Heard the same. :ok:

Also heard that the paperwork issues are also cleared up. :ok:

Positive news for once. Here's hoping that the organisation bounces back much stronger than before. It will still be a while before the rest are done but there is definately a light in the tunnel!

LJ

My lad has been in the air cadets 14 months now and is yet to fly anything or visit an RAF base! He is getting very disillusioned and talking about quitting. I feel guilty as I talked it up, telling him how great it was before he joined.
Since he so desperately wants to be an RAF pilot, I am now wondering what would serve him better. a) stick with the cadets for lots of drill and no flying, or, b) leave cadets, join a civvie gliding club and get the hours in?
Your views please.

My lad has been in the RAF 14 months now and is yet to fly anything or visit an RAF base! He is getting very disillusioned and talking about quitting. I feel guilty as I talked it up, telling him how great it was before he joined.
Since he so desperately wants to be an RAF pilot, I am now wondering what would serve him better. a) stick with the RAF for lots of drill and no flying, or, b) leave RAF, join a civvie gliding club and get the hours in?
Your views please.

Sky Sports,

It depends where you are located with regards to civvie gliding clubs. Many of them now offer cadet/junior schemes and also fixed price to first solo courses.

Wish your lad good luck - it was air cadet gliding that started me on my life's involvement in aviation. It must be really frustrating for the lads with no firm news on when air cadet gliding will resume.

However, if you check Serco's MAOS approval it's only until July so you have to hope that everything is good on the next audit or we'll be back to square one!

My daughter has been an ATC cadet for almost four years and is now a SNCO.

She has only had the opportunity to fly once in that time (she has flown a few times with me, in the civilian aircraft I fly for a living). Not only that, she has only visited RAF stations when we have arranged it for her, to further her earlier keen interest in an RAF career, or when i have driven her to attend sports competitions, at which she excels (she's now reached Corps level at hockey), because there seems to be little encouragement from her unit. Unfortunately, she has become quite disillusioned with the whole thing and it's unlikely she will join up.

Something seriously seriously wrong there, even being semi detached, I have a dozen going to Woodvale in two weeks, we manage more than that, AEF should be programmed in as should camps, someone, either at Sqn or Wing level is not doing their job.
One of mine is Corps hockey as well ask your daughter if she know Chloe from NI, she got selected for IACE this week, heading to the US.

RAF Wyton
 

Banana Boy/Bobward, The last Tutors left RAF Wyton last week, only the Flying & Microlight clubs left now. Another good airfield gone...

First result of this was that AEF Flying has been canned at Wittering until early March!

Completely in tune with those cadets who are getting fed up with the lack of "Air" in Air Cadets just now, if its any consolation the staff are none too happy niether.

Sky Sports,

Encourage your son to stay in the cadets and learn about all the subjects associated with being in the Service, do well and get promoted into positions of responsibility. It will stand him in good stead when applying to OASC or for a place on a UAS; these organisations are more interested in evidence of fortitude and leadership potential than air experience.

There is little point in converting ones own experiences as a Cadet into expectations of Cadet life nowadays. Not only has the organisation changed but the Cadet mentailty has changed significantly.

Education changes have impacted the career curve of cadets. It was once so that the next stage of life depended upon revision and a single set of exams. Coursework these days have created a Cadets/Education conflict of interest at the very point when in days gone by the seeds of Leadership and Responsibility in the form of rank were being sown. The brightest individuals will prioritise education and reduce their commitment to cadets.

Children in days gone by played outside regardless of whether team player or loner. They climbed trees, broke limbs and got up to mischief. Most important of all, they could communicate by talking. These days everything is heads down and tapping on an iPad or X-box in written variations of text.

I have witnessed on many occasions flying (AEF) opportunities offered to Cadets who do not want it. The prospect of a day spent at the AEF for a 20 min fligt has no appeal to them. Exactly the opposite of when I was a Cadet myself in the early seventies.

That said, in my day the 'Sqn' went on Annual Camp every year, which was the highlight of the ATC calendar. These days camp contingents are made up of less than half dozen cadets per sqn amalgamated into a temporary 'sqn' for the purpose of at least getting some to camp.

A smaller RAF and operational commitments are the prime reason given, but IMHO, the RAF have little appetite these days for support to the ACO which I am sure is Treasury driven. Where it not for AEF/UAS being a senior officer (retired) free flying club, I suspect that both would have by now been disbanded.

