Differentiation between the three Cadet Corps
It is a long time since I was a VR(T) officer, and still longer since I was an Air Cadet, so acronyms like MAA and VSO allude me! In my time, the Corps was organized in Wings, with the OC Air Cadets, an Air Commodore – invariably a pilot - in his last appointment. Gp Cpt Willie Tait DSO***, DFC* was SASO. Evidently oddly by today’s standards, except for a minimum of regulars at HQ AC, the Corps was run by volunteers, save for the engineers who maintained the AEF Chipmunks and the Sedburgh and Mk 3 gliders.
I have long since lost my RAF Form 3822, but I remember flying in Chipmunks, Ansons, Hastings, Vikings, Varsities, and even, night-flying in a Hercules doing circuits and bumps at Thorney Island. This is most memorable, for the reason that I was kept busy handing out sick-bags! Memory fades, but my recollection is that AEF and Gliding Courses were sufficient to differentiate the Air Training Corps from the ACF and the Naval Cadets, and were huge motivators. Yes, gliding training mostly lead only to the award of the BGA A&B Certificate, but the pride of a 16 year old to receive his “Wings” for having soloed, was a joy to all and a great motivator.
So much for reminiscing! I presume the MAA is the military equivalent of the CAA and somehow has subsumed the tried and tested ways of acceptance of aircraft in RAF service. If so, why does it not concentrate on purely military aircraft, and why does not the RAF and the ATC adhere to civilian rules and regulations for aircraft which may be included on the Civil Register. For Air Cadets, that means they could be trained on gliders maintained to BGA standards and solo at 14, and fly (perhaps even in a civilian aircraft piloted by a licensed civilian pilot) in aircraft maintained to EASA/LAA standards, and if lucky enough to gain a Flying Scholarship, solo at 16.
Contributors to this thread are rightly focussed on gliding in the ATC, but I think I am correct in saying that Air Cadets of today do not have the chance of a week’s Summer Camp at an RAF Station. Maybe Duncan Sandys was right but ahead of his time: the RAF of tomorrow do not need aircrew, only drone pilots?
PS What are VSOs? Are they as useful as VASIs?