Here’s hoping!!
Let’s hope they can resolve the lack of pilots problem as well, in the near future.
16® Sqn, which is quite considerable flying task. 115® Sqn were always moving, seeing as they’ll still exist once MFTS arrives and the Tutor no longer conducts EFT.
And whatever the argument, AEF flying is very unlikely to be given (much) priority over a core MoD task (which suffered heavily with the spin/prop/prop groundings and loss of IMC). An aircraft here or there, but not 40% of flying time. You could always ask the EFT pilots if they wanted to work the weekends instead (and all the contract amendments that might require for the non-regulars!)
:lol:
Yeah. Right.
On a serious note; would you, as an AEF commander, trust squadrons to show the current version of the film? Some would still be showing '“Jump Jump John” on Super-8…
Lol. This is funny. I remember the jump jump video.
On a serious note, some sqn commanders can’t even get paperwork or ages right when they send cadets to the AEF so there’s probably little chance they’ll show the right safety film.
As I previously mentioned, the Statement of Intent specified the radar requirement; had this been omitted, then it might be possible to understand the difficulties. It wasn’t, so somewhere, somehow, by elements of the higher organisational system, this wasn’t considered or actioned.
As to priorities, agreed that apportionment of resources to core task is essential. However, there seems to have been a total lack of understanding as to how the lack of AEF flying (& of course gliding) would affect recruitment (cadets & staff), & morale (cadets & staff). Of course, the long-term aim is to recruit from the ACO into the RAF; bet that will take a hit in the short-term future. Of course, I bet that the flying side of things hasn’t touched base with the shooting side to see if there have been comparable difficulties there… 
If this was a commercial organisation with “stake holders,” etc, there would already have been far reaching changes in processes & upper management…
[quote=“MikeJenvey” post=26138]
As to priorities, agreed that apportionment of resources to core task is essential. However, there seems to have been a total lack of understanding as to how the lack of AEF flying (& of course gliding) would affect recruitment (cadets & staff), & morale (cadets & staff). Of course, the long-term aim is to recruit from the ACO into the RAF; bet that will take a hit in the short-term future. Of course, I bet that the flying side of things hasn’t touched base with the shooting side to see if there have been comparable difficulties there… [/quote]
At the end of the day, recruitment into the RAF for the most part will take care of itself - even with the cadets (of all uniforms) it has been very difficult to fill the required manning. My concern throughout the gliding and flying “episodes” (less so with the Tutor, as problems now appear more localised rather than the mass disruption 12-18 months ago as the fleet regenerated) is that people, in their frustration, will look for short term solutions outside the MoD. Long term, this may end up posing a danger to the continuation AEF and VGS flying which would be a very disappointing step considering the 60 odd years of success previously. Even in their more modern, smaller, more regulated forms, they are a very valuable and unique asset.
I may be wrong, but it may well be that the requirements for a radar service for AEF flying postdates the original plan to move 5 AEF (and back then possibly 7 AEF too) - which of course had to utilise external agencies when at Wyton. Unfortunately I last flew an AEF sortie in 2012 so I can’t remember!
If people are using any contacts they have and doing this good on them, at least it shows some initiative.
The percieved ‘dangers’ of people doing their own thing, is very much in the hands of and down to those in the various Ivory Towers. Their inability, unwillingness (or however you might like to look at it) to provide a service and then an alternative, although they are plantantively obvious, has no doubt got people on squadrons with contacts doing whatever they can to get AIR cadets in the air. The fact no alternatives have been actively pursued does tend to make you think that extremely fragile monopolies are being protected, in a manner that would have regulators all over them like a rash, if we operated in the world many of us work in.
Like anything in the modern world if you’re not happy with the service provider then you don’t use them as there are others out there. The frustrating part in relation to flying/gliding is that we are tied to a provider that when it doesn’t provide a service, and then doesn’t offer an alternative, seem consumately content that they are doing an excellent job with promises of it will be alright in the end. Which is not the view of anyone, probably, outside HQAC’s inner circle and concerned parts of the RAF. I can’t believe anyone on an ATC squadron thinks, ‘bloody good show’.
Would any on here be happy using a service provider that had a massive failure, or just wasn’t giving what you wanted and sticking around until they sorted themselves out? Which is ostensibly the situation we are forced into. How many here have changed their bank, credit card, electricity, gas, mobile phone etc provider in the blink of an eye as they weren’t happy for some reason or other?
I read the last comic and if CAC didn’t write her bit without having her fingers crossed and actually believed the rhetoric, it would beggar belief. It was interesting reading that the main message from all the big players was safety first, so as to deflect criticism and this is a substitute for actually providing something. Reading between the lines they seem to want us to think people have been working hard to rectify the situation. Not in my experience of working hard to overcome problems. Having spent 33 years in manufacturing, when a problem hits, you have to rectify it bloody quickly or people will go elsewhere. Lucky for them we can’t as they introduced a policy to prevent us doing anything officially.
Personally this current failure to provide a service and not provide an alternative is endemic of a heirarchy that feels untouchable, think they know best despite never having done and or understanding what we do and has been failing us for the best part of a decade in different areas and manage by having/introducing restricting policies. I know some board members, who have not reacted to markets and consumer requirements, from our company over the last 30 years, that would have loved to be in this sort environment. I’ve never worked in the public sector but just seeing it from a local govt and ATC perspective I tend to regard it as being somewhere where things like complacency, inefficiency and lack of imagination are seen as key attributes for employees. Obviously there are people with these attributes, but they must mostly be kept out of senior jobs and any that sneak through are quickly thwarted.
