Because that would take years and as importantly it would be used to stop flying by other means as they are ‘not one of us.’
Do you really think HQAC or 2FTS could actually do this, they have probably never dealt with anybody working outside the ‘fence’ and those people will a) see them coming and either say if you don’t like what we as CAA/BGA regulated operators do or how we operate then the door is over there and b) will not tolerate being shouted at, dictated to or generally treated with disdain and contempt because they wear rank.
What gets me is if we decide to use a public AT provider, we contact them ask for loads of info, which they email to us, we then stick that on SMS. I’m pretty certain we the volunteers could manage to get some specified docs from a flying/gliding school, so why not one of the RCs sitting around doing not a lot, avoiding the incumbent at 2fTS. Get a list of flying schools across the country and sit there on email starting with
“I am Gp Capt ****** from HQAC could you please supply the following ****** with a view to Air Cadets flying with your school. We can offer £** per cadet and guarantee you ** cadets per month. If could offer us some sort of bulk rate, that would be interesting to discuss. If this is agreeable I can arrange to visit and meet face to face”
Civilian AT providers are already used by the RAF, so the info required used and what questions to ask are already there. Do you really believe that RCs or RAvOs really have the skills to deal with this?
Very difficult if you have never worked in the commercial world, use NHS PFI as an example, the PFIs providers saw the NHS coming and acted accordingly. Those negoiating the contracts were like chickens, quietly plucked without feeling because they did not know what was happening. Many of if not 95% had never had to survive outside the NHS bubble which either moves, pays off or promotes the inept, imcompetant or downright stupidly dangerous.
This seems to be across the public sector.
I’ve got a couple mates who are project managers for construction companies and they have said NHS and Local Govt, are useless and if the initial brief is 6 months they double it as they will change their minds or submit plans that do not meet the regulation requirements. They have said when you get private firms, the focus is the budget, they have allocated x for the project and unless ir is something completely unforeseen, it is generally much. much tighter.
It was interesting on the radio this morning the MOD has been criticised for a lack of financial rigour, again. While it focussed on big money projects, there is the nagging point, that if something like the “glider recovery programme” had been scrapped and alternatives looked into 3½-4 years ago rather than wasting millions so one man could build his empire and play god. With lots of these projects the MOD could save many millions over the years and be able to afford things. I imagine in the big money projects there will be individuals protecting empires, wasting much money, not to mention the changes because of technology over protracted project run times.
If say over 4 years £15 million (suspect it’s more) has been spent getting some old gliders airworthy, every cadet could have been provided with a powered flight (based on £90/flight) for around £3 million a year, so saving, £3 million over 4 years. Imagine gliding would be less money. Doing this would have meant cadets getting the “air cadet experience” without interruption.
A close family member of mine has recently gone from a company building hospitals for the NHS to one that is building a data centre for a large, rather well known tax-avoiding internet company and says the difference in urgency/oversight on the client’s behalf is incredible.
