More bad press for AT

[Sospan]

Its been relentless for us over the last few weeks.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/7945725/Troops-returning-from-Helmand-pay-for-own-flights.html

 

[ForgottenName]

Actually, in a perverse way, it could actually work in our favour.

 

[I`m Ron Burgundy?]

The more bad press the better, may potentially soften the blow when the cuts come.

 

[pie sandwich]

I think it's not a bad article, we need more like it to high light the fact that the RAF has been flown to it's limits and then some, with the absolute minimum in investment.

 

[he_who_dares_rodney]

Isn't this an old story I seem to remember an MP who was also in the TA complaining about the same thing last year

Quick question

How do the people in question get from Akrotiri to Larnica / Pathos to jump a flight home?
They will be in uniform and on the aircrafts manifest
So I assume they must have to go and ask for permission to be taken off the aircraft manifest and be allowed to leave Akrotiri
Most infantry lads won't have civvies wioth them so they are in uniform so do they have to buy civvies are the Cypriots happy about uniformed soldiers kicking about their terminals?


Going back to when I was in Iraq with Army we had to fly back to Brize
Get picked up from the terminal and returned to Windsor to report to the Guardroom the duty driver then took us to Heathrow for our flights (Sqn paid for flights to get everyone where they needed to go)
Returning it was the opposite report Guardroom - Brizde
It was all done in uniform we didn't take civvies with us - no need

My Brother was at Brize and I had hel on trying to persuade the SCM to allow me to go direct from their home without going to Windsor
I almost thought at one point he was going to have to sign for me

We had one officer who jumped a C17 home and he got a right going over from the C.O.
The word was put out regardless of rank we went both ways as a group

The Infantry lads went as sections so tthe section Cpl made sure they all got back to Tidworth together

This was due to a Battle group order that nobody was to hire cars and make their own way due to people being tired
Didn't seem much point of coming through all that to die faling asleep going on R & R

So I am suprised that they are making their own way home

 

[feckinG RANT]

Hasn't there been a policy change in this so that your R & R time doesn’t' start until you reach you chosen destination rather than when you leave, i.e. any delays are picked up by the military as opposed to the individual?

 

[I`m Ron Burgundy?]

Hasn't there been a policy change in this so that your R & R time doesn’t' start until you reach you chosen destination rather than when you leave, i.e. any delays are picked up by the military as opposed to the individual?

It's more that any RnR lost due to delays in theatre are to be added on to PODL at the end. Only applies to 6 monthers now, RnR is to be axed as of next year for 4 monthers, if you didn't already know.

 

[feckinG RANT]

RnR is to be axed as of next year for 4 monthers, if you didn't already know.

Already axed, mate of mine just left a few days ago, he's not getting R & R.

 

[FOMz]

I would be interested to see exactley how many 'have bought' their own tickets back to be honest... until that point, I'll take a big pinch of salt thanks.

I know that it has happened for the odd person here and there, but that been under exceptional circumstances - rather than the norm.

 

[Douglas Bader's Right Leg]

The article's research is poor, IIRC we have three T* C2 and three T* KC1 making 6 ac capable of carrying pax (K1 can carry pax, but have very limited baggage capacity), but the limiting factor is the number of ac fitted with DAS.

This is definitely worth reporting on though; the bottom line is that we cannot operate an effective airbridge and the elephant in the room is that FSTA is unlikely to be much better despite being considerably more expensive than it ought to be.

 

[Weebl]

The article's research is poor, IIRC we have three T* C2 and three T* KC1 making 6 ac capable of carrying pax (K1 can carry pax, but have very limited baggage capacity), but the limiting factor is the number of ac fitted with DAS.

This is definitely worth reporting on though; the bottom line is that we cannot operate an effective airbridge and the elephant in the room is that FSTA is unlikely to be much better despite being considerably more expensive than it ought to be.

2x C2, 1XC2a, 4xKC1 and 2xK1 is the T* fleet.

as you said, a KC1 in the correct role is fine for a Herrick Pax run. The K1 is pretty pointless in that role. All of the above is in the public domain.

As you will appreciate I will not go into the ins and outs of the DAS fits of the various AC however the DAS fit is not a limiting factor.

I will however disagree with your assertion we do not maintain an effective Airbridge. I know how many AC do the Herrick run each week against how many are programmed to go against how many Pax are due including Aeromed requirements. I will admit we do not get a 100% sortie rate but the numbers we do get (which a quick Google does not find so although I was sure they were in the public domain so I won't specify them) are, in the huge, huge majority of cases effective at getting people moved as required. Do people sometimes get delayed, yes. But that happens if you book a holiday to Lanzarote as well.

216 work very very hard to maintain this, and while things do suffer (training, tanker sorties etc) the Herrick Airbridge is always number one priority.

Are the difficulties encountered worth reporting on? Most definitely. Unfortunately what is reported on is normally incorrect and the problems we face go undocumented in favour of much more headline grabbing factors, some of which exist only in either the reporters, or a misinformed Paxs mind.

 

[Craig855s]

2x C2, 1XC2a, 4xKC1 and 2xK1 is the T* fleet.

as you said, a KC1 in the correct role is fine for a Herrick Pax run. The K1 is pretty pointless in that role. All of the above is in the public domain.