It is sad to say, but unless this current crop get their act together and start thinking ‘outside the box’ you can see the Air Training Corps being consigned to the history books in the next 10-15 years. They need to understand that we live in an increasingly competitive consumer driven society. You only need to look at the way the ‘big 4’ supermarkets have been affected by the likes of Lidl and Aldi, to see what complacency leads to.
As an organisation bragging about flying training for teenagers as its main selling point, we can’t survive without an active and tangible ability to get the youngsters who join into aircraft and if for whatever reason it can’t be, the powers that be have to have an alternative to bring on stream. We’ll probably get through the latest flying problems (if gliding starts coming back by end Q4 15), but if we have another major failure in the next 5 years, we volunteers and those in the well paid retiree jobs at HQAC may all be getting more of our time to ourselves and living off pensions, as the kids will vote with their feet.
I would not like to think where would have been we had another shooting suspension / ban (or probably it would have been called a ‘pause’) that had gone on for more than a day.
I am very inclined to agree with the above.
It is very noticeable over the last ten years how things have changed so much, a lot not for the better!!
Our sqdn has been struggling to recruit inspite of staff visits to schools, stands at shows, leaflets, open nights, facebook, twitter etc etc. Some others on the wing also have trouble.
It seems to indicate to me that we do not, or cannot, offer what many of todays youngsters want. The endless restrictions ( e.g. AT requirement that folks need to be ‘qualified’ to take cadets for a walk in normal country, and no serious attempt by wings to enable staff to get qualified) and piles of electronic paperwork do not help.
Our squadron is fortunate to have a number of young and proactive staff but the constant ‘stiffling’ from above doesn’t help. In the past we have lost a number of v experienced staff because of this, including a fully qualified commercial flying instructor and CAA examiner who had access to some excellent local full blown flight simulators!
I really do hope that the ‘high ups’ wake up and ‘smell the coffee’ soon!!!
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Maybe something militarily affiliated isn’t what youngsters want these days? That may upset a lot of us, but might be the reality. As for the endless restrictions, well, that’s part and parcel of being in a military organisation these days. Deepcut, Hadden-Cave etc had all had a massive effect of the day to day working lives of service personnel.
No, it’s definitely an ‘RAF cadets’ problem. In my CCF cadets do a year’s compulsory service, so opting for a non-military activity isn’t an option. Numbers requesting to join the RAF in preference to the Army (infantry) or RN sections have dropped markedly in the last 3 years.
(And in case you are worried - Comdt AC knows this and I have said so publicly, so don’t worry about me being identified!)
I don’t really think that the ‘military’ is as relevant to youngsters (in general) joining the ATC today and not seen as a viable job in the same way it was when I was in my teens. I only have 2 cadets who are considering the military and one of them it is a fall back, if they can’t get into uni. To be frank this has been the situation for 15-20 years and more so since the local TA units closed, as I had cadets leave and join the TA, many as a precursor to full military service.
When I was growing up there were still lots of blokes and women around with stories of their experiences and we were generally only one or two living generations away from widescale family military experience and of war. So whether it’s what youngsters want or not, their contact with the military, other than a news story if many actually take in any news, is not as vivid (if you like) as it was for some of us who are maybe over 30. For many of my cadets it’s now deceased great grandad/nan who experienced the war or had the last military service. Nans and grandads were born well after WW2 and many great Gparents would at most only have been small children. When we went on annual camps as cadets and my early days as staff, you saw a ‘large RAF’ presence, now you go on camp and unless it’s a busy station you only see a few around.
The problem is with the ATC and I imagine it’s being seen in the ACF is that the military connection isn’t what is once was and provides little more than a uniform in terms of visible affiliation. This won’t improve given that the armed forces aren’t going to be increasing in size. When we do AEF or gliding there is nothing to link the aircraft directly to the RAF.
Maybe these problems we’ve had in the ATC wrt delivering the flying experience are the catalyst to initiate looking at other provision that is sustainable and not likely to be affected by further cuts and other problems. I would extend this to uniform and other stores and camps. IIRC these are HQAC projects, but I would guarantee they aren’t looking outside the military.
Applying what has happened in the armed forces and subsequent restrictions to us is pure laziness.
i do believe there is some truth here, particularly with regards to camps.
there are fewer Stations than before and the ones we have are being combined (Lyneham to Brize a recent example) so the ACO loses out its options for camps…
Our Sqns SWO has said for years the program for annual camps needs to change. why is it year after year the interest levels reduce and the Wing runs fewer weeks while RIAT, and other non-annual camp style weeks away (our Wing runs one out of Pirbright) are always over -subscribed, in cases up to 2 bids per place…
that has to say something about supply and demand. if there is no/reducing demand from the Cadets then something needs looking at…
Given the link above doesn’t work anymore does anyone know where I can find the current video??
an online link would be most useful…
My last camp was in 2016 at Valley.My two sons came down to take me home as id injured myself in a fall.The youngest who at the time was in his late 20s had been a cadet in his teens and was shocked at how few (zero) RAF personnel he spotted on the station.He attended Boulmer and Lyneham with me in the early noughties and couldnt believe the change in such a relatively short period of time.
It’s in the First Class airmanship presentations from http://training.staffswing.org.uk/cadet-training-system/
This one specifically: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1qGqj0Sk0qpASeiynWQBpAUr2KJynOXVp
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Thread drift, but…
There are, I believe, more staff / cadets in RAFAC than the sub-30K number of personnel currently in the RAF.
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All BDFL videos should also be available on Defence Gateway.
How do we get on there.