Cranwell 1972 - 3
 

YouTube has just offered me this - Cranditz in 1970 probably 1972 -1973. JPs and a couple of splendid 'taches.


Surprised it hasn't been posted before, but a search didn't turn it up.

I was still using that microwave dish experiment when I was lecturing there in the early 2000s!

Interesting mash up, but certainly more based upon 72/73 . Even I appear!

So you do, mate! Holding forth with Roger E******* and others! But surely we were at ULAS in 1970?

That line of around 20 Jet Provosts....yes, those were the days some 50+ years ago!

Indeed Beags, I'm sure it was early to mid 1973 for a lot of the shots ( in '73 we still had the JP3/JP5 flight line)

Cosford ex St Athan JP Trainer in 2019 and was at Saints in 70's and before, but still in use, if it has a use why replace it.

If memory serves, we still had a mixed line of JP 3 and 5 at Scampton CFS in the late 80s, alongside the Bulldog and Tucano introduction.

AFAIR The JP3 was gone from BFT at Cranwell early 1975. The JP5A started appearing late ‘74 with the last of the JP5s leaving around mid 1975.

OLMTADS (Other logbooks may tell a different story)

YS

A couple of the JP5's were only shoved out of the training hangars at Cosford in 2019 as the Tornados started to appear in numbers.

Tucano at Scampton from late 88 onwards, but Bulldog at CFS was a little bit earlier (1973?)

I agree with the date error. In Feb 71 there were, as far as I remember, only the 2 JP5s for HRH. The rest of the line was still JP3s and 4s, so this film must be a fair time later. Even Haraka still looked like a boy..... Also, not a flight cadet to be seen, begging for cast-off fags and beer dregs from the super-rich student officers. From memory, the last flight cadet entry would have graduated in Feb 73?

101 Entry graduated on 16 Mar 1973.

The JP 5 entered service at RAFC in Jan 1971; 'Golden Eagle' flight gave HRH The Prince of Wales his training on XW322 and XW323 between 8 Mar and 30 Jul 1971.

The JP 5A came into service at The Towers in Autumn 1974.

Yup,Old B, it was 101 graduating in March 73.
.They went out in style with a cracking revue (including a stripper who had been forbidden, allegedly) , after which the DS just got up and all trooped out after the Commandant without saying a word, in front of the huge grins from the rest of us in the audience.

From that infamous 'Stable Bar' at a certain 'George'.....??

"No sir, it was a pint mug...."

After the accusation that the private parts had allegedly been seen dipped in to a half pint......

101 Entry graduated on 16 Mar 1973.

Was that the last proper Cranwell Entry to Graduate, before the Green Shield Stamp Brigade arrived??

The system started to officially change with the arrival of 99 Cadet Entry in September 1968. The graduate system was announced and quite a few of 99 elected to change streams . Most , following Interviews , getting away to University on APO Commissions in Sep 69.( to return in 1972 in most cases).
100 arrived in Sep 69 and 101 in Sep 70, The last Flight Cadet Entries.
The Graduate System ( GE) overlapped from 1970 onwards .......

Yep, I left the waterfront at Scampton in April 89 and the 3As and 5As were very much still on the line…AFAIR at that time the Bulldog was very much there. Really can’t recall if we’d seen much if anything of the Tucano at that point in the year…maybe standards had got their hands on the first airframes but I can’t remember for sure.

Going further back in time and back to Cranwell in the late 70s -I may be wildly wrong but I thought the advent of the first non GE flying courses to Sleaford Tech in ?78, maybe early 79, saw the return of at least a few 3As to the line…

University Cadetships started in 1963, and I was on the first entry. By the time 1969 arrived I was on my second tour and instructing at Cranwell. What had happened in the mean time was the publication of the Robbins Report into higher education, which recommended a massive expansion in first degree courses in the UK. This is how the new universities such as Bath came about, and there were many others. Schoolboys who would normally have applied for a cadetship to Cranwell were now advised by their careers masters to go to university first and then join the RAF. "After all you might fail the flying course, many do, and then at least you'll have a degree to fall back on". Understandable advice.