As you will appreciate I will not go into the ins and outs of the DAS fits of the various AC however the DAS fit is not a limiting factor.

I will however disagree with your assertion we do not maintain an effective Airbridge. I know how many AC do the Herrick run each week against how many are programmed to go against how many Pax are due including Aeromed requirements. I will admit we do not get a 100% sortie rate but the numbers we do get (which a quick Google does not find so although I was sure they were in the public domain so I won't specify them) are, in the huge, huge majority of cases effective at getting people moved as required. Do people sometimes get delayed, yes. But that happens if you book a holiday to Lanzarote as well.

216 work very very hard to maintain this, and while things do suffer (training, tanker sorties etc) the Herrick Airbridge is always number one priority.

Are the difficulties encountered worth reporting on? Most definitely. Unfortunately what is reported on is normally incorrect and the problems we face go undocumented in favour of much more headline grabbing factors, some of which exist only in either the reporters, or a misinformed Paxs mind.

Here here, I hope this bad press forces some more investment into T*s though, especially in the spares dept..

 

[busby1971]

Eh

Eh

Army kit shortages are blamed on the government.

RAF Crap kit gets blamed on the RAF, as someone who has been employed on the perifery of AT in the past, twin engine fires in a herc was interesting, I'm more than happy if I get back the same day.

However due to a lack of progress with the transports fleet replacement we've got old aircraft that do break down every now and then, this is the fault of the purchasing processes not the RAF.

 

[Craig855s]

Army kit shortages are blamed on the government.

RAF Crap kit gets blamed on the RAF, as someone who has been employed on the perifery of AT in the past, twin engine fires in a herc was interesting, I'm more than happy if I get back the same day.

However due to a lack of progress with the transports fleet replacement we've got old aircraft that do break down every now and then, this is the fault of the purchasing processes not the RAF.

Yes we should have a replacement in service, however because we dont, it would be wise to have plenty of parts to hand for the T*. A jet stuck in AKT 2-3 days waiting on a bit of kit that isnt available wouldnt happen if we had proper amounts of spares, the bit would be chucked on the next flight out there so the jet could be fixed quicker (yes plenty of faults are fixable using the spare parts carried with the jet, some are fixable due to stock being at supply at brize so the part makes it to the stricken jet in less than 24 hours, but some parts get a "inability" response from the stacker, this shouldnt happen, especially when it comes to parts that get changed more often like battery chargers etc

 

[UlsterExile]

Unfortunatly this is down to the lack of foresight by IPT's. Mainly because of the finicial constraints and more likley due to a lack of spares getting fixed at contractor. As they will be fixing spares for BA/Virgin Etc as they pay more. Also the IPT's only bought a small amout of spares, again coz of money. And as most of we know the aircraft we operate and aging and showing it.

Give you an insight to Easyjet, my mate is at Luton on the maintence side(shift supervisor) they have jusy replaced all their Boeing's with Airbus 319/320's due to the fact that the Boeings were between 8-10 years old. The main reason he was telling me is that main components start to be changed more frequent and the aircraft needs more checks as the flying hours increase. Yes admititily easyjey will do a lot more hours than our fleet but we have had our fleet a long time and it's showing.

With SDR around the corner are they going to look at FTSA? It seems everything is an option. But cut the AT flleet at their peril.

 

[vim_fuego]

Yes we should have a replacement in service, however because we dont, it would be wise to have plenty of parts to hand for the T*. A jet stuck in AKT 2-3 days waiting on a bit of kit that isnt available wouldnt happen if we had proper amounts of spares, the bit would be chucked on the next flight out there so the jet could be fixed quicker (yes plenty of faults are fixable using the spare parts carried with the jet, some are fixable due to stock being at supply at brize so the part makes it to the stricken jet in less than 24 hours, but some parts get a "inability" response from the stacker, this shouldnt happen, especially when it comes to parts that get changed more often like battery chargers etc

Why not have s selection of the more popular spares, not carried in the FAP's, stored at AKT?

 

[Realist78]

Why not have s selection of the more popular spares, not carried in the FAP's, stored at AKT?

You crazy apesh1t MoFo, coming out with suggestions like that, radical or what?

 

[BJW]

Why not have s selection of the more popular spares, not carried in the FAP's, stored at AKT?

Just letting us hold spares for the kit that is here all of the time would be a start.

That said we do hold some C130/T*/VC10 stuff, invariably though not the bits that go u/s (sod's law!). Generally though anything that is required for the AT fleet gets here within 24 hrs or less, not brilliant but perhaps better than some think.

 

[Joe_90]

So if it gets there in 24 hours why doesn't it magically jump out of it's packaging and immediately make the AC work?

 

[Craig855s]

So if it gets there in 24 hours why doesn't it magically jump out of it's packaging and immediately make the AC work?

Obviously it needs a few hours to be fitted and funcd, and then a few more hours to ready the PAX, so if all goes well, any returning troops may only be disrupted for 16 hours or so (eg. jet goes U/S in AKT early hours of tuesday, part flies out on tuesdays outbound T* and is fitted early afternoon, funcd by teatime and PAX can get on and make it back to UK before midnight (in an ideal world)

But with a lack of spares it can be difficult to get the part on the "next days outbound" and that means that one T* may have to bring back extra PAX that should have came on the stricken one