I’ve heard that the blue, bronze, silver etc. level system is soon to be introduced to flying and gliding badges too. Apparently Blue (maybe Bronze?) level won’t require any actual flying…
The 3 badge thing is on our ever inceasing route to combining with the Scouts. I was told it was to indicate progression, but it will look tatty and cost a bloody fortune in badges alone. Someone with more braid than they deserve must have came up with this idea while pondering the world in trap 1.
Revised ACTO35 published, incorporates the gliding requirements & age limit.
Minor changes also to ACTO34, ACPS & AEF Cse Schemes.
If you wish to see the progress of the associated documentation, it can be viewed HERE
Normally, it is a 21 day consultation, so this will expire 26 Feb. There has been one “no” & 2 “yes” inputs. If there are 10 or more negative comments, then it will go to full Planning Committee. Some more “positive” comments might help things along…
Look back on his feed one year before -
Pleased to advise 2FTS flew a successful vigilant ac flight at RAF Syerston today 6 Feb 15 oc2fts
Wow, SO much achieved in one year…
Working at the rate of 1 aircraft every 2 months we’ll be back in the air for the 100th anniversary!!
Mustn’t forget how complex these airframes are…
Daft question. Why is this information oozing through Twitter and not official channels. 2 FTS is an RAF unit, yes?
1 Like
I was intrigued by the story of Aston Martin buying St Athan and converting hangars for car production.
Surely given the requirement for more space on the quick for fixing our gliders these would have been ideal in the interim, rather than faffing around with “B&Qesque” large sheds, these could have come later. Frankly if the MOD couldn’t have suggested St Athan and the company(ies) thought about it, sacking the lot of them would be the most productive thing to do. There must be spare capacity in terms of hangars all over the country. Or are these small businesses with small minds?
They think everyone uses these and as soon as it comes out on headed paper it’s official, while it it’s in twitsphere it can be removed, so it loses its validity.
Having said that I have got parents who ‘follow’ CAC and others and know more than I do, given I don’t.
People are still not getting this, are they? The big operators who usually get the contracts and in this case caused the problem by incompetence (or was it the MOD contract) are not interested or are deemed to be the problem.
Southern Sailplanes is a well respected repairer of CIVILIAN gliders. They will, presumably, want to continue in this market after saving Air Cadet gliding from its own folly. Why would they want to move to South Wales (hardly the centre of the country) which would either involve another move in a few years, or forever see them at the end of the M4 instead of the centre of southern England within easy reach of most of the big gliding clubs who are their present and future customers?
I’m not suggesting a wholesale move, but rent the space in order to facilitate this particular job and open another office for the duration of the contract. They can look to build a new large ‘shed/garage’ in the meantime, if they felt it was worthwhile.
You need to remember that the Services do not “own” camps, they are owned by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation. The large hanger at St Athan was never owned by the MOD is was build for DARA and then reverted to the ownership of the Welsh government.
if we are looking for a large empty hanger or too, what about Lyneham?
… and Lyneham is just up the road from Membury.
Owned or not, a bit of joined up thinking can’t be too much to ask. A conversation like :
OK you’ve got the contract,
ah we haven’t enough buildings;
OK what about a reasonable rent for these;
brilliant lets go.
I couldn’t have seen the Welsh govt getting anti.
I was at St Athan as a cadet and then staff (iirc there was an East and West camp) when it was RAF, long before DARA was even a twinkle in the postman’s eye, I suspect, and there were some pretty big hangars.
It doesn’t work like that. All the expertise and support elements are already at Membury. They can’t just establish a new facility somewhere else and keep the contract cost down.
Will they need to tool-up and man-up to complete the project?
If so, why not tool-up and man-up at a new site?
Hangars?
More like one huge new hangar which takes up almost approximately 1/4 of the original airfield footprint at St Athan. Last time I was in the building it contained several VC10s. Using that for gliders might be a little bit of a misuse of MoD/DIO real estate (not to mention the valid point made above regarding SS’s expertise being 40 miles along the M4!).
For a state of the art car factory it’s probably perfect.
Funny how with such brilliant thinking you have not put in a bid for mending the Vikings yourself.
Southern Sailplanes are at Membury. They want to stay at Membury. The ACO desperately needs their expertise and facilities to sort out the problems they brought upon themselves.
A split operation would just lead to the type of problem that caused all this in the first place.
“Split” maintenance is not necessarily an issue with the right equipment, supervision, numbers/qualifications of engineering personnel & appropriate hangars. Airlines do this world-wide.
Currently, the lack of hangars is a significant issue; additional personnel probably won’t want to start any contract until they have confirmation of location & contract start date. Refer back to lack of hangars…
[quote=“XN150, post:772, topic:1152, full:true”]Funny how with such brilliant thinking you have not put in a bid for mending the Vikings yourself.
A split operation would just lead to the type of problem that caused all this in the first place.[/quote]
Not brilliant thinking just normal business practice. All manner of businesses have operations in different parts of the country and different countries. Having one site unless you are extremely specialised and people are prepared to wait is not good, the only time this works is for local businesses servicing a small area.
As you say the ACO/MOD needed these people to do what was required and therefore the company had all the Aces and could have demanded access to facilities at extremely good rates.
It seems overall no driving compulsion to get things done,
The size of hangar is irrelevant. The bigger it is the more gliders you can fit in.
THe competency in the particular field is key. They won’t want to move, and the company won’t want to hold on to uneccessary space on rental terms. This is sound logic from the business, albeit with a few hurdles such as planning to overcome.