The amount of time to rent the space would be determined by customer’s requirements and how realistic the bid was.
If you need to recruit for people on the quick you pay a premium, which is reflected in the tender price. Think agency staff, one of biggest costs for the NHS as well publicised, but probably cheaper than actually employing people.
It just seems if the space to do the work was/is a problem and there are solutions, that probably wouldn’t have wasted £15M or whatever sum was available.
We use agency staff to cover long term sickness and mat leave, which still screws budgets, even though we put a contingency of 15% onto the staff budgets.
I didn’t say that “these people” (I take it you mean Souther Sailplanes) held all the aces, but they do know what they are doing, which cannot be said for either the ACO or Serco.
The size of a hangar is NOT irrelevant. Workplaces have to be heated and lit and work on composite structures requires careful temperature control. Paint shops also require considerable facilities. These facilities are already at Membury and would not need to be duplicated if the new workplace for general work is part of the Membury site.
I just wish that anyone in the media is at all interested in what is going on with our gliders. Sadly, I suspect if there was no news at all the BBC would revert to the potter’s wheel, rather than cover this topic.
In most specialisms there are agencies for people between jobs and this day and age Linkdin. I imagine there are people with airframes experience out there looking for work, if the T&C are good.
Again the costs to make a secondary site usable are in the contract price, ie you needed to hire/rent somewhere it would be in the cost. Most warehouses are general purpose. Many large shops ie out of town DIY shops, cash and carries. sports, carpet/furniture would revert to general warehouses if they moved out.
How many glider repairers are there in the UK? I can’t imagine that the ACO contract initially and into the future wouldn’t be an attractive opportunity.
There has been nearly two years and do not recall anything in the national media or news programmes. A few articles in niche magazines is all that it has mustered.
Having said that I wouldn’t see anyone batting an eyelid given that it is another instance of incompetence in MOD project management. It would almost like reporting DFS, Oak Furnitureland. Currys/PC World has a sale.
I imagine there would be more excitement if it was harming puppies and kittens, given we have a Royal society for protecting animals and only a national one for children.
Nail, head, hit. Who will want to leave their existing employment for what would probably be a “short term” contract (2 yrs?) for the bulk of the repair requirements - excluding any “work-up” time to become experienced in this type of repair/inspection. Any follow-up work will be as & when, “trickle feed,” so probably within scope of existing capacity.
An awful lot of them are one or two man businesses. The work is very specialised and relies on skills and trades not often found these days. Southern Sailplanes are one of the very few that are large enough to consider this sort of thing and even they would be considered small by normal standards.
A lot of the day to day work and some of the Cs of A are carried out by owners and the gliding clubs under the supervision of the BGA.
Having been somewhat out of the loop of this whole situation (and of the Air Cadets as a whole), and with 772 posts and what seems to be an endless scrolling system instead of pages of posts (can that be changed as a personal preference?), I was hoping someone could neatly summarise the situation wrt gliding in the Air Cadets? Preferably not as one short and rude word! I know that everything has been grounded, but are there any estimated dates for things to get up and running again?
On a side note, great to see that many of the old regulars are still around!
Polite version = no. Seemingly, decision made in the ivory towers 18 Dec 2015. What it was/is = a secret.
The content of the answer (numbers of gliders/locations, etc) will dictate the recovery period. My guess for “full” flying = end of 2017, into 2018. Obviously, if they scrap half the gliders, that date might come forward…
Whilst on Ssic the commandant said that there was a funding issue with the recovery and was in talks with Aoc 22 group. Recently on one of the commandants weekly round up posts she stated that there is an answer to our problems, she just cannot say much at the moment as it has become part of the defence review due to be announced in may, or that is at least my understanding.
So we are going to just have to sit and wait till then for the full answer and hope. But in the scheme of things what another 3 months
So is it an issue of a lack of money? Surely funding could be found to keep Air Cadets flying… What is actually being done at the moment, are the Vigilants and Vikings set to be replaced or are they merely being fixed? I heard that the whole fleet has been grounded for two years, that’s pretty devastating for the ACO’s reputation and for the appeal of the organisation to young people.
Foley, I suggest you go back a little way on this thread; the posts over the last couple of months explain in some detail what is (or isn’t) happening.
In short, replacement probably not an option (short term), repairs = probably. Recent (formal) communication to CFAVs = minimal or non-existent. We are as much in the dark as you; it is not an acceptable state of affairs.
Yes, we are rapidly approaching 2 yrs, no gliding. It is only very, very recently where ACTO35 has been revised to allow cadets to fly in gliders in BGA facilities.
actually it is a “pause” in gliding. the fleet has not been formally grounded - the justification ironically that if the fleet is grounded it takes a hell of a lot more effort (paperwork) to justify their return to flight…
semantics yes but lets at least correct complain and moan the affair
The issue now is the recovery of the glider fleat, all the issues have been sorted, it is just expensive and takes a lot of time to recover a glider, I heard 2 months for 1 glider.
That is my understanding of our current issue, and the funding is being sought from AOC 22 grp. Which by the fact that the comdt said it had become part of the defence review, that we have received the funds,but will have to wait until it becomes public in may with the rest of the review
They have had some money (£15M apparently) which has been royally squandered. As I understand it OC2FTS has had to explain where it went. More flannel.