Firm believer that Commissioned substantive rank should mirror what our parent service does, ie automatic promotion to Flt Lt, and paid as such too. Keep time served promotion at 9 years, because quite frankly anyone that manages to give 9 years of their lives to commissioned (or any other capacity) service in this organisation deserves the recognition.
Any ranks beyond earned on merit and based on the current system of only paid at that rank if criteria met.
Drop the whole acting nonsense, who’s ever heard of an Acting Flt Lt that’s spent 3 times as long in their rank than they did at their “substantive rank”
This whole thing was only cooked up by the former head shed to save a few quid anyway…
We are a Youth Organisation with a Mil connection/parent
Uniform/rank is dress up in front of the cadets as we ‘play the game’ to let them experience a ‘taste’ of Mil life/culture as part of their after school hobby.
When we are away from the cadets rank is meaningless - we are all volunteers - the services had moved away from a ‘Rank wins’ approach back in my cold war days!! and it was about experience and appointment responsibility
Even on a VA basis its getting irrelevant. VA is going/decreasing and even if you get it you only get acting rate if you are the head honcho for the activity - and even this will probably go in next review - expect a single all ranks rate any day soon!
For those that it is important to () let them keep their highest 'earned ’ rank when they leave or even for formal occasions (no1s and 5s to save on reranking) if it keeps them happy.
Personally, I have no time for those that are Rank/Status conscious - just smacks of being here for the wrong reason
I stand by the controversial take of entirely removing rank from VA… It should be a table of Role (IC, 2IC, DS etc etc) against the size of the activity. So higher VA if you deliver a big camp etc, as theres more responsibility.
Agree for retired but with “serving” CFAV this will probably just cause confusion for most cadets. Why is Flt Lt XYZ wearing Wg Cdr on his No1s for remembrance? Do we actually have a reranking allowance for “demotions”/reversion to substantive rank?
Fair point - and I couldn’t agree more that some people get a little too into their “rank” - but for the majority that feels like a mildly cynical take. I’d like to think my points above don’t come from that sort of position, as with (I’d like to think) the bulk of CFAV posting here. And given it’s a dress up rank, why be overly strict with it? Flt Lt (Unpaid) after 9-12 years isn’t exactly flashy, it’s still a junior officer grade.
If a regular air commodore retired and took a sqn ldr FTRS role, they would become a sqn ldr.
Just like all those AEF pilots walking around as fg offs.
Likewise, I was appointed to the organisation as a fg off (albeit promoted straight away as I took sqn cmd on day 1, but otherwise I’d have worn a CFAV rank appropriate to my role which would have been lower than my service rank).
Although touching nerves on other subject areas imo VA is already irrelevant. The reason (confirmed by me writing to my MP) we get taxed on VA is that as the we are paid through a MOD system, it is too complex for them to work out which should be for expenses e.g. messing and what is the rest, this came back from the treasury. They can’t also tell if we are volunteers or full time, so it is easier just to tax everyone.
Personally VA “claims” - I don’t understand why when you book on a course or camp and you are staying overnight and having food. HQ air cadets can’t get the mess bill and pay it out of the pot. If I have any additional expenses such as travel expenses, or claimable out of pocket expenses such as buying equipment etc, it should get signed off as it currently does. We are volunteers and I would hope that people aren’t in the organisation for the VA. The only thing we should be volunteering up/out of pocket for is our time. Getting taxed on VA is crazy really. I would rather not bother with the claims and let HQ sort out any mess bills.
And without a bar number there’s no risk of social costs making their way on, so they could still attach the food bill to your room number. Even if you bought the nicer food (retail menu), it’d be so much cheaper than paying VA per person, so why not treat your people to the nicer menu?
It might increase admin though. I’ve no idea what the impact would be (although I do hate having to spend my time claiming for things I’m supposedly entitled to — I give enough of it already!).
I think most people would be quite happy knowing they got a safe amount of money for their travel costs and free food and lodging and didn’t have to do any extra work to claim it. I certainly would.
Mess fees I don’t know, I doubt it. But if you don’t claim VA (as CIs obviously don’t) then you should be entitled to the core meal without paying anything. You normally sign to say you’ve had it, the same way cadets do. It’s in ACP300.
I used to see commission relinquished / resigned Gazette entries for RAFVR(T) / RAFAC officers with references to their acting ranks being retained in retirement. Is that no longer the practise?
According to my latest entry, for VRSM clasp 3, I’ve changed from RAuxAF to RAFR. Not entirely sure what happened there, but it’s news to me!
) let them keep their highest 'earned ’ rank when they leave or even for formal occasions (no1s and 5s to save on reranking) if it keeps them happy.