The One Stop Shop DARA

[MrMasher]

Darned typos!!

Darned typos!!

I've seen 5 cabs that have come from DARA, straight from servicing.

All of them have required extensive rectification.

One of them was sent to us from Yeovilton where it was undergoing modification to the Hums system. We had to cure the tail vibration problem before a baseline could be set for Hums.

Another 2 of them had MRH and MRGB changes within a few weeks of receipt and the other has spent the last 6 weeks in the corner of our hangar getting all of its tail shafts fitted correctly when the manpower and spares are available.

Lastly we also had a sh1t engine as well, it only had 12 hours life left. Ridiculous, we fly that off in a day sometimes.

What more can I say? I cant wait until it all of it goes civvie............

 

[Heilan]

With all received aircraft from DARA remember who signs off reds and greens. The IPT have to give their acceptance, as I've heard.
That's not to say wot is happening is right, but lets hope the SAR coverage doesn't suffer and aircraft are reliable and serviced well.

 

[Hammer and stillson]

Well I hate to say it but last time I walked through the Seaking shed at Fleetlans it was manily ex St Mawgan lads in there working as connies for SERCO.

 

[Teh Wal]

With all received aircraft from DARA remember who signs off reds and greens. The IPT have to give their acceptance, as I've heard.
That's not to say wot is happening is right, but lets hope the SAR coverage doesn't suffer and aircraft are reliable and serviced well.

Hmm, regarding Reds and Greens: no-one has told us or offered guidence on what should and what shouldn't be going into the Lim/ADF logs and what we can expect to be fixed when the cabs go into DARA. Out at Forward we only have 2 aircraft per flight (if we are lucky there might be a Sqn spare kicking around) so as soon as 1 cab goes u/s it's imperative to get it back S again as quickly as possible 'cos up til that point you're completely reliant on the other one holding itself together. And when the crew do launch on a job they can be gone from anything between 20 minutes to 12 hours (I kid you not!) especially if they get pinged for back-to-back jobs. And that's a totally unplanned for 12 hours not like down in the land of the Mr Masher where they cater for that type of flying on a daily basis.

So back to reds/greens... if we can fix a cab we will try our best to do so within given time restraints: if the work were to cause the aircraft to be off-line for days on end then we don't (obviously as long as it's safe to do so) - historically the work would get carried out when the cabs went into St M; but now they don't go to St M and it would appear that the time consuming jobs in the reds/greens aren't being worked. And in fact they are coming out to us with bizzarre greens which make you wonder who actually did agree to the release from Depth and does he/she actually know what we use these aircraft for! You don't have to be a genius to work out that these snags are gonna have to be fixed somewhere... and that somewhere is gonna be at Forward... which means that the fleet serviceability rate is gonna suffer... a lot! (IMHO)

It must the season for TRDS Mr M... we recently spent 3 weeks fixing one of our beasts just for it to go into DARA as soon as it was 'S' - even had to get the VCC chappy up here to do a Vib10 (think it was a 10, the one with 5 sensors down the spine).

 

[PlymBoy]

Hmm, regarding Reds and Greens: no-one has told us or offered guidence on what should and what shouldn't be going into the Lim/ADF logs and what we can expect to be fixed when the cabs go into DARA.

So back to reds/greens... if we can fix a cab we will try our best to do so within given time restraints: if the work were to cause the aircraft to be off-line for days on end then we don't (obviously as long as it's safe to do so) - historically the work would get carried out when the cabs went into St M; but now they don't go to St M and it would appear that the time consuming jobs in the reds/greens aren't being worked. And in fact they are coming out to us with bizzarre greens which make you wonder who actually did agree to the release from Depth and does he/she actually know what we use these aircraft for! You don't have to be a genius to work out that these snags are gonna have to be fixed somewhere... and that somewhere is gonna be at Forward... which means that the fleet serviceability rate is gonna suffer... a lot! (IMHO)

Well can see that this issue has changed alot and that many can see the difference from civil and service maint. It may not of been the best all the time but alot of issues were taken on and cured before release of aircraft. As has been mentioned in some threads before we may yet have another HMF if matters don't improve. First line has got to do more now but with fewer personnel. That should be fun !!!

 

[riggertoSTAB]

I like many other ex RAF techies went to work for MoD Air at St Athan. The wise men of Whitehall created DARA and for a while little changed and we carried on with a mix of service and civilian workers, with happy customers.

Enter bean counters and efficiency experts, and genuine efficiencies were made. Before these genuine savings could be demonstrated the same wise men decided to cut the work to DARA fixed wing to almost nothing. Most of the smart techies realised this was time to jump and myself included did, either to the wider MoD or to the real world.

The greatest crime of the workforce was to believe Ministers.

I can assure the wider RAF that neither I or the people I worked with would want to deliver a sub standard job.

 

[Ex-Bay]

We're down to the written word again. Contracts? Do they KNOW how to write a contract these guys? If the job needs doing, pay the money and get it done!
Or, for preference, get the experts to do it - in house!

 

[Scaley brat]

I like many other ex RAF techies went to work for MoD Air at St Athan. The wise men of Whitehall created DARA and for a while little changed and we carried on with a mix of service and civilian workers, with happy customers.

Enter bean counters and efficiency experts, and genuine efficiencies were made. Before these genuine savings could be demonstrated the same wise men decided to cut the work to DARA fixed wing to almost nothing. Most of the smart techies realised this was time to jump and myself included did, either to the wider MoD or to the real world.

The greatest crime of the workforce was to believe Ministers.

I can assure the wider RAF that neither I or the people I worked with would want to deliver a sub standard job.

Quite right mate, Grp capt Willis told us the God's honest truth in the station cinema. The jewel in the crown he called Saints and he was right. There was no job that couldn't be done there. Remember the Phantom that got stuck through the wall at Stanley ? Saints Phixers fixed it.

The big civilian companies wanted Saints carved up and handed to them on a plate and NO-one had the guts to tell where to go.

Waste of space should supply Aircraft OR maintain them, but they should NEVER be allowed to do both. It's common sense.

 

[Realist78]

Quite right mate, Grp capt Willis told us the God's honest truth in the station cinema. The jewel in the crown he called Saints and he was right. There was no job that couldn't be done there. Remember the Phantom that got stuck through the wall at Stanley ? Saints Phixers fixed it.

The big civilian companies wanted Saints carved up and handed to them on a plate and NO-one had the guts to tell where to go.

Waste of space should supply Aircraft OR maintain them, but they should NEVER be allowed to do both. It's common sense.

Exactly why the mother of all fcuk ups called CMU at BAe Marham doesn't work.DT_Xtremez_17:

 

[riggertoSTAB]

Another point I would like to make about earlier comments regarding DARA only accepting 'whole aircraft'. Nearly every Sea Harrier that came from Bae after 'upgrading' came to the Sea Harrier Maintenance Flight on the back of a lorry in Airfix Kit form less several bits.

I know I am a bit late posting these items but being a recent member of this site I didn't realise we former DARA Technicians were taking such a slating.