A lot depends on the Sqn staff, there are some who just drift along and do not push for anything extra for their cadets or anthing that does not interest them.
As it is I have been given 14 places for autumn camp for my sqn and I will be pushing to fill any spare places during the summer. I have one cadet selected for IACE this year and I will be getting some to RIAT camp, there are approx 800 places for that this year and going up to 1000 for next year.
As well as that I am hopefuly taking 45 cdts and ten staff to the Somme next year for the 100th anniversary.
The staff on a sqn need to be proactive ,pushing for anything they can get not just floating along. As for AEF for a dozen places I had 35 wanting to go.

Very true. One example that springs to mind was at Boulmer, where some weeks the cadet staff would come across to A Flt soon after arriving to enquire about chances of flying cadets during the camp, whereas others would ring up (presumably the 300 yard walk from the Officers' Mess was too much?) the day before going home to arrange flying as a last-day treat. Guess whose cadets got airborne...

On camp there are two CCs I always go with, both when they arrive on camp visit everyone who can help with the camp and during the week keep pushing especially with visiting aircrew, at Leuchars we got eight cadets ,in pairs , flying in four C-130s up on a SF exercise also a dozen cadets on a VC 10 tanking thanks to a few beers in the mess. Another I did camp with once cancelled a visit to 41 Sqn because "the cadets" otherwise him, wouldn't be interested :rolleyes: Never worked with him again.
When we leave camp a box of biscuits, bottle of wine or slab of beer goes to whoever helped us during the week, just as a thank you.
Worst I seen was a CCF officer who was taking over from us, she was phoning up units demanding things, ACLO wasn't impressed neither was the SWO ,don't think she got a lot of help during the week.

Sad isn't it, that a the Air Cadet Organisation, and by extension, the RAF, cannot put something in place to get this cadet flying and yet he can walk down the road and be flying (a lot) the next day!

It's a bloody shame, if it's going this way.
It was the 20 min chipmunk flights from Abingdon that sealed my interest in aviation ,
im thinking of rejoining as a CI as I do airline stuff now, and am a keen shooter ( when in the US)

I've been a CI for 5 years with my local (East Mids) Squadron, and was a cadet from the moment I could join to when I had to leave at 22 (in 2002) at my 'home' squadron (West Merican Wing).

I take care of all matters aeronautical on the Squadron and find that some of the comments above ring true with my observations. I was chatting to one of the other staff about it after parade on Monday night. We are very lucky to have a good relationship with our local AEF and we have had lots of flying slots over the past year - about once every 6-8 weeks on average with two slots (for 24 cadets in total) for the first two months of 2015 alone. Brilliant.

What I am finding puzzling however is that I am having to plug away to get all the slots filled. Thinking back to my time as a cadet (typically 1-2 AEFs a year at Shawbury) we were fighting to get a place to go flying and were frequently disappointed. We are now able to fly the super-keen aviators regularly which is great for them but I am surprised that for many of the cadets, they just don't seem interested.

Last Autumn I briefed our cadets on the Air Cadet Pilot Scheme (~10 hrs flying at a civilian flying school all paid for) and had only one completed application returned. The opportunity of receiving a good £1,500 of flying training plus various other bits raised surprisingly little interest - I can't figure out why?

Finally, we are trying to boost mental arithmetic skills. I'm no maths genius but even amongst those I teach aeronautical subjects to (talking 14-16 year olds), super simple mental arithmetic poses a much bigger challenge than I'd ever realised.

Ours is a large city Squadron, very successful over the past few years with a big group of cadets and a large pool of talented and passionate staff.

Would be interested to hear anyone else's experiences/observations on the above.

I thought the Air Cadet Pilot Scheme was the choice of one flying school - Tayside Aviation in Dundee. Not a lot of good for East Northants! (Or even worse those from the South or South West of the UK)

See link Air Cadets - Pilot schemes

LJ

LJ

Doesn't matter where in the UK you are, or abroad for that matter. It's a residential course, all expenses paid including travel.

LJ
There are also places on the Pilot Schemes available at local AEF units.
See your link.

TOFO

It depends how much you trust your 16 year old to go to Dundee on a residential course - 'all expenses paid'! :eek:

LJ