The result was that, by 1969, hardly anybody was applying for a Cranwell cadetship! The flow of candidates at OASC just about stopped. Top-scoring ex-Halton apprentices provided some excellent candidates but they were few. Consequently school-entry cadetships were abandoned and the graduate scheme was launched. The few cadets who did arrive with A Levels were packed off to university under the established scheme and their IOT was planned for Cranwell when they graduated, rather than South Cerney and Henlow which had been the case with us.

Over the years I was often asked 'why did the RAF end Cranwell cadetships?' and people have always been surprised by my answer that, suddenly one year, nobody wanted one!

Welcome to Cranwell.

Here are your QRs and MAFL. You might need 2 journeys for these.... the amendments. Knocker run starts at 6, ...bit of a rush to be on parade by 7am. Ceremonial drawers will be inspected after parade...remember 11 1/2 inch squares. Now iron those hairy Mary's, need to look smart for church parade. Soap the creases. Bull those shoes.

Sunday evening, crestng Leadenham hill, there is winking Willie on top of the tower....


Deep joy.

Edited in deference to those far more knowledgeable than me (or the YouTube poster) - thanks all. Unfortunately it seems I can't edit the title. Thanks SP.


Title edited
SP

D120A. I joined as a flight cadet in Sep 68 (along with BEagle and Haraka) on 99 Entry, which, I believe, was one of the biggest entries for many years. Certainly, no-one at my school, or any other source, had advised going to university first, and it was a very big surprise when, on the first or second evening, we were all marched up to Whittle Hall and addressed by the deputy commandant, who announced that the MOD had decided that the flight cadet scheme was a dead duck, and that we should all go off to university. I seem to remember that we were given 2 weeks to decide, and could get a rail warrant to go home to discuss with parents if you wanted. Those who had good A-levels and still had a university place could go straight away, or you could stay for a year as a flight cadet, redo A-levels if required, and then go to uni in Sep/Oct 69 with a commission and a bag full of dosh. Those ungrateful ba******s who were determined to stay on as flight cadets would be allowed to, but were left under no illusions as to our place in the New World.
That announcement was the first that I, and, I suspect, all the other newly arrived recruits, had heard of this. It had obviously been under preparation for some time, so why they could not have informed us all by letter, in advance, rather than kicking in the slats on arrival. Perhaps it was just a good early example of how the RAF was run? Once this had got under way, the potential flight cadets for 100 and 101 Entries (Sep 69 and Sep 70 respectively) would have been informed of the scheme, hence the low number of applicants for those entries. An early introduction to Per Ardua ad Nauseam, perhaps?

...and it was real fun being Junior Entry for a whole year too! Although once commissioned as APOs, I gather a few scores were settled by some of 99 Entry with the 'Bitter and Twisted' 97 Entry cadets who'd just become Senior Entry and had been behaving like Flashman clones towards the Junior Entry for a few weeks.

I thought that this dilemma actually showed a possible future system. One year at Cranwell doing the IOT etc. would sift out the chaff BEFORE the RAF had to fund the successful through University, then effectively enabling them to go straight in to specialist courses on return. As it was those of us caught in the transistion effectively went through IOT twice. " Put it down to experience" I was told :).

Much earlier 'Green Shields'
 

I think the Green Shield problem started much earlier. I was on 77 Entry (1957 -60). As I recall it was in our last year that University suddenly became RAF flavour of the month. Graduates then started to join on a higher rank and better terms after three years at Uni than we did after three years at the Towers. We did have our wings, but still seemed to be on the back foot - despite all the marching!.

Cadetship, sir?
 

A thought-provoking thread.
I frequently think back to those days and their many 'sliding doors' moments. As 99 entry was assembling I was starting my last year at grammar school, heading for some deep A level disappointment. Optimistically seeking a cadetship (100 entry, perhaps?) at the bump that Christmas I watched the board shuffle their paperwork and cough a bit. A lightbulb glowed dimly above me. "How about a DEC", I blurted. Smiles all round and out came the rubber stamp. "Next!"
Fast forward 2 and a bit years to three Hunter air to air gunnery sorties on my 21st birthday and the end of course celebrations with my course-mates, some of whom, of course, took the stick-with-it option whilst on 99 entry. Thank you, gents, for your recollections.
Sliding doors aplenty.