it (replacing the engines) was mentioned way back in 2012 at the Gliding review (2 years prior to the pause) and from there i do recall hearing that the Rotax engine was the favoured solution
i can’t recall why though but it was deemed “not compatible” with RAF maintenance systems somehow and although arguably
the best aviation engine available, and the first choice in a lot of new light single engine aircraft was rejected by the RAF because it required a change in system/policy of some sort.
quite possibly - but was it just one person who made that decision or more the organisation and culture of 2FTS who were involved?
either way it is a black mark in their history which puts a bad taste in everyone’s mouth
Remember they deemed it uneconomical not necessarily a bad idea. Think of a car in an accident how many are not repaired through the insurance due to being uneconomical to repair and then returned to the road by owners/traders, certainly a lot more of them with class n on the likes of Autotrader than there used to be even just a few years ago.
A short time searching the interweb suggests the recommended rotax replacement is circa 70% of the current value without fitting or required improvements to the airframes to gain certification in the UK. Maybe that’s why Aerobility are only able to keep a few of the aircraft yes it will add value but for an organisation that would effectively have used them to the end of their life, however short that would be, how difficult would it be to justify spending £3-4 million swapping the engines on 35+ year old airframes, not accounting for the other required works by Grob and Southern Sailplanes.
The available press releases suggests Aerobility will keep 8 of the 63 they acquired so the sales of 55 aircraft plus the dft grant to make those 8 usable aircraft I would have to agree is not great value.
I think there would have been more uproar if they had sold off all but 8 aircraft and kept a single motor glider vgs 🤷
I wonder if the desire to repair was ever there and as time went on viability in the minds of those charged with it decreased? If the desire had been there, you would have thought a plan within a few weeks and then make it happen.
It would seem that someone given an opportunity was only too pleased to seek the funding and support to get some of the gliders airborne. Just a pity it wasn’t 7 years ago and anyone from/connected to us, with the same desire and passion. It shows exactly what small charities do.
I can’t imagine there will be any corners cut wrt safety.
While this issue is now history it is still painful. We are unlikely to ever know the totality of the discussions and decision making that went on but I suspect the central issue was funding.
If the whole fleet was to be refurbished the costs exceed the funding the RAF were prepared to put in.
If the fleet was scrapped by the RAF then considerable costs would be incurred in letting a contract for the disassembly of the aircraft, disposal of the spares holding and specialist destruction of the GRP airframes.
By transferring the asset to a charity with laudable aims the costs to the RAF were minimised , a good news story generated and a boil lanced.
Whichever way you look at it we had a group completely lacking the imagination, initiative etc to make it happen, including in this looking for ways to fund it. All they had was heavily blinkered tunnel vision.
What is done is done, but you hope that in seeing how this charity has gone about things, we have someone in the ‘collective’ who will see there are lessons to learn from them and not just get stuck on the institutionalised one way track.
I do think it is a concern if people of senior rank in the RAF are unable to show imagination and or initiative.
I think what gets to everybody that cares about the cadet flying experience is feeling is that the whole way this was handled by 2FTS was shabby in the extreme and as ever in public life no one is held accountable.
i wouldn’t say it is as “simple” as saying “shabby” - there was a lazy approach to the project taking the easy way out (getting rid of the fleet) with no provision for the consequences it would have. I will however accept that the comms throughout was indeed shabby either fed a line “gliding is coming” (when actually it wasn’t), mock “good news” stories that X persons have been requalified and this now allowed for Y activity to restart…which is still 3 steps away from getting Cadets in the air or simply silence
622’s Facebook has some positive news though - the team at Upavon have completed 421 cadet qualifications since they’ve been back flying earlier this year!
It doesn’t get away from the fact that there are no VGS in Wales and Welsh cadets will now never have the opportunity to be come staff cades unless they want to travel 130 miles round trip and that is from the closest Sqn
Our closest is 90 minutes each way.
We are normally given spaces to one 1:55 away.
If they want to glide FOR FREE they will make the journey, if not, they wont.
I struggle to fill slots for flying and gliding these days… cadets just dont want to sit in a car for 3 to 4 hours in a day for a 5 minute glide. Or worse get there and its cancelled.
That and the older ones who may have been, cant as our 3 closest VGSs all have a blue badge only policy.
Actual flying and gliding in large swathes of the UK is all but dead.
It’s not just cadets who don’t fancy it.
Given the number of last minute cancellations and on one occasion on arrival we experienced before it all went tits up, getting staff to commit to it is getting harder and harder. One of our staff rearranged a Saturday night shift which involved him swapping two shifts, the flying was cancelled on the Friday, by which time it was too late to swap back, he said he won’t do it again. I don’t fancy 5-6 hours driving in a day, so it’s got to the point where I am a reluctant volunteer for AEF/VGS trips, when I used to love going.
Someone needs to understand the consequences of their actions (whether it can be helped or not) on the willingness/morale of volunteers. I appreciate that the staff at the A/VGS volunteer as well, but they will invariably be able to do something while they are there. Whereas we now have to drive longer distances not knowing if when we get there it will happen.
In all the years prior to the problems, cancellations were like hen’s teeth. Except for problems with winches or the weather was not suitable at the VGS, and I only recall one AEF cancelled as rain was set in for the day, which the person taking the cadets found out when he called at the sort of half-way point. I can recall several times when they moved heaven and earth to get cadets up.
But from around 2013 the cancellations started and “Dear John” emails saying it was cancelled became the norm late Thurs to Saturday for the Sunday. I don’t know quite what but something needs to happen to restore faith in something that seems to have become irrevocably broken.
Just had a “Gliding Update” from our wing aviation officer echoing all the “good news” stories coming out of the VGS’s about how cadet gliding is “back to normal”.
He finishes by saying that, “going forward, each squadron can expect 1-2 gliding slots every 2 years”.
