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[Entwood]

how long have you been out Entwood ?

2 1/2 years..

[albitz]

I did read the figure of 630 in a newspaper - so no guarantee that its accurate. It could have been the number of jet pilots, not including helicopters etc ? :-/
Nige - I understand that many support staff are needed, but it sounds quite top heavy to me.

[Lazydocker]

I did read the figure of 630 in a newspaper - so no guarantee that its accurate. It could have been the number of jet pilots, not including helicopters etc ? :-/
Nige - I understand that many support staff are needed, but it sounds quite top heavy to me.

Reading through I was just about to suggest that it was 630 "Fast Jet" Pilots. I'll also put a small wager that some of those 100 will have the opportunity to transfer within the RAF to another flying/non-flying role

[Entwood]

I did read the figure of 630 in a newspaper - so no guarantee that its accurate. It could have been the number of jet pilots, not including helicopters etc ? :-/
Nige - I understand that many support staff are needed, but it sounds quite top heavy to me.

It does to most ... until you see the scale of a military operation. If you were to be unfortunate enough to visit Camp Bastion for example... the number of aircrew there is miniscule compare to the total number required to get the job done.

We once had a TV crew travel with us on a Herc (Gulf War 1) who watched the whole prep of a trip and were pretty impressed by everything, especialy some of the finely balanced fuel/weight calculations we were doing .... until they got on board.. and all they saw was 6 pallets being strapped down. The load was only 2 ft high and the "back end" looked empty.......

Que the scathing "what are we wasting our time with this for" .. until it was pointed out that without those 6 pallets  all the tornados might as well not be in theatre. It was also pointed out that 6 pallets of 1000lb bombs is one hell of a load and was near ( ) the maximum capacity of the aircraft.

The fact that the fast jet boys would use them all up in one night mean't we Herc boys were busy and knackered for many weeks .. but no headlines in the papers for us ..

Support, Save, Supply - Station motto for many a year .. and it continues even now ..

[albitz]

I will willingly bow to your greater knowledge Nige.

[tigers_gonads]

most of them sit on there arses pushing paperclips around blackadder style 

nearly all the aircraft maintenence is farmed out to civilian contractors who in turn shaft the public purse bigtime for the honor  >:

thats why the MOD is skint 

only 38000 left ?
92000 in my day ( 20 years ago )
always has been too many chiefs and not anough indians
in my eyes, the real problem is the loss of the experties 



the way its going, we won't have a airforce soon anyway and god help us if anybody gets nasty with us in the next 10 years because we will be stuffed 

Yes indeed, because it will be the age of War by Missile, nuclear ballistic included!

i think the last politician to say that was   Duncan Sandys in around 1957 / 58  :-/
and he basicly destroyed the british aircraft industry 



Who will need planes?  They may become as obsolete as the battleship!

in small low tech wars like we are in at the moment, yes, some of the work can ( and is ) done with RPV's ( reaper ) ................ BUT ................. if it ever gets tastey with any of the big players then the first thing that will be taken down will be the satelites that are used to guide the majority of the so called smart weapons nowdays.

after that its back to the good old fashion ways of stick and rudder