The Air Force Board Decision to remove VR(T) Commissions has now been added to the CFC document site.
Looks like the Warrant for the CFC come in on 20 October, so no idea what they delay was…
Same as your appointment date, these come out in Wing Routine Orders months after your appointment date.
But you might have thought this would have had been notified in advance, given they’d had months and months and months to plan it.
They may need to look up the phrase “plan it”, though.
How many have managed to plan and execute a Christmas Do for work?
From an academic viewpoint… Where does this leave SIs? If CFAVs are no longer under military law, where does that leave their authority with us?
The answer is in the new warrant. None at all. There is no mention of serving or reserve staff or authority over said persons.
Why don’t we club together and get legal advice on this
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Well that should be interesting…
We don’t need them, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t in charge at a squadron or event an SI might be working with.
We have no authority to mess around with an SI’s work life but plenty to manage their RAFAC involvement.
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the AEF did,
the vast majority of VGS transferred over, I think it was about 6 staff had to keep their VR(T) commission
AEF staff are to keep the VRT Commission for now
AEF staff pilots will retain VRT commissions.
The six VRT commissions retained at 2FTS are gliding examiners posts. They have full time jobs at Syerston and have VRT commissions. Without military commissions they wouldn’t be able to exercise their duties. For example, the Robin tug at Syerston is civilian registered, military owned so the same rules as the Tutor apply.
I realise there’s a physical difference between an airframe and a weapons system but why are military commissions still required for the aviation aspects but not for shooting activities Cadet Forces undertake?
109115 has pretty much answered the question, but I don’t think you’ve understood it. A military commission is simply not needed for shooting.
The VRT commission is not being retained for all aviation activities, as the officers on the VGS units have moved over to the CFC.
The AEF Staff Pilots and the 6 Central Gliding School Examiners are a very specific case. They fly civilian registered aircraft which are operated and owned by the MOD. If they did this with a CFC commission (civvy status) they would be required to have a private pilots license (ppl) and be governed by civil law. Because they have a military commission and subject to the AFA, they do not need a ppl and can fly these aircraft on “brevet”.
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In the real military I believe shooting comes under the auspice of NCOs, hence the dislike of CIs getting involved in shooting.
However go back 78-72 years and there was an awful lot of SNCO pilots, my granddad said, “it was so the toff’s sons as officers weren’t killed in droves as they were in the first war”. So the upper classes allowed ordinary people to suffer the losses. Once the war was over and the immediate danger gone, all of a sudden SNCOs weren’t regarded a good enough to fly RAF aircraft, although not the same in the AAC, where there are a IIRC a lot of NCO pilots.
So why keep flying restricted to commissioned officers? Protection of a myth, and nothing else. You will get guff like officers are trained to be managers and NCOs can’t do things like that. But going by some of the decisions made by these managers, I doubt their abilities above say NCOs.
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I think that you’ve actually missed the point there - it’s the military part that is necessary RE the AEF, not the commissioned part (as you point out, AAC have non-commissioned pilots).
Hence why they need to keep the RAFVR(T) part - after all, they’d still be commissioned in the RAFAC if they changed over with us, but they wouldn’t be military.
The Air Navigation Order Article 145 is the issue- “Flight crew licence requirement – exception for members of HM Forces. A person may act as a member of the flight crew of an aircraft registered in the United Kingdom without being the holder of an appropriate licence if, in so doing, the person is acting in the course of his or her duty as a member of any of Her Majesty’s naval, military or air forces.” CFC doesnt count for this purpose.
Ps - Tutor and the CGS Robin are civil owned, civil registered but military operated
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NCOs fly Air cadet gliders. They’re military registered.
They’re also gliders, which means that the regulations are very different to light aircraft.
Yeh…Different regulations for every aircraft operated by the military. Different rules for who can command an aircraft dependant on service, Army, Navy or RAF.
I guess if the RAF wanted NCOs to fly certain types of aircraft, they’d change the rules/regs?
Teflon’s point regarding NCOs during war time…Well the circumstances were a bit desperate/different…?