the chances of actually getting a flying slot are so few and far between as to make it moot anyway.
True for the new guys, but we have cadets who flew 4 years ago who finally have the chance of being awarded the wings for it.
So two question -
what’s the difference? Is it a case of just a couple of powerpoints?
how will they know or verify it’s been done?
Half tempted just to add it on as to a module to each of the relevant topics.
Apparently this needs staff at squadron to be ‘approved’ to deliver the ‘sortie’ - anyone know how this approval can be gained 
Wavo were briefed. And train the trainers eatablished.