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

Given that, to win a place on the Pilot Scheme there is a prerequiste to have achieved a gliding solo and won your silver wings, does this mean that there will be a period of 2-3 years when no cadets are qualified to join the scheme??
Looks like those that are joining civvie gliding clubs are positioning themselves quite nicely.

Civil maintenance cotracts
 

There are moves afoot to send a large number of the gliders to civil maintenance companies to get them back in the air, also civil registration is under investigation, the aim being to get the gliders under more appropriate airworthiness oversight than the MAA.

A&C

Is that just for Vikings?

LJ

'all expenses paid'!

yeah but in Dundee a little goes an awfu' long way.............:}:}

The simple answer is no. However Cdts must have applied for a gliding course.

Leon,only Vikings currently. The Vikings that are long term dead. The idea is being looked at high level, with no decision being made yet.

Thanks Paul, if they are civil registered as well then they may as well work to the full BGA rules as well?

LJ

amazing what happens when you let a little light into things................

[quote]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.[quote]


A totally brilliant idea, though, I suspect that many youngsters (these days) might have huge difficulty in just the one simple task of mentally adding two numbers together! If you could somehow instil the necessity of 'guestimating' simple trigonometry into how to estimate drift/groundspeed problems you might then give your cadets a better understanding of what they have to academically achieve in order to be a pilot. They might then make a better effort with their schooling... maybe? Though, I wouldn't hold my breath!


TCF

Remember that you now have a situation where the vast majority of younger teachers do not know how to do mental arithmetic. As such, its use is likely to be discouraged, nevermind just not taught.

Students of mine regard my mental math skills as nothing short of magic, which is concerning.

Without mental math skills for rough estimates, they are frequently unable to spot when a 'switch-pigs' with the button-pressing has given a ludicrous answer.

Furthermore, the vast majority do not even know how to use many of their calculator's helpful functions (such as ENG or SCI display). They aren't taught it, and no one reads a manual these days.

That said, it is possible to train them if you can build their skills gradually on topics which are of daily relevance to them (e.g. how not to be late).

Leon
 

All is up for review in the maintenance side of the air cadet gliding fleet but my guess is the minimum standard of civil oversight that would be approved by the RAF would be EASA 145 ( the same as the Grob Tutor fleet ).

Remember that you now have a situation where the vast majority of younger teachers do not know how to do mental arithmetic. As such, its use is likely to be discouraged, nevermind just not taught. Students of mine regard my mental math skills as nothing short of magic, which is concerning.


While our fleet remains grounded I'm teaching air navigation to the local ATC squadron. Lovely kids, bright and well educated -- but entirely unable to cope with simple distance/speed/time calculations. They seem to have no concept at all of solving rule-of-three problems mentally and are astonished when I do.

What's even more striking is that despite a good deal of practice, they don't seem to be getting any better. They can just about cope by the end of the lesson but by the beginning of the following week it's gone. I've thought long and hard about my teaching technique, but they seem to be able to retain other taught skills perfectly well. So I'm a bit baffled.

"What's even more striking is that despite a good deal of practice, they don't seem to be getting any better. They can just about cope by the end of the lesson but by the beginning of the following week it's gone. I've thought long and hard about my teaching technique, but they seem to be able to retain other taught skills perfectly well. So I'm a bit baffled."

Why think for yourself when you have the University of Google / Youtube to answer all of your questions without thinking critically about it?

As I've mentioned in a previous post people in general have access to practically all the information they can ever need thanks to smartphones and the internet, but the underlying simple principles are neglected - everyone can use a GPS but how many can map read?

K.I.S.S.

Was explaining a Wizz-wheel (circular slide rule) on the back of the DR Computer to some Air Cadets not too long ago.

They'd "found" the computer, but didn't have a scooby how to work it.

"OK" says I, "we'll work an example." They were doing an MS Flight Sim light aircraft trip IIRC.

"Airspeed?" (no wind for easy starters) "170 knots"

"Distance?" "51 nautical miles"

"Don't need the computer for that one - it's 18 minutes!" :eek::eek:

I could not have made a greater impact if I had made sparks come from under my fingernails, and turned one of them into a frog! O tempora o mores.

I was at Biggin in '91 and one of the questions asked during the group mental tasks bit was how long does it take to travel 150 miles at 90mph? There wasn't even any working out to do to me, the answer is obvious. I couldn't write it down quickly enough for fear of being the last with his bit of paper up in his hand. I was the first....by about a minute. Couldn't believe it.

and as I jokingly say to them:

"now try doing it flying supersonic in the dark. And if you get it wrong, you die. No pressure."

Except that flying at supersonic speed there is very little drift effect over a short distance! An easier question than previous.

A staff member at the local ATC sqn, has told me that he has seen an email, saying that the glider fleet will return to the air 'soon'.

Can anyone elaborate on this?

One understands that there is a big Air Cadet Conference at Cranditz this week. I'm sure the latest (correct) buzz will come out of that......

If gliding is to resume sooner, rather than later, they had better start pulling their fingers out to get the aircraft airworthy.

Yes, there is a conference at Cranwell this week.