ATFQ, I've just got off the phone to Mechta Senior as I had sent him a link to sign the petition. He was an Air Cadet in 1944/45, and the similarities and differences with the current situation are worth a mention.
- He had to qualify on his squadron to get the opportunity to fly, although he can't remember how.
- His Air Cadet squadron provided him with a rail warrant to get from Chichester to Portsmouth on a Friday evening, where he would spend the weekend in a Nissen hut on the airfield.
- The Air Cadet gliders (Kirby Cadets) had structural issues (spar problems?), so a lot of the air cadet flying was actually done on the Portsmouth Gliding Club gliders (BAC 7 & Dagling).
- The winch was a converted balloon winch.
- The retrieve vehicles were Beaverette armoured cars which had had the armour flame cut off to leave a sort of spaceframe (and some rather jagged skin-removing edges).
- The chief instructor was Airspeed's test pilot, Ron Clear, whilst Frank Costin, later of Marcos Cars fame, was one of the other instructors.
- Once a cadet had completed a thirty second flight, his training and support from his squadron would cease, hence there were a very large number of twenty eight and twenty nine second flights ;-) .
- A lot of cadets went on to join the Portsmouth club so they could carry on flying.
- Sharing an airfield with the Airspeed factory meant that the club and Air Cadet gliders were kept supplied with parts.
- No one from Air Cadet headquarters ever came to see how things were run.
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Clearly, then as now in the 'pause', the air cadet organisation was reliant on the goodwill of civilian clubs to function.