Ive also seen on socials cadets getting flights that 100% have had flights before, even in chinooks.
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Remind me what the I in RISE stands for again?
Of course, the event organisers could have avoided this by releasing a complete set of the usual admin pack and controlled the narrative by delivering this information directly to the cadets.
It’s exactly the same as happened last time - more expected to fly than could possibly be flown. Had nothing nothing been learned?
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Its how you message it though…how does one make it appealing…come to benson…you might fly.
Kinda get the rock and hard place situation.
To be fair to the organising crew, most of the inconsistent messaging was from Wings and Regions that made their own PR material. Maybe thats the lesson for next year. Communicate a corporate PR package to accomodate the event
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@Horriblelittletechie could the 3 Chinooks from the flypast had gone to benson after London and increased capacity for the afternoon?
Feels to me a little that the RAF pushed its resource too far today hoping for 6 airframes to be serviceable all day.
Let’s hope there is not humanitarian mission that needs 2000 pers moved to a location 15/20 mins away.
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Or in future have lower numbers and work for 100% to fly.
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Words.
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50/50.
We reported for work at 0730.
Crew would have been similar to have breifings.
Lifted at 1000 and wheels down about 1345.
So yes, they would have been within hours.
But then you have AC hours. My squadron needs X amount of hours to perform it’s primary role. That’s every 24/7/365. Insure about green wing.
Then factor in an “unfamiliar” aerodrome that they would need to famil flight to perform Pax flights.
Don’t know how long the cabs were flying today at Benson. But the sortie for us was about 4 hours. So we really couldn’t have squeezed much more in. We also had ERTs fitted to allow longer sortie times, which reduce pax capacity.
Could have done, but the extra logistics there would limit it. Cost benefit would probably not be worth it.
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Anyone who’s there confirm the chat about cadets holding 6424s being binned from flying for that fact?
I sent someone holding one, and have been told they flew so I doubt it.
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What are 6424s?
The GP fit to fly form. If you answer yes to any question on an AV med form, then you’ll need to get your GP to sign a 6424 to say you are okay to fly, and add any restrictions (like no solos).
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Got to remember that Chinooks are noisy. And vibrate like anything.
Not saying it’s right, but there is a very good reason why some people might be turned away from flying in them.
The seatbelts are not a five point harness, they are a very easily openable lap strap. Coupled with a large open door at the back, it’s the last thing you want is having a neurodivergent cadet having a moment in the back.
Likewise, the vibration can exacerbate physical injuries. My back was pretty rough after I got off yesterday.
There’s a few reasons why they may have been refused. Rightly or wrongly, but a Chinook is nothing like a tutor, extra checks may have been in place.
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Yesterday was my first muster.
Depending on what you think the objective of the muster is, I think the point is completely missed.
The RAF and the RAFAC “Experiences” were essentially exactly the same as you would find at an airshow. It was all good; but having been at Cosford Airshow just the week before with some of the same cadet, we’d seen most of it already.
The only bit that differentiates the Muster from any other airshow is the chance of getting a flight. And I’m slightly miffed that for a target of 2000 cadets they had only secured 3 chinooks, and the cadets who did get a flight were only up for ~10-15 min.
Overall each individual activity at the Muster was great, but the organisation of it was sub-par with lots of different chiefs briefing different things. The saying about cooks and broth comes to mind.
My cadets had a scheduled arrival time of ~0800 and were made to sit around on the tarmac in the sun for 2 hours doing nothing at all while waiting for the RAFAC & RAF Experiences to “open” . . . that was poor. The cadets were left sitting on the tarmac when it started raining, despite sitting right next to a hanger that we could have gone in. At the end of the day many coaches had a scheduled departure time of well after the “sunset parade”, resulting in another couple hours of just sitting around doing nothing at all.
If you were one of the cadets that waited around hoping to get a flight rather than going to look at the RAF and RAFAC Experiences, then you spent the vast majority of the day sat waiting around on the tarmac for a 15 min flight in a chinook.
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What a pathetic state of affairs that we cant achieve that?
Or indeed, simply roll in a 7th spare.
It was achieved.
Not at Benson, but we had three cabs in the flypast, 2 heads turning on the ground spares and one spare that flew to Wattisham as a back up.
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As an extra point as well.
28 Sqn is an OCU. The majority of the pilots are not fully qualified. They are still in training to get their type rating.
Things do take longer and they are much more risk averse.
And EngOs absolutely will not sign off on pax flights, especially with cadets, if there is even the hint of the aircraft having a wibble.
Imagine the PR disaster with that one.
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The biggest thing about all this is that zero lessons will be learned.
The next one, whenever and wherever it is, will be exactly the same.
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I’m yet to see any evidence of RAFAC undertaking a proper “lessons learnt” exercise following anything, whether the activity went well or otherwise. They seem to look for blame, rather than lessons.
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‘Cadets hurt after RAF let them loose on wibbly-wobbly wokkas’