AEF
AEF was ALWAYS a poor convertor of cash into flying for Cadets.
I well remember the Squadron going to White Waltham on a coach for a supposed AEF detail only to return later as the 'weather' was deemed too windy. It so happened that I was not on that detail 'too junior' and had been left with others to clean the HQ (Sunday parade). God showed his hand on that day as the local 615 Gliding school at Kenley (our base) ran out of course Cadets and came over to ask for 'volunteers' to go gliding for the day.
It therefore came to pass that those left behind went flying and the 'seniors' did none.
All H.... let loose on the next midweek parade when those in charge found out, but there was little they could do about it as we had not actually disobeyed any orders (although the HQ was never polished that week).It soon became apparent that Chipmunk flying was rather a 'black art' that needed very good weather as every other one was 'weathered out'. For me the situation opened up a new horizon of 'helping' at the Gliding school until I was old enough to do the A&B course, and I never even applied for AEF after that, as flying gliders and driving landrovers and I ton trucks on a former Battle of Britain airfield seemed a better option. When I started power flying a few years later I realised how little flying the AEF for Cadets actually achieved for the equipment and facilities it had at its disposal.