Check out 615, 622 and 644 on Facebook. 644 have even raised some hard cash in a charity event. We have picked up a CGI but his VGS will remain unknown, he is very busy at the VGS and our unit. It must depend on where you are in the UK and what your local VGS are willing to offer I guess?.
rather than moan go to the VGS, they must have CFAV’s just waiting to be invited into the wider ACO?
What a wonderful statement “safety first” is. It is completely a unarguable and completely useless; taken literally it means padlock the hangar door and throw away the key. Come to think of it, that is what has happened.
As for moaning, the alternative would seem to be taking an “I expect everything will be all right if I just wait here” attitude. What has happened to air cadet gliding is totally unacceptable and as stated above any civilian company would have gone bust with unemployed and unemployable directors on JSA.
That the problem ever occurred shows a high level of incompetence somewhere, that it was taken so long to come to, as yet, no meaningful decision about fixing the problem shows even more.
I think we amateurs are all entitled to moan about the professionals.
if it is not the fault of 2FTS it must be the fault of CAC…
my point being someone needs to take the blame for this failing and I don’t use that word lightly and I will use our own literature to highlight this.
One of our aims is to [quote]To promote and encourage among young men and women a practical interest in aviation and the Royal Air Force (RAF).[/quote]
With limited flying opportunities (our last two allocations have been cancelled due to poor weather* and others (Wittering) don’t have any) where do the Cadets get the practical interest from?
There is a failing to provide any flying training useful for service life
Providing that adventure is not in the air….being the Air Cadets and all…?
The buck has to stop somewhere
Don’t say it is not the fault of 2FTS without indicating who is to blame….because I refuse to believe no one is responsible for the pause continuing for so long.
Consider every foul up we hear in the news:
Everytime the police mess up is it the bobby on the beat that loses their job, is dragged up in front of the National media to read out the statement, to be splashed over every newspaper front page? No it is the Police Commissioner.
Every time a government department ends up with egg on their face for a catastrophic error is it the pen pushing civil servant queuing up at the Job Centre? No it is the MP called to apologise and step down.
Each time a sports team are on a losing streak, or have too much fun in the resort their staying at, is it the sportsmen and women who pay the price? No! it is the team manager/coach called to resign and/or apologise
when the BBC mess up is it the presenter/reporters bent over the coals? Well in some cases yes (Lord JC for example), but the head of department still loses out, if only to take the blame in front of the waiting press…
My point?
2FTS may not be directly responsible, may not be there donning overalls with spanner in hand trying to work out his wing tip from his air brake but as the face at the top of the shop it is his house that is not in order and if the responsibility and blame is not accepted and acknowledge fail to understand how that is the correctly appointed person for the role….
[/rant]
*ok not anyones fault but is there a plan B to make up for it? or is it a case of bad luck, better luck next time!?
Sounds like you may have some spare cash to throw into the pot, I think the issue of how much this is costing and therefore many questions are being asked outside of the ACO is being overlooked.
Who signed off the unauthorised modifications (before 2FTS were formed).
Who grounded the fleets?
Still no need to moan, it Christmas everybody.
Again, historical issues, very very expensive to fix.
Good idea though, lock the door and throw away the key end of!!! Or try to salvage the best we can get with the little cash available. many cadets will miss the opportunity to glide with the ACO and what a shame that is.
Lets look ahead and hope the future cadets will not be so unlucky.
Too busy to have time for tea making.!!
I imagine more squadrons are fundraising / applying for grants to buy flight sims to give a virtual ‘practical interest’, given there are few real options. My Chairman has suggested this for the coming year as he is concerned by the lack of opportunities his son enjoyed. This is the volunteers making up for lack paid employees doing their job again.
The ACMB will see this as a win, claim the plaudits and sit back, think their work is done and hit us with more ‘thou shalt’ banality.
BigSpoon mentions VGSs and simulators. If simulators are being issued to VGSs then when are they going to offer out simulator experience to sqns; any way I thought we had things called RACs, why are they not being used more, we’ve nothing from Wing or Region about using them to keep up the ‘air’ experience.
They have been issued to some (i.e those with space) and they are offered out to Sqn’s since the summer
I note that Bigspoon hasn’t answered my previous comments…
Looking ahead to the future, who would trust the existing “management” to do a good job based on the issues/history so far??
It is very important to look at the full range of what has happened (but we don’t actually know the full depth as this information hasn’t been promulgated) in order to look to the future.
Our Sqn have all been through one of our local VGS’s simulator, good point the RAC’s and QAIC instructors could maybe assist with some sim time?. I have just learnt that not all the VGS have a simulator yet so that makes more sense now.
I am awaiting my question to be answered, does anybody know who grounded the fleets?
I think we will need to trust the management as they will have aircraft to manage and not an engineering nightmare with not enough funds or resource to fix. I see money and resource is now at hand to get some gliders going at last.
As for all the information do we need to know? it seems people only add more rumours and again start moaning either way.
I have total faith that it will get there, just hope it’s as soon as possible.
I heard that some cadets have been offered BGA gliding in some areas, are there any plans to keep this going?
I have little or no faith in the management we have and many of these have been around for years collecting OTT salaries and for what? They seem completely unaccountable and just carry on playing at being RAF Officers. If they are questioned they treat their rank like Captain America’s shield as described to me by a former Wg Cdr.
There have been numerous studies, working groups etc ‘commissioned’ over the years, in all aspects of the Corps to keep these people in jobs and their failure to deliver would not be tolerated anywhere else. But I’m sure all is rosy on their social media feeds.
It doesn’t matter who grounded the fleets, the fact they did and done nothing since is unforgiveable.
Oh dear, you are clearly very upset.
“They have done nothing” is very far from true, I know it’s not fixed yet but that doesn’t mean some very good people haven’t been doing all they can at some point along the way.
remember, keep smiling and hopefully the Chief of the Air Staff will polish his shield for you. I was only trying to stop everybody moaning.
The fact the DDH was severely concerned by these undocumented modifications to ground the fleet despite there being no safety instances in the previous period of time may well be correct.
I think that the initial grounding or ‘pause’ was the correct move to make in the circumstances, and therefore in this respect 2FTS have prioritised the safety of cadets/staff, and this suggests that once they have some gliding to manage they may well do a good job of it. Especially with all of this time to ensure that the best use of available resource is made once gliding resumes.
The management of the pause has been poor, in the fact that it is still in place, and the lack of communication within a volunteer organisation regarding our USP. I think what we all want to see now is is some clear, honest communication about moving forwards and resolving the issues currently being faced and getting our cadets into the air once again.
AOC 22 Gp, see the Duty Holder Advice Note 20140417- DHA/86 which someone obtained under a FoI request.
Hopefully that will clear a few things for people on here, my VGS friends seem to have a grip on the latest state of affairs?? But indeed nothing through RHQ, WHO to Sqn’s.
So we can only assume that AOC will sign off the recovery then, once the Viking’s arrive in a fit state. Moaning aside hopefully not much longer for all involved and effected,
Not much longer??? You make it sound that it will all be tickity boo in a couple of months. I would love to have friends like yours. My friends at my Local VGS do not share your faith in the CoC.
I think it is indicative of how the CoC treat the volunteers in the ACO that a FOI request was needed in the first place as the information on the pause was not cascaded down from Sleaford Tech.
I do like paragraph 11 of the DHAN, it does seem a bit prophetic