Nothing too much more. The Cranwell Tutors (we’ll, a few of them) have been flying for just over a week or so now in the hand of Babcock, and so some progress is occurring.
heard that there are more problems with them now, earliest estimate of September return. Something to do with the engine installation.
The engine’s just as firmly attached as it was before! :lol: There’s been a bit of jiggery pokery going on with some of the ancillary bits and bobs, and as with any mod, not every thing is the same in every aeroplane. 
As for the return to AEF flying, that’s a good question. Cranwell and Wyton (from an RAF perspective) will obviously have the aeroplanes first, but there will be very a long queue to use them from the regular units, so I suspect the AEFs further afield may get AEFing before them.
We’ve been told locally that it could be the new year before we get any AEF, however much of that isn’t related to the airframe issues, its the fact that the airfield is closing and new pilots need to be found and trained.
Looks like a full 12 months without flying for us 
[quote=“ex-bawtryboy” post=8636]We’ve been told locally that it could be the new year before we get any AEF, however much of that isn’t related to the airframe issues, its the fact that the airfield is closing and new pilots need to be found and trained.
Looks like a full 12 months without flying for us :([/quote]
Wow that is prety unfortunate! Why do they need new pilots? Surely the pilots can re-locate the 25 miles or so North? Assume L-o-O is to be their new location?
Who said “lets put the ‘Air’ back into the Air Training Corps…”
Adventure Training Corps from now on. Right, let’s go mountain biking!
Nah … just call us Scouts. Where’s my woggle?
[quote=“Leeroy” post=8638][quote=“ex-bawtryboy” post=8636]We’ve been told locally that it could be the new year before we get any AEF, however much of that isn’t related to the airframe issues, its the fact that the airfield is closing and new pilots need to be found and trained.
Looks like a full 12 months without flying for us :([/quote]
Wow that is prety unfortunate! Why do they need new pilots? Surely the pilots can re-locate the 25 miles or so North? Assume L-o-O is to be their new location?[/quote]
Unless the whole of the Fenton AEF are turning 65!
Lots and lots of Tutor activity at Cranwell now. Fingers crossed, that bar any local issues with the new installation in individual airframes, things will come along fairly swiftly.
If this was commercial aviation it would have been sorted a lot quicker than this, purely because of business demand. There also wouldn’t be a lot of faff wrt re-training pilots that I’ve heard will have to happen when the Tutor is finally back, it’d be get on with it or you have no job.
It’s nice to know that things are coming on nicely, but this doesn’t help when you are trying to sell a hobby to teenagers where the biggest catches are the opportunity to fly and learning to fly. For all the other “adventure” stuff kids can go elsewhere and not even join an umbrella organisation to do it. We need more flying than the occasional gliding detail. I’m growing to like the idea proferred of powered AEF being farmed out to local flying clubs as you wouldn’t be totally reliant on one type of aircraft.
Well, it sort of is. Which has caused half the faff.
There is no faff in the “retraining” (actually regaining currency) of pilots - the process being applied is a sensible and logical one given the length of the grounding. Very few commercial operators do the things we do, and we have to make sure we do them properly. In fact, there are things being done to allow things to get back up to speed more quickly than they would otherwise.
I think everyone knows that - we all feel the same pain be it ATC, EFT or UAS. The solution: you just have to do your best.
The locally sourced flying has been discussed at length, but as a parent (admittedly with a little more aviation knowledge than most ATC parents) I would have misgivings, and more importantly, as a taxpayer funded activity, I doubt anyone would sign it off with our risk averse culture.
We pay x company y pounds to provide z flying hours.
If company x cant do it, and airframes keep going balls up there is clearly a problem.
If this was properly commercially (i.e. like the real world outside of HQAC, the MOD, Civil Service and UK Gov) then company x would be given the boot!
I don’t think it’s the fact the things go wrong per se, it’s the lack of urgency to resolve the problems.
If they were being held to account financially, without compromising safety, the aircraft would have been back in the air for us ages ago. But the fact they’ve got a govt contract, they know they’ll get the money regardless of how crap they are.
Half the problem seems to have been too much urgency - hence the misfire to get flying again around April before a proper solution was found and tested.
If they were held to account financially there’d be a good chance that they’d default on the contract, the aeroplanes would go back wherever the financiers wanted them (probably a hangar in the middle on nowhere), and the RAF would have a gap of two years whilst they found a new aeroplane.
The typically bad side to a PFI.
[quote=“chaz” post=8657][quote=“Leeroy” post=8638][quote=“ex-bawtryboy” post=8636]We’ve been told locally that it could be the new year before we get any AEF, however much of that isn’t related to the airframe issues, its the fact that the airfield is closing and new pilots need to be found and trained.
Looks like a full 12 months without flying for us :([/quote]
Wow that is prety unfortunate! Why do they need new pilots? Surely the pilots can re-locate the 25 miles or so North? Assume L-o-O is to be their new location?[/quote]
Unless the whole of the Fenton AEF are turning 65!
Lots and lots of Tutor activity at Cranwell now. Fingers crossed, that bar any local issues with the new installation in individual airframes, things will come along fairly swiftly.[/quote]
I think that is contributing to the problem. Without going into too much detail, some pilots are ageing out, some probably already travel a long way to get there, so the extra 25 miles (each way) = over an hours journey increase = less duty hours flying available, and the OC leaves in the not too distant future.
Its a shame they can’t split the airframes, leave some there for currency flights, and split the rest to the other AEFs that aren’t much further away, and debunk squadrons there in the interim.
Home to Squadron to Fenton is about the same distance as Home to Squadron to Cranwell, with far more to see on base if the weather prevents flying.
[quote=“ex-bawtryboy” post=8693]
Its a shame they can’t split the airframes, leave some there for currency flights, and split the rest to the other AEFs that aren’t much further away, and debunk squadrons there in the interim.
Home to Squadron to Fenton is about the same distance as Home to Squadron to Cranwell, with far more to see on base if the weather prevents flying.[/quote]
AEF flying has to take a back seat for now. The fleet at Cranwell is in full use for EFT, some UAS staff currency flying (from all UASs - these are they guys who’ll then get the AEF people current etc at their home unit), and QFI training, which is now months behind after this and last year’s grounding; EFT has flex built into the system with holds etc, QFI training is a constant pipeline with little flex, as people are posted in and out of the training system.
Was at 6AEF yesterday; all ac now have new props and the ground crew thought that our booked slot for AEF in September was ‘probably’ OK.
I was at wyton on friday, and one of the pilots there said that they had had 3 aircraft at the beginning of the week, but they had all been broken by friday
I saw several taxiing around and flying at Middle Wallop last week…hopefully we’ll be flying soon!
Was flying (a PA28) yesterday and heard Boscombe giving someone else traffic information on an ac ‘believed to be a Tutor’ (presumably from the squawk he was showing) so there is at least one serviceable…