The comment by Olympia 463 that participation in an activity that may cause death, I find strange. When I did my glider course, I felt fully confident in the maintenance of the airframes and the quality of instruction, that death was an exceptionally remote possibility. Indeed, I felt more threatened by hill walking and rugby playing, which presented a more probable source of injury than gliding.
What Olympia 463 means is that when flying you have to do a series of actions correctly to ensure you get back to earth alive. In a car, pulling over to the side of the road is sufficient, whereas in the air, there are far more opportunities for getting it wrong before you are safe. That is why training and discipline is so important, and that is why it is such good character building for Air Cadets (as are many of the other activities they do).
As for rugby, well that is something else. Willingly getting yourself in a position where a bunch of psychopathic thugs can maim you, makes no sense at all to me.
