1300 Squadron ATC

Here are the results for June 2009:-

• Best Female Cadet with a score of 87.5 is Cadet Anne-Marie Larcombe
• Best Male Cadet with a score of 83 is Cadet Michael Fraser
• Best Flight with a total score of 608.5 is B Flight

and finally the Top 5 Cadets

1. Cadet Anne-Marie Larcombe – 87.5
2. Cadet Michael Fraser - 83
3. Corporal Matthew Parry - 81
4. Cadet Luke Brown – 78
5. Cadet Shannon Weiss – 73.5

Congratulations!

On Saturday 20^th June Cdt FS Luke Chadburn, Cdt Cpl Matthew Parry along with Cdts Michael Fraser, Luke Brown, Milissa Robinson and Shannon Weiss met Flt Lt Phil Ridley, Sgt Andy Young and CI Ian Nicoll at Hucknall Airfield.

The organizers of the Hucknall Air Show had invited the cadets to come down to help out. The main jobs for the cadets on that day were car parking and manning the airside gate. Rotated in with that was running the 1300 Sqn recruiting stand along with the staff.

The highlights of the day were the flying display by a Spitfire, Hurricane and P51 Mustang, which proved that old aircraft can still steal the show.

by Sgt Andy Young

Three cadets from the Squadron were taken to No.644 Volunteer Gliding School RAF Syerston Sunday 14th June by Warrant Officer Amanda Coleman.

All three cadets had never been gliding before, Cadets Anne-Marie Larcombe, Adam Taylor and Tom Wells.  All flew for about 25 minutes in a Vigilant T1 propelled glider.  All three cadets completed GIC1 out of 3 GICs.

See No.644 VGS’s website for more details http://www.644vgs.org/

Eight cadets from the Squadron were taken flying by Staff, Warrant Officer Amanda Coleman and Sergeant Andy Young, to RAF Cranwell (No.7 AEF).

Cadets Anne-Marie Larcombe, Luke Johnson and Cory Radford had never been flying before whilst Cadets Luke Brown, Michael Fraser, Lucy Goldsmith, Shannon Weiss and Tom Wells have been to AEF before.

All got up flying in a Grob 115 Tutor T1 aircraft for about 30 minutes each.

Fifteen cadets represented the Squadron at Wing Field Day this year, Sunday 7th June, at RAF Digby.

The day didn't start off too bad:

• Not too bad on the Tent Erecting competition.  The team were thrilled that they had put their tent away before the team next door, but they gained some penalties!
• Good results from the Orienteering exercise – a mark of 14 out of 15 this year instead of last years minus 5, and they arrived back 2 minutes early.
• Good remarks on the First Aid exercise.  Best up to yet!
• Then into the drill.  It started raining!  The cadets had their inspection whilst 3 members of staff huddled under a big brolly to shelter from the rain.  The cadets then waited ten minutes under a tree to shelter from the rain.  Then the cadets did their drill competition in the rain!  Good remarks considering the circumstances.
• Next the Aircraft Recognition team went off to do their Aircraft Reccy stuff!  And then they came back later, WING FIELD DAY CANCELLED before they had chance to start.

Oh well, better luck next year!

A follow up to the Wing Athletics on Sunday 10th May, Cadet Cory Radford represented both the Squadron and Trent Wing at the Regional Athletics Championships at the Saffron Lane Sports Stadium in Leicester on Sunday 31st May.

After he had won a Silver in the high jump at the Wing Athletics, (Sunday 10th May) Cory went on to win Gold at the Regional Athletics.  Fantastic!

He will now represent Region in the Corps Championships later this year.

We all met up on the Saturday at about 1200, with our bags and was eager to set off on out first Duke of Edinburgh, since we very first set off we was having the time of our lives, we instantly started bonding as a group and had a fantastic time and a laugh. We also were lucky as we got the perfect weather to be doing this, and as a bonus it gave us all quite a nice tan.

