There are lots of newly elected MPs who will be itching to make a name for themselves. Perhaps one could be cajoled into asking a question at PMQs or are we pretty clear on the hold up and the lack of a plan B?
There canāt be secrets, it relates to a public organisationā¦ A PMQ shouldnāt be necessary, it should all be cascading down from above.
Therefore, from 2FTS &/or HQACO, I look forward to a fairly detailed engineering/costings/policy paper outlining the whys (& why nots), wherefores & most importantly, why it has taken so long to get a fleet of (very) basic airframes back into the air - & why alternatives have been so strictly frowned upon. Why have we been kept more or less in the dark?
The ātemporaryā Gliding Scholarships via RAFGSA locations are effectively artificially limited to cadets aged over 18 with their own car, due to the requirement that ācadets under 18 must be accompanied.ā Unless you are lucky enough to live on the doorstep of the GSA site allocated to to your region, forget it. Even then, how many parents cn go & babysit Johnny or Josephine for the 6-8 consecutive weekends? No-one really thought of the limitations that would realistically impose.
It doesnāt help that for our Wg, we have also been without AEF options after the facilities moved to Wittering - no weekend radar cover, so oh dear, no flying. Timescale as yet unknown or certainly unpublished down to my level.
In the good old days, the AEF from Hamble(?) bimbled over to Bembridge Airport on the Isle of Wight, only stopped for lunch, & after all cadet flying had ben actioned, bimbled back to Hamble. Reposition an AEF for weekend flying now? I donāt think so. 
Mike - slightly off topic, but in response, there is a proposed date for AEF starting at Wittering, but as you say it hasnāt been promulgated (and Iām not sure if it is āofficialā yet, I have a couple of āstooliesā working there). I think that we will be without AEF at Wittering for a while yet. On the plus side of that move I donāt have chuffing Tutors over my head every half hour at weekends 
The radar requirements were apparently listed in the āStatement of Intentā but somehow got lost in the translation. Maybe further delays based on the number of consoles needed - screen/operator capacity - & if PAR is required, it reduces the area radar capacityā¦
What is your GR for tgt runs once the sweet sound of the Tutor is audible at weekends?? 
Iām sure that we could rustle up a spare LOW BLOW to cover this? lol
So thereās talk of merging VGSās to form āSuper VGSāsā which would be formed under a RAF reserve squadron number and be partly manned by FTRS. I can see some of the merits but there must be more downsides beyond the obvious extra travelling distances involved for some.
All well & good, but they need aircraft in order to merge into larger units! L :unsure:
All well & good, but they need aircraft in order to merge into larger units! L :unsure:[/quote]
Assuming they do have aircraft, the concept could well work from an admin and management perspective but they will still need the same (or enhanced) footprint of actual flying units.
the SAR force did something like this, with 22 and 202 squadrons each having 4 flights.
i heard this once before not too long agoā¦the Cadet benefit being ignored for the advantage to the RAF/MOD by operating fewer airfields or at least that was my impression before and remains.
i canāt see what the Cadet gets out of larger ācentral unitsā. some have 90minutes or more to travel for a 25minute GICā¦if that moves ot 2 hours to a ācentralā location would there still be a demand and interest in getting involved?
RAuxAF? Or VR?
No idea, Iād assumed itād just be along the lines of XXĀ® Sqn like all of the training sqns but manned by VR.
Merging into larger units seem v logical to me, esp as āadminā could be centralised . It could save a lot of virtual paper pushing by those at the sharp end.
A radical thoughtā¦ why not do what has happened to the service hospitals. Close everything and embed service people into local civilian gliding establishments. An audit could be done every six months or so to make sure that correct protocols and procedures were being followed. Many service medical staff now work in NHS hospitals to the benefit of both their service and the NHS. Those airfields that are v run down and not used for anything else could be sold off .
Or, maybe that is too radical for some!!!
Thinksā¦why do cadets in N Ireland have to travel all the way over to the Liverpool area to get any flying? There must be somewhere more local.
.
[quote=āsyplandā post=25142] Those airfields that are v run down and not used for anything else could be sold off .
Or, maybe that is too radical for some!!!
Thinksā¦why do cadets in N Ireland have to travel all the way over to the Liverpool area to get any flying? There must be somewhere more local.
.[/quote]
The was, it was called RAF Aldergrove. It was sold off and is now called Belfast International airport. MMmmmm To radical?
I cannot believe that N Ireland has only one airfield. There must be others that would be suitable.
I would have thought that the availability of airfields was less of a concern than that of the locals taking pot-shots at the British military aircraft.
There used to be Regional Gliding Centres back in the day, but not sure how many per region (not even sure if they were aligned to what are now ATC Regions)
There was talk of this back in the late 90s / early 00s ā¦seems the idea never fully went away.
All well and good as a concept, but I would suggest an overhaul of the current GIC to match, and make long-distance journeys for cadets worthwhile.
If RGCs are reestablished, make allocations into a weekend camp - e.g. Ground school, at least 2 flights, etc.
You could almost adopt the old IGT syllabus on a residential basis; a make a recommendation for further training at the end of it.
The current GS system has always been wasteful in my view (as an ex B Cat - B1 in current system)
Cheers
BTI
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You would have to find civilian gliding establishments that would be willing to accept the contractual obligation involved. A considerable amount of resource would have to be allocated to satisfying the MoD requirements and that would have to be paid for. Additionally many would take the view that as they satisfy the CAA that would be adequate, why subject themselves to an additional layer of oversight?
I am aware on a number of rifle clubs that have turned away requests for cadet use for similar reasons. The hassle was just not worth it.
exmpa
Not sure on the merits of giving number plates to a VGS - partly because thereās a perfectly good history of the VGSs having their own number plates! For the RAF units there is/was a logic, as going through X Sqn, X FTS (which would change every decade or so) isnāt particularly historic or ethos building, whereas put an RAF student pilot on 16, 57, 72, 4 Sqn etc thereās more of a tangible historical connection. I canāt see the point of that with a VGS which has its own, fairly continuous, history - which could then disappear.
FTRS - the model is surely there with the uniform wearing CS at Syerston. Devolving some FT personnel to a larger VGS wouldnāt be much different to the FTRS personnel manning the majority of QFI posts in the UAS system.
exmpa is entirely right. The whole problem with the āpauseā is not about airworthiness (though a few issues have arisen) but about demonstrable airworthiness.
I wanted to ask OC 2FTS (but decided it was unfair to put him on the spot in public) whether after the changes he is making, a cadet gliding in a Viking at a VGS will be safer than a kid gliding in a K21 at a civilian club; or whether in fact the only difference was that his @rse was covered in one case and not the other.
The RAF could indeed subcontract gliding to BGA clubs, and the latter have a good safety record. The problem is they wouldnāt leave it there - they would want or need to get their noses into every corner of club life.
A related question is why cadets canāt fly in RAFFCA club aircraft. Given that RAFFCA clubs are required to have a safety management system (RAFFCASMS) which satisfies the Stn Cdr of the host station that they are a safe operation to mix with his military traffic, youād think it wasnāt a difficult decision; yet all civilian flying for cadets has been banned, in effect.