This is the thing… From what I’ve seen so far and from the few interactions the I’ve had with him, he doesn’t strike me as the type of man who would openly flout the rules and then claim that it’s all correct. So does he know something that we don’t?
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Potentially. It wouldn’t surprise me if a week ago he signed off on a rule change and it’s just not been promulgated properly yet. So as far as he knows the rules might have changed.
So here is the blow by blow from my cadets from yesterday. *Experience may vary.
Arrive, told to park up and wait in bus for briefing. Wait hour and a half, eventually walk to where the staff member is, eventually get briefing.
Told to queue for syndicates to be allocated. Hour and a half wait, 2 cadets split up from our 10 and put into other groups - those 2 cadets told they won’t fly.
Told to wait by airfield. Told to leave and come back in 45mins.
Went back 30mins. Given briefing for Puma (paperwork given to staff member said Chinook but never mind).
Told to go for lunch and come back when done.
Headed to kitting hangar after short lunch, waited for hour and 40 at the kitting up hanger.
Told likely no more Puma flights but they were reserves, told there IS another flight, walking out to wait for aircraft, told 30mins later to thin out - no more puma flights.
Group told to go to chinook, had briefing, been kitted up again immediately, told no more flights today and to dekit.
Group then go sit on the grass, Region staff officer tells them they will sort an activity tells them to go to STEM hangar to a specific activity, group go to staff member gets gripped for not pre-booking their slot on the activity - told to thin out.
Group then go sit on grass. Watch displays.
Staff member gets group together to leave to head to work, gets a rollocking on way out and told he will be reported for leaving without Group Captain’s permission.
Long drive home.
I’m sure others had a good time, but ours did not.
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I’m taking it as official declaration that social distancing and masks are no longer required for RAFAC events.
What really annoys me about this is knowing people who have been destroyed by CoC because they didn’t get an activity signed off before attendance but HQ just DGAF.
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Maybe the commandant is getting confused with the Scottish guidance, which has no distancing requirement outside:
Maybe he is good with PR, good with social media and knows how to work a crowd.
But then is utter dog mess at ensuring rules are followed as per and if no longer required promulgated as such.
Being godly at one and not the other, doth not make a good leader for our org.
Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe he is just oblivious to it all and the wet dog mess that is HQAC just keep him in the dark?
Either way. This event has not shown the org in the best light.
Externally maybe.
Internally not a blinking chance.
Just realised where the Puma was going from Benson which caused a slightly grumpy ATC team to have to turn out on a Saturday morning! The instant the Puma cleared the circuit the Tower frequency went quiet…
Looks like this group of cadets drew all the short straws. I got told off too, for arriving at the check-in point on foot and from the wrong direction! Hmm, how else did they expect us to get from the car park lol? And where were the signs telling us which way to go?
In all fairness, the Admin Order did say:-
" 14. Departure . Vehicles are not to depart on Sat 11 Sep before 1800 when they will be released by the ProjO, except in exceptional circumstances. In these cases, permission to depart MUST be sought from the ProjO (or deputy) prior to leaving the Muster."
Of course, actually finding the ProjO or dep at that time might have been problematical!
Tea Bar I bet you 
My experience - and appreciate my cadets and I were part of the lucky ones
Pros -
All my cadets and staff flew. Org by regular RAF staff was excellent. Kitting hanger queue was a bit of a shambles as there was no real control of the order of flying based on order of arrival in hangar.
Food - excellent, even the death bags were ok. Tea,coffee and cold drinks freely available (if you knew where).
Cadets enjoyed the outside gazebos
Cons -
Apart from the aforementioned lack of PPPPPP and the “inconsistencies” between Covid Safety precautions, local vs HQAC/Regn:-
Booking in was not good. Despite asking for details of all vehicles in advance it seemed that this info had not been taken into account and there was no parking available for cars on the car park. Access to official overflow parking area blocked by booking-in team so all cars had to park by main entrance. No problem, only a short walk but it seemed that arrivals were only expected by coach and mini-bus.
Initial briefing was awful. One person to brief c1,300 cadets and staff, outside and with no apparent plan. Again, little direction from the staff on site as to how to get the briefing “find female Sgt with clip-board”.
Let’s just say that there was a lot of milling about!
Expecting the cadets (and staff - who were doing the nom roll at the time) to remember the details in a four page doc for the whole day was optimistic!
We had to tick off attendees from a list taken off SMS in order to make a nominal roll. Unfortunately the list was in alphabetical within Wing order. Some wings ran to several pages and weren’t stapled together. Would have been better if they were alphabetical within Sqn within Wing order.
Good job weather was fine
STEM hangars, plenty to see but little time to book or identify a slot given the slippage of flying and pre-flight briefings. I went into the hangar a number of times to get a brew for various people but don’t recall seeing a booking-in desk. Fortunately my group of cadets were quite happy visiting the outdoor gazebos and then socialising and watching the fly-pasts.
Org of getting all the cadets and staff to the right place for the final parade was a bit iffy. Combination of lack of info, lack of org staff indicating where each Wg was to collect, and fog-knitting.
Confusion re LFTs - “On the app or consent from parents” was repeated several times beforehand. Ditto “LFTs NOT available on site”. All my cadets were over 16 and had the app so not a problem but what did the phrase “consent from parents” actually mean? Consent to attend, consent to be given an LFT on arrival (which it stated wasn’t an option)?
Then to get a text whilst driving in (which I read whilst booking in) saying that checking LFTs was now my responsibility before arriving on site, and that there was the facility to do an LFT on site (not that I saw any evidence of this).
I was told that >300 cadets turned up unexpectedly, maybe this was the CCF who, of course, used Westminster rather than Bader? Well done to the teams for getting them booked in and involved rather than turning them away. If not CCF, then I have to wonder if they were covered by insurance as have been told many times “if they are not on the PIPE then they aren’t covered”.
In all, my cadets and staff enjoyed their day, they all got a lot from it. Not sure how it would have been if the planned for 2,000 cadets had attended.
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Nothing was approved anyway so I see no real difference if they’re on there or not! 
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Very true
Maybe they were being “economical with the truth” when they told me that lol
This kind of surge is a hazard.
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if they had had their SMS admin up to scratch then that wouldn’t have happened.
So staff flew before cadets 
Thought this was an event to fly cadets, not staff 
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Administratively, I can see why. From what I’ve heard, everyone was just put into randomised working groups, and it’s easier to do the whole group, staff and cadets than split them. Unless you take the approach from the outset that no staff fly
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I understand what you are saying but each detail of 9 cadets had to be accompanied throughout by a CFAV or 18+ cdt, all of whom had to have AV1 and TG21/22 .Some Sqns/Wgs didn’t send sufficient staff so my staff (and others) helped to fill that gap. Numbers flown were impacted by Puma bird strike (and I think 1 other a/c had to RTU), our details were delayed early on (briefing delayed by 45 mins - weather en route maybe?) and of course all flying had to stop prior to the arrival of the fly pasts at 15:00.
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There has to be something for the staff as well.
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Yes, once we had been briefed we formed 3 lines for detail composition - staff, 18+ cdts, U18 cadets. Staff/cadets unable/unwilling to fly were separate. So “next 9 cadets stand there”, “next staff please” and you took the detail you were allocated. Some staff ended up with their own cadets, some didn’t. Most details were mixed sqns.
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Strangely enough the rules have just been updated to version 7 lol