No charge for awesomeness....

[sp6]

AEF flying, new cadet who had never been up in a light aircraft before (and before we had done any aeros),

Me: "what do you think of flying?"

Cadet: "awesome...!"


Me: "there is no charge for awesomeness....."

Ok, nobby in the extreme, but me and the cadet both had a laugh. It did make me (as an ex air cadet) realise how awesome AEF flying is for the kids and what a fantastic privilege it is to be returning the favour after all these years. My thanks goes out to all those who support any youth/cadet organisation and give their time, especially to the more mundane admin tasks.

Cheers

SP6

[Wander00]

My first flight at 13 and a bit in an Anson at Bassingbourn (where years later I was student on the Canberra Long Strike Course), was similarly "awesome" and came as quite relief as for several rears I had bored all and sundry with "I am going to Cranwell to become a pilot" (is that an oxymoron?), and my main concern was that I might not like flying. 57 years later I still love every opportunity to get airborne, even courses of the Irishman's airline.

[ShotOne]

Agreed, awesome although I'd not have dreamed of using the word then. And to the Victor copilot holding at Turnhouse (1980) who took me, thank you for the flight and putting up with a million questions about OASC, BFTS etc

[BOAC]

Originally Posted by Wander

for several rears I had bored all

- Hmm! Air Cadets............

[cargosales]

Originally Posted by Wander00

for several rears I had bored all and sundry with "I am going to Cranwell to become a pilot"

With that eagerness, surely Dark Blue was more your 'thing'?

[Opsbeatch]

First flight was in the Husky at 5 AEF in Cambridge, loved it and hooked me in!

OB

[Wander00]

I was an air cadet (CCF, and ATC for a short time), and I considered dark blue.

[cargosales]

Let's not forget the social benefit / impact of Cadet flying

Originally Posted by sp6

AEF flying, new cadet who had never been up in a light aircraft before (and before we had done any aeros),

Me: "what do you think of flying?"

Cadet: "awesome...!"


Me: "there is no charge for awesomeness....."

Ok, nobby in the extreme, but me and the cadet both had a laugh. It did make me (as an ex air cadet) realise how awesome AEF flying is for the kids and what a fantastic privilege it is to be returning the favour after all these years. My thanks goes out to all those who support any youth/cadet organisation and give their time, especially to the more mundane admin tasks.

Cheers

SP6

I'm sure I've posted this before but what the hell..

Many years ago I was a CI on a Volunteer Gliding School and each weekend cadets would arrive for Air Experience flights.... except that sometimes it went a little bit deeper...

One weekend an ATC Squadron from a seriously deprived inner-city location pitched up and as I walked onto the field one of them, a young lad maybe 13 or 14, simply stopped in his tracks and almost whispered "Wow, all this green"... He'd never seen anything like it before, despite it being less than 10 miles from where he lived.

Come lunchtime when us G1s were allowed to try and get away (and stay up) from a single launch, I asked for a volunteer to miss lunch but 'to help with something important' and this lad's hand was first in the air.

IIRC, we got in 30+ minutes of soaring, with him flying much of it, and the look on his face afterwards was something I'll never forget

CS

[sp6]

My first AEF flight was in the Husky at Cambridge too, followed by some great trips in Chipmunks. If I could get a Chipmunk flight, and a Kirby Cadet and a T21......and a go of a Lee Enfield .303, that dates me, ahem Bulldog, SLR, SMG....

[TomJoad]

That's the great thing about kids, they are nothing but honest. Life get's too complicated when you are an adult, so if he said awsome then he certainly meant it. What a great privilege you have to be showing flight to the youngsters.

[smujsmith]

My first flight, ever, was in a Chipmunk from Shawbury, around 1967/68, aged 13/14. God knows what the pilot thought, I had no capacity for speech, no way of describing the rapture I was going through. I had read W.E Johns Biggles stories until I could recite them, but nothing could begin to describe the sheer awe I was in. As a secondary school lad, my aspirations to pursue a flying career were limited, so I opted for the next best thing and became a Halton brat. My almost 30 year career has allowed me to put in a few hours aloft, but I have very fond memories of strapping the youngsters into the back of 6 AEF Chippies at Abingdon, all those years ago. Those who can still offer the joy of flight to youngsters, are real servants to our communities, and will often trigger an ambition that could lead to greater things. Keep flying the young ones while you can chaps, I for one salute your efforts.

Smudgeq

[Arm out the window]

I have a strong memory from 34 years or so ago as a pimply faced cadet sitting in the quarter compartment of a UH-1H as it lifted to the hover off the Point Cook tarmac.

It may sound mundane, but the magic of that moment probably more than anything else led to all 4 RAAF helicopter squadrons being the top of my posting wish list off pilots course.

[diginagain]

Having had the delight of experiencing gliding and powered flight as an ATC cadet before opting for a career in Army aviation, the opportunity to repay the compliment rarely came my way, until, during an exercise on Salisbury Plain I dropped-in to Upavon, where we'd set-up a refueling point.

Gathered around the bowser was a party of cadets, so having confirmed with one of their accompanying adults that parental consent for flight in Service aircraft was in place, we gave them a 15-minute trip in a Lynx. Only sorry we couldn't have done more.

[bobward]

Back in February I took some cadets up to RAF Wyton for their first AEF on the Tutor. When they walk out you can almost see the nervousness they have, but when they come back, the feet barely touch the ground.

Later in the week I saw a comment one of the kids had written about their trip: 'It was the best day of my life...'

Thanks to all of you on the AEF's and VGS', what you do does make a difference.

[Landroger]

Not quite the cadets, but the awesomeness was still pretty intense. I was an 'Air Scout' and my first ever flight was in a Percival Proctor from Biggin Hill, flown by T.E.Scott-Chard. I knew him as Assistant County Commissioner for Air Scouts, but some of you may know of him from his bomber days? Wellingtons I think.

He was our 'regular' pilot and my mates and I often flew with him as part of our Air Navigators badge - often in a Percival Prentice, a huge thing with a tiny engine and prop, which made a very loud noise when you were perpendicular to it - or just for 'air experience'.

On one flight from Biggin, we were just gathering around the aeroplane for his preflight briefing, when a small, extremely bad tempered man came up to Scottie and employed quite a few expletives to complain that his batteries were flat in his Miles Magister. That was Douglas Bader.

Roger