Tuesday 17 January 2012

Flying High

On the 11th January, Cadets Hogg, Rayner and Snaith were the latest to complete Air Experience Flights at RAF Leeming in North Yorkshire. During their flights they were given the opportunity to take control of the aircraft and perform some aerobatics.

More cadets will be going flying on the 1st and 15th of February.

Heartstart Success - Staying Alive

Ten cadets from the squadron were the latest to qualify for their Heartstart certificates as a result of a course run by Sgt Laws.

This course covers CPR skills and gives cadets the knowledge and skills to perform recucitation on a casualty. It is squadron policy for all cadets to qualify for Heartstart and the successful candidates on this course were Cadets Jon Fox, Ryan Swails, David Gordon, Liam Hewitson, Alice McGregor, Jeni Blatchford, Ethan Stevenson, Josh Dover, Matthew Rutland and Robbie Graham all of whom were presented with their certificates.

Sunday 1 January 2012

November / December 2011 Update

On the 17th November we had a recreation evening at NAMCO Funscape at the Metrocentre in Gateshead. Uniform for the night was fancy dress and our cadets really pushed the boat out with their creativity and effort with costumes ranging from a banana and a sumo wrestler through to the Mario Brothers (or as they were female cadets, should it be Mario Sisters?), the Men in Black and James Bond (with a wide variety of characters in between!)

 

At the end of November, 3 cadets went Air Experience Flying in Tutor aircaft at RAF Leeming. They had an opportunity to fly the aircraft (and for those who like being turned upside down, some aerobatics).

Grob Tutor
 
 

December was also a busy month for the squadron starting on the 3rd with with 3 cadets gliding with 645 Volunteer Gliding Squadron at RAF Topcliffe. They completed Gliding Induction Courses in Vigilant motor gliders which included taking control of the aircraft and learning how to fly the aircraft in the air.

Vigilent Motor Glider

On the 8th December we were again due to go flying at RAF Leeming, however the winter weather conspired against us and high winds resulted in flying being cancelled. (We have another allocation on the 11th January so hopefully our cadets will get into the air again on that day.)

On two occasions in December our cadets went climbing at the indoor climbing centre in Simonside, South Shields and at the Sunderland Wall.

 
 

Cadets are working towards a NICAS (National Indoor Climbing Award Scheme) certificate which will help them achieve their Duke of Edinburgh Awards.