sloegin57 Posted March 11, 2016 Share Posted March 11, 2016 Air Cadet Aviation Relaunch:Written statement Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truro Model Builder Posted March 11, 2016 Share Posted March 11, 2016 Another MoD screw up; a kick in the teeth for VGS volunteers and another step along the loss of 'Air' from the Air Cadet Organisation. Very sad. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glen Posted March 11, 2016 Share Posted March 11, 2016 The kids get lttle enough flying as it is without half the gliding network closing down. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silver Fox Posted March 11, 2016 Share Posted March 11, 2016 My daughter has been a cadet for 3 and a half years and never even seen a glider with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F4u Posted March 11, 2016 Share Posted March 11, 2016 I was lucky enough to get to fly in a glider a couple of times when I was a cadet and really enjoyed it and it put the theory of flight into practice as we were learning at the time, such a shame this is happening it is a good way of learning about flight for cadets who maybe our future pilots. Guy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sloegin57 Posted March 11, 2016 Author Share Posted March 11, 2016 Both my sons soloed with the ATC at Arbroath. Both loved it despite the often freezing weather. I was not aware, until my youngest told me about it this morning on Facebook, that there was a problem with the Grobs. So I looked it up on PPPrune :- http://www.pprune.org/military-aviation/538497-air-cadets-grounded.html WARNING !! - 89 Pages !!! Dennis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob P Posted March 11, 2016 Share Posted March 11, 2016 I was lucky enough to do my Basic Glider Training at 615VGS based at Kenley and subsequently joined the staff (1987 to 1990). Nice to see they are one of the schools to be retained. It's sad that the current generation of Cadets won't have the same experiences, but the new structure, to include weekend accommodation, sounds like they will get more flying, but less often. Hope it works out for them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmatthewbacon Posted March 11, 2016 Share Posted March 11, 2016 (edited) Well, it's a lot further to Predannack than it was to Chivenor in my day, but that was 35 years ago... If you read the linked text, though, it's not all bad news. It seems like a reasonable response to a difficult situation. And "The RAF remains committed to Air Cadet flying..." doesn't sound like "Another step to the loss of 'Air'..." to me... Unless you're one of those folks who just assume that the opposite of anything that anyone in politics, the civil service, the public sector or the military says is true... bestest, M. Edited March 11, 2016 by cmatthewbacon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aeronut Posted March 11, 2016 Share Posted March 11, 2016 Well, it's a lot further to Predannack than it was to Chivenor in my day, but that was 35 years ago... If you read the linked text, though, it's not all bad news. It seems like a reasonable response to a difficult situation. And "The RAF remains committed to Air Cadet flying..." doesn't sound like "Another step to the loss of 'Air'..." to me... Unless you're one of those folks who just assume that the opposite of anything that anyone in politics, the civil service, the public sector or the military says is true...[/size] bestest,[/size] M.[/size] It'll be the best part of a year before any cadets are trained and even then the remaining squadrons combined will not be able to produce the number of first solos that the most productive of the disbanded squadrons could on its own. The risk adverse bean counters have claimed this one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truro Model Builder Posted March 12, 2016 Share Posted March 12, 2016 Well, it's a lot further to Predannack than it was to Chivenor in my day, but that was 35 years ago... If you read the linked text, though, it's not all bad news. It seems like a reasonable response to a difficult situation. And "The RAF remains committed to Air Cadet flying..." doesn't sound like "Another step to the loss of 'Air'..." to me... Unless you're one of those folks who just assume that the opposite of anything that anyone in politics, the civil service, the public sector or the military says is true... bestest, M. I'm not one of those folks who assume anything, but I know quite a few people connected with local ATC squadrons and the whole 'air' ethos is being steadily eroded. Maybe those units that happen to be located nearer to flying stations have a better time of it, but it is getting to the point where some cadets have never seen a Royal Air Force aircraft, let alone flown on one. The decision to move away from 'air experience' to 'flying training' is an interesting one as well, as I'm not sure how much 'flying training' can be achieved in a 20-30 minute flight every year. And it's still a lot further to get to Predannack -despite the better roads- which does not feature any overnight accommodation such as that being suggested for the new regional centres, and which still has an abysmal weather record, located as it is on the tip of the Lizard peninsula. During my time in the ATC many moons ago bad weather trips to Predannack outnumbered good weather trips by a substantial margin. I think that many of the remaining squadrons will be moved to allow for a better geographic spread, and as an example can see 626 moving from Predannack to Chivenor, which is much more centrally located. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John B (Sc) Posted March 12, 2016 Share Posted March 12, 2016 This seems to have been a dreadfully badly managed exercise from the beginning. The old ATC organisation introduced many to the delights of flying. While the number who subsequently continued flying was smaller than I'd have hoped, it did a fine job. It rather seems that the loss of RAF engineering capability, thanks in large part to very poor leadership understanding from non-engineers has now led to this fiasco. Simple aircraft, of types run routinely safely and well in civilian hands, remain largely grounded due to incompetent contract definition and inadequate or missing supervisory oversight. Result, the grounding for absurd periods of time of these simple aircraft, the loss of many volunteers due to exasperation, low morale and lack of confidence in the 'leadership' being shown. The gentleman in charge seems to be superb at spouting modern management BS, which will no doubt keep the place servers at the top of the chain happy. Not convinced he or they have real interest in a return to the style of operation of the past. CYA, medals, congratulations and promotions all round for the senior braid, little flying for the youngsters. What a mess. Very sad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truro Model Builder Posted March 12, 2016 Share Posted March 12, 2016 Post no.1796 says it all: http://www.pprune.org/military-aviation/538497-air-cadets-grounded-90.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John B (Sc) Posted March 12, 2016 Share Posted March 12, 2016 Post no.1796 says it all: http://www.pprune.org/military-aviation/538497-air-cadets-grounded-90.html Doesn't it just ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glen Posted March 13, 2016 Share Posted March 13, 2016 It is hard enough to find someone available for a weekend day out with the cadets let alone for a whole weekend Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John B (Sc) Posted March 14, 2016 Share Posted March 14, 2016 For those who, like me, feel this farce has gone way beyond a joke, the petition below may be of interest. I also saw a report that the relevant Minister has just been to see KIrknewton. Uttered a lot of facile platitudes by the sound of it. https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/124333 John B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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