Gliding "paused"

What’s the point of hanging onto what we’ve got when what we’ve got is no longer fit for purpose? Surely getting rid of what we’ve got and spending the money more wisely is a better idea? I’m all for keeping AEF, unless you are tied to Wittering where they seem to be unable to go and fly a kite let alone a Cadet it works.

VGS as we know it however is dead, it has ceased to be, it’s gone to meet its maker, bereft of life it rests in peace. What we have done is spend the last few years nailing it to the perch and urinating money up the wall! What we should have done several years ago is take the money and spend it elsewhere to actually get cadets in the air! They can talk about “Super VGS” all they want, but we all know what they mean is “less VGS” which is I suppose a great improvement on what we have at the moment “stuff all VGS”

This is staff across the Corps not just on one squadron.

But if staff are expected to be there they need to be entertained as well and not used to run things.

That would be a bloody big handful.

Personally I think the bigger distance we can put between us and the ailing ship that is the RAF the better. The longer the rope we have between us and them the less likely we are to get dragged under.

The RAF only want us to create and justify pointless, overpaid FTRS jobs and infrastructure in admin and management roles. Look at the bunch we’ve had over the last few years, not one of them post Moulds with any real desire to move useful things along.

They don’t seem to have been too keen to get their finger out with all their technical expertise to get cadets airborne in large swathes of the country. In the last 4½ years I have had cadets who have joined and not got anywhere near an aircraft and it has been pointed out by parents when they leave.
So if parents talk (being a parent myself you do talk to others and give the honest opinion) and say to other parents who say their children are looking to join and the flying opportunities look really good and the other parents laugh and say you’d be better off spending the money as x flying school, would speak volumes about the lack of support from the parent service wrt our USP.

So you don’t want the support of our parent service for flying and your cadets don’t get to go anywhere near an aeroplane.
If that’s the case, who on your squadron is encouraging interest in aviation?
Is your squadron on a remote desert island somewhere?

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If you are based in certain areas of the country you get precisely zero in the way of flying or gliding at all. RAF Wittering haven’t flown a Cadet since the start of the year, the VGS in the area is still grounded and we got zero flying spaces at annual Camp this year. What do you want us to do build aircraft in our back gardens!?

There isn’t much I agree with Teflon about, but the fact that the organisation is completely failing some Cadets when it comes to flying is one of the things he has right. (If you filter out the strange obssession he has with FTRS posts!). If the level of service we are getting at the moment is the best the parent service can provide (none) we would be better off taking the money and going to a commercial provider, that been the case with gliding for several years now and certainly where I am is true of AEF too! (I’d personally like to see 2FTS closed and cadets gliding with local clubs, we don’t need the RAF interference, it could be like AT if you have the relevant licences we just pay you to provide a service, keep AEF but don’t persevere with places like Wittering that can’t deliver, move all of Wittering aircraft to Benson where cadets are getting flown).

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you say this but i heard 6AEF has no OC after the previous one left suddenly
without a OC there is no one coordinating allocations and my source says its a LASER WExO looking after the allocations! (not that it is helping as without an OC the pilots and ground crew are headless chickens)

I think that is very patronising.

If gliding was the only weekend activity on offer, In would agree with you. But it’s not. Most squadrons I know already run a number of weekend camps, courses, or other activities.

The “super” VGS idea is going to mean squadrons either prioritising gliding over an existing activity (which is fine if you can guarantee slots to everyone who would have been on the dropped activity), or they will have to slip a VGS weekend on top of all of the other commitments - and I can promise you that my wife will not take to kindly to me being away for yet another weekend…

That might explain why they ran out of aircraft hours the week before the end of annual camp season, leaving 100’s of cadets without any flying…

All utterly incorrect I am afraid. Allocations are done for 6 months+ ahead and are already done (by the current 6 AEF staff) until end Apr 18.

The unfortunate problem however is the assumption that “money saved” from disbanding the much-maligned 2FTS (and the VGS system as a whole) is that any saving would (or could) be used for a “like for like” (albeit arguably more fit for purpose) programme run by civilian gliding clubs.

I’m sure some MoD bean counter would suggest if the RAF can’t use it properly then they can find another deserving cause within defence.

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Does Flying and gliding still take precedence over other activities? If so your argument doesn’t hold up for much?

So are you saying that some squadrons haven’t been allocated, or have and haven’t been able to attend?
Who are the Wing Flying/gliding officers for these squadrons and what are they doing about this?
Gliding and 2FTS is in the midst of recovery so perhaps we should wait and see what happens and what opportunities arise in the future there?
It’s easy to blame the RAF about everything when sometimes the problem lies closer to home?

There are NO flight to allocate, 5AEF is a dead duck at the moment and has already announced they won’t be flying this year. 2FTS has been recovering longer than Michael Schumacher so excuse me if I don’t hold my breath!

Your asking the wrong person. We’re served by 10 AEF. It’s been offline for 12 months, and will be for the next few years…

We all know about the lack of gliding for the last 3 years, and as for future gliding, good luck with telling my Mrs that a weekend at a VGS takes precedence over our family life… :wink:

The long and the short of it is, if we’re offered, say 5 VGS weekend slots, and taking those slots would mean the cancellation of another activity, the VGS can go whistle.

If anyone from the VGS, or the Wing Av O take umbridge at that, then they can bally well take my cadets themselves.

You may find that the previous OC of 6 passed away very suddenly.

10 AEF have been Flying cadets at Cosford on a limited basis.
On one hand you show displeasure at lack of Flying and gliding and then you suggest if an opportunity were to arise and you had ‘something else’ arranged you wouldn’t attend?? To top it off you suggest somebody else should take your cadets?

Total poppy cock!!!

I don’t know who is feeding you utter tripe

We have been offline since April and will hopefully be back flying cadets in the Summer ( if we have funding for our runway in April)

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Yes we have and we will be there this weekend also.

I shall be at Cosford this weekend to discuss flying opportunities for those who are currently missing out normally served by 10.

But of course M_V_L won’t be interested in that as he’ll be busy doing something else

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Nice one Scrounger.
I wonder if any of those cadets will say ‘I’d rather be adventure training’ to their pilots this weekend…?:joy: