Only met him once. Don’t feel the need to again.
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More catchy than:
“it is not life as we know or understand it”
…
Star trekking across the universe
On the starship enterprise under Captain Ki- sorry. I’ll go know.
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Just living up to the Space Cadets name.
If only. We can’t even afford gliders apparently, let alone rockets.
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Yes me too and i really went into the meeting with an open mind even though everyone else told me what a gonk he was.
Yes the corps is full of them!
What like space as in emptiness, like the gaps in what we offer now?
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Letter sent with an additional bit about there being no VGS in Wales.
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…& acknowledged:
We acknowledge receipt of your email which has been logged as FOI2020/XXXXX with a target deadline for response of 6 April 2020.
Regards,
DE&S Secretariat
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And she sent a very nice reply:
Dear Mr Jenvey
Thank you for you very interesting e-mail. I was unaware of the issue with Aerobility, nor with reluctance to authorise cadets to fly in non-service aircraft. As chairman of the cadet inspection team, the lack of gliding and flying is an issue which I raise regularly, particularly when I discovered that air cadets were so woefully lacking in ‘air’ experience. I gather the situation is being resolved, but probably not as speedily as we might wish.
If you have any specific questions you would like me to table, please do let me know. I am always happy to ask ministers questions for written answer.
Best wishes
Sue Garden
I’ve sent a reply thanking her very much (including some extra detail), & mentioned that as my FoI response is due 06 Apr, it might be prudent to “keep my powder” dry until then - any gaps could be probed by suitable questions being tabled. 
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Looks like the good Baroness has leaped into action - she has tabled a series of 6 questions based on my FoI inputs - & will add a second round! 
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There’s a sainthood in it for you if you get this sorted, Mike!
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So kind. 
Probably not from the powers that be!
This about-face (Vigilants = “productive”) shows just how how disjointed things have become. Unfortunately, the consequences from the “sub-optimal” decision making processes at the outset of the “pause” will be felt for a long time.
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It’s the audacity and bare-faced cheek that they do something like this, make it public and expect people to just roll over and take it. When it would seem we’ve been given false hope and not told what was going on given that something like this wasn’t decided over a pint the weekend before.
If we all sent letters to our MPs, I’m sure the thick end of 600 odd MPs all asking the same question on behalf of their constituents, would be unwelcome in the ivory towers.
A suggested draft was listed above. Don’t send verbatim, as if MPs forward these to a Minister & numerous similar versions arrive, it could be seen as a “mass mail” & have less impact - chop & change it a bit, quote local issues, dearth of gliding for your sqn, extensive travel times to “new” VGS, etc.
Seemples. Should take 5-10 mins. Crack on team!
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Interesting the Aircraft FOR Sale (Afors) site has a Grob 109 listed
£54k for a refurbished not low hours aircraft
https://afors.com/aircraftView/48743
interesting because
I always was under the impression the 109B was purely a variant for the RAF/RAFAC and was the different from the 109A to cover the modifications to meet the requirements of its type
(looking at the photos however of the cockpit i cannot see the upper left throttle for the LHS…)
Interesting also because it would tick alot of the VGS boxes and indicates a market value for such a machine.
63 vigilants @ £54k each, thus fleet worth = £3.4million
(i appreciate that comes with disclaimers on what it costs to reach equal condition but shows the going rate for an airworthy 109)
My original ballpark “guesstimate” was at £50K per airframe… not going to argue about a few ££!
Even if you wrote down the value to say £40K to allow all refurbs, C of A, whatever, not to be sniffed at - & would have allowed RAFAC to buy gliders (even relatively new, second hand models) & work out a plan to integrate using them (at BGA locations if necessary).
Great idea. Clog the various systems at a time of national emergency then complain at the lack of slow speed of response. Still, well done you.
Calm down. We still had bog roll 2 weeks ago (and the pasta to convert to substances requiring the aforementioned wound paper product) when this was happening.
Thanks for your “support.”
06 Mar for the FoI request - this nasty Covid19 issue was not rampant at the time. I haven’t had to complain (& as long as protocol is followed, nor am I likely to) about response time (answers) & of course, they can always advise that the timescale has to be extended.
If anything, I should get a quicker answer as the relevant RAFAC departments will have little to do for a few months…
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