As we first set off it was relatively easy, we just followed the footpaths until we came up to a field were there wasn’t any paths. But we all worked together and found out that we just had to walk through the random field. Once we had gone through quite a lot of fields, we came up to a main round which according to the map should have been a footpath straight opposite, which there was but we didn’t realise because some one had put a skip the other side of the fence so we just assumed it was some ones land, and we kept walking down the very busy road until we had come to our senses and climbed the fence that we went to originally. Once we got through that awkward part we found ourselves in yet another field. Then Sgt Young started radioing us asking our position which we gave him wrong and he was sat waiting for us were the A614 is, but we had already gone quite far past it, he was quite surprised. After that we got lost AGAIN, we realised we had walked through the wrong field but was still going in the right direction. After we found ourselves again we ended up in a nice little town and we met Sgt Young and the gang at the correct checkpoint at Tesco opposite TR Enterprises. We had beat the previous time set by the last group and we was nearly an hour ahead which gave us plenty of time to have a rest, have a drink something to eat and set off again.

Thankfully after that we didn’t get lost, it was quite straightforward, and after about 45 minutes of walking down one footpath we met Flight Sergeant Newton, she looked quite bored and hot sat in her little car. Once we had another little rest we set off again and headed for the trees, which was all up hill and quite a challenge to be honest, but we all helped each other and got through it and met flight sergeant again at the next check point. After that it was a home stretch for the campsite. And to be honest that was the hardest part, we was all tiered, with big and heavy burgeons on and walking straight in the sun it was really hard.

Once we had made it to the campsite, we set up our tents and got some dinner cooking. Once Sgt got his fire going he was rather happy we all just sat down and chilled and we had a fantastic time, we played some games and just had a great time.

Once we got tired we fell asleep about 1100.

It was a new day, we was all refreshed and ready for the second day, we cooked breakfast, got the tents sorted and packed away and set off a little early. The second day was a lot more challenging then the first, but as a team we all really bonded and just told our selves we are going to do this and have a good laugh at the same time, which thankfully we did. On about the 3^rd field of the day we just seemed to be going through horse fields, and one off them tried to come with us following us to the gate and almost through the gate. Also a goat tried to come with us.

Once we figured out we was near the end we all was really happy and couldn’t wait to get to the finish, we was all really tiered and ready for a nice cold bath. At the very last bit of path we went the wrong way but only figured it out when we was extremely far from it, which annoyed us all just a little bit.

When we saw the two cars in the car park everyone parked up and headed straight for the bench in front of us. Once we got there Sgt told us that we had actually beat the original time by nearly and hour and a half which pleased us all.

Even though our D of E was really challenging, and hard we had a great time and we all feel like we have all become extremely good mates because of it and we look forward to doing it next time.

By Cadet Michael Fraser

Saturday
We all arrived at the starting point on Saturday at around 11:30 we was all issued with a compass and a radio plus one of us was issued with a first aid kit.  We then helped each other with our bags and then set off for the first days walking.

We were doing well and had a 5 minute break after about an hours walking. We had two check points that day were we could fill up with water and have a break.  We arrived about an hour early then we should have done at the first check point.
We arrived at camp about 15:45 we was about 2 hours early as we should of got there about 18:00.

After a 10 min break at the camp before we put the tents up. After that we just started talking for about half an hour and after that we all made tea at about 19:00, then we played a game then we were just talking around the fire.
We are went to bed at about 23:30.

Sunday
I got up at six but the rest got up at about 06:30 but we are said seven. We all made breakfast at around 08:00 then we all got packed up and took the tents down helping each other plus it was cold that morning. We set off at 09:00 for day twos walking. We got at the first check point after around 30 minutes walking.

We arrived at the ending point a bit early again but all of us was glad to have done, we handed in our maps and compasses and I handed in the radio.  Then we all headed home for some well earned rest.

By Cadet Luke Brown

Here are the results for May 2009:-

• Best Female Cadet with a score of 43.5 is Cadet Anne-Marie Larcombe
• Best Male Cadet with a score of 56 is Cadet Adam Taylor
• Best Flight with a total score of 266.5 is A Flight

and finally the Top 5 Cadets

1. Cadet Adam Taylor - 56
2. Cadet Michael Fraser - 54
3. Cadet Luke Brown - 52
4. Cadet Anne-Marie Larcombe – 43.5
5. Cadet Shannon Weiss – 35

Congratulations!

On Saturday and Sunday 23rd/24th May 2009, five cadets from the Squadron attempted their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award Trial.

Cadets Adam Taylor, Luke Brown, Michael Fraser, Milissa Robinson and Anne-Marie Larcombe did their one night camping 13.3km walk in the Ravenshead area of Nottinghamshire.

Congratulations to all, they all worked well together to complete the weekend.  Next will be their Bronze Final later in the year!