Which youth organisation?
UsâŚwe are not a military organisation!
2 Likes
We have descended into being a cake and organisation.
Itâs RAF Air Cadets flying in whatever aircraft you like. It has to be authorised by the respective DDH. Whatever angle you go at it from itâs the sameâŚ!
If you donât like the rules, donât play the game.
The Cadet Forces.
It says alot that I can send Army cadets to glide in the local gliding school (the Army defines it as AT in AC71849) and the Contingent Commander is the DDH. But if they were RAF section cadets the RAF would have an aneurism first. It is barmy!
Or challenge the rules. They were more than adequate until 2FTS got involved.
In June this year somebody got a twitchy sphincter and essentially paused another activity. In August 22Gp suddenly got overwhelmed by the same issue. But only for the âAirâ based cadet force.
The sea cadets and army cadets continue to fly and glide unchallenged. And safely.
1 Like
I donât think anybody is stopping you from challenging.
Itâs great that sea cadets and army cadets are achieving that.
I think the problem here is that the rules keep changing with no justification, and simply saying âdonât playâ allows those overbearing draconian rulemakers to win.
5 months ago it was acceptable. Today it isnât. If we canât even have a consistent well thought out and reasonable framework of rules to abide by, how on earth can we run an organisation?
We donât have the numbers to tell people to sod off if they donât like it. Instead what should be happening is that those who control such things should be listening to feedback from the people actually delivering âthe cadet experienceâ And trying their hardest to enable them. Not, which is what it feels like at the moment, their hardest to disable them.
I reckon part of the reason this debate is on here and so many pages long is that the majority of people on here care about their cadets, and about their organisation. We donât set out to moan or complain but when things are so very bleak for us what choice do we have?
Some of us thought outside the box and got some flying. Then it got canned and 2FTS didnât even have the decency to tell me until the day before I was due to take cadets again, despite me submitting the paperwork well in time. That is contemptible and shows how little respect there is for volunteers in the organisation - and not just wrt flying either.
Sounds like youâve been treated poorly there.
Have you been given a reason for the last minute denial?
What if travel to an activity is by CIVAIR? Do 2FTS and MAA have to check out EasyJet?
3 Likes
They are referred to as the Flying Prevention Officers where Iâm based and inbet they would like to!
but you [quote=âdaws1159, post:1608, topic:1152, full:trueâ]
UsâŚwe are not a military organisation!
[/quote]
But you kind of are arenât you. The parenting⌠the uniforms⌠the pay⌠Theyâre all a bit of a giveaway.
Weâre being a bit ridiculous now.
Unless of course the Cadets intend to be placed on the flight deck in the First Officerâs seat.
I thought we had already achieved ridiculousness!
2 Likes
We donât get âPayâ. HQAC are very keen to point that out.
There are 50 Air scout units are supported by the RAF each year. They wear uniform. They are not military.
With the removal of our VR commissions, we will all be completely civilian in just under a weekâŚ
1 Like
I think this is how senior management see it wrt CFAV and just want submissive types as staff. The problem is people made to feel like this can poison the views of the organisation in the eyes of others.
A WSO was ousted because he wasnât âon messageâ and staff are made to feel awkward if they constantly ask questions.
There are rules, orders, guidance, procedures in any organisation.
It goes without saying, some of it may be distasteful, frustrating or open to interpretation.
The organisation weâve chosen to come and play in has this stuff. Without them, or without people in positions to make decisions regarding all these rules it would be anarchyâŚ! You know that as does everybody else.
Flying and gliding is highly regulated and controlled. You canât just go off and do what you like. Aviation culture allows genuine errors or mistakes but not knowingly ignoring rules. If people get killed, the decision makers end up in the dock, as do the ones that break the rulesâŚ!
We shouldnât be offended when the people that are paid to make decisions make one we donât like. My experience is that often people will get very frustrated when this happens and blame the individual that stopped something from happening. If you donât like a decision then ask for the rationale behind it.
1 Like
You seem to have a very nihilistic view on anyone else considering that we can do flying without the expertise of the RAF.
Absolutely not. I work in the aviation industry. There are lots of rules there as well. Things change, rules change and evolve.
The aviation industry is unforgiving of rule breaking military or not.
Accountable managers, delivery duty holders make decisions, some of them rule based. Itâs not necessarily any easier to get things done in the civilian aviation world.
The fact is, weâre bound by the military way because weâre talking about RAF Air Cadets Flying/gliding.
âRules, orders, guidance and proceduresâ are indeed part and parcel of any organisation but are of sod all use if they stop even the most basic of things happening.
Bearing in mind it was a complete failure to follow and uphold rules, orders, guidance and procedures that created this whole sorry mess, followed by the clueless catastrophic bungling of 2FTS which further compounded an utter shambles.
Still, at least thereâs a proper syllabus with AEF/PTT and the Wings, which is one positive step, however at the cost of the VGSs which basically did the same job anyway, whilst being more fun and didnât kill any cadets in the process.
I think most frustration is regarding the people in charge of making the decisions (e.g. 2FTS) who clearly donât have a clue what they are doing whilst those of us who do are inevitably at the bottom of the chain and are just told to shut up, get on with it and if we donât like it we can naff off. Oh and while weâre at it weâll shut down your VGS and stuff your local cadets. All because we do things the RAF way which is right no matter what.
Meanwhile, in the rest of the highly-regulated and controlled aviation world, life (and operations) goes on unabated.
1 Like