May / June 2004

Flying Scholarship

By CWO Robert Hastie

An Air Cadet Flying Scholarship is one of the most prestigious awards in the corps. It is the pinnacle of most ATC careers and with only around 65 places up for grabs in a year, it is also becoming quite rare. So in April, when I received paper work from RAF Cranwell, carrying word that I had been selected for one in June, I was absolutely overjoyed.

The course itself provides each cadet with 12 hours flying, and 2 weeks training with Tayside Aviation, a private flying club in Dundee. In years past the RAF have conducted all Flying Scholarships themselves, with cadets being trained by the RAF at a local station. In an effort to become more cost effective, and hence give the taxpayer more value for money, the RAF selected Tayside Aviation, with their high standard of flight training, to take over the program, and provide the training for all UK Air Cadets.

As I arrived in Dundee, a short trip to our hotel, which we (the 2 other cadets on my course and I) would be staying at. It was the Airlie Hotel, a short walk from both the train station and the airport. The Hotel was very pleasant, the rooms were on suite, and the beds were comfortable. However, every night we all dined at the hotel’s restaurant, It was a small Italian restaurant, with repetitive music, and in the two weeks we stayed the meals we ate were among the best I have ever experienced. The first night was pheasant; they also served us the greatest spaghetti bolognaise I have ever tasted a few days later. In fact, the only complaint we ever had was that we all wanted more. I always left feeling as though I would never fit into the aircraft the next day, I had eaten so much, it was phenomenal.

The hotel was excellent, but we weren’t there just for the food, or the hospitality. Everyday we would be at the airport by 8:30, preparing the aircraft and ourselves for a hard day of flying and learning. We had 12 hours of flying in which to go solo, this was the pass criterion for the course. Aside from this we also had to sit an air law exam before we were allowed to go solo, and this proved to be the problem with some. We began our training with our instructions in the first few days. We would be flying in the Diamond DA-20 Katana, a single engined aircraft very similar to the Grob Tutor, which we fly in the Air Cadets on Air Experience Flights. Once we had learned about the basic controls, and how to operate them, i.e. climbing descending turning (which is actually more complicated than it seems, despite what our instructors were telling us), we moved on to more difficult, and more fun manoeuvres, to quote one of the previous students. Staling, radio calls, orbits, LOW LEVEL STALLS, emergency procedure, go-around, all vital functions of the aircraft. Possible the most difficult of these came in the most common action, called the work cycle. Like driving a car, there are small routines, which must be done to keep aware of what’s going on around you. To get into the habit of continually doing something can become both annoying, and frustrating at times, however, my instructor, Marjan Bledowski, gave me a rather odd sounding but entirely relevant, and useful phrase to keep in mind: “if you are not doing something, it means that you’ve forgotten something!”.

This continued this for the next week, my studying paid off and I passed my air law exam first time. Things were looking good for my solo flight, only 7 hours into the scholarship. Unfortunately it was not to be at that time. The aircraft are extremely delicate to weather, especially wind. And as I prepared in the air for solo checks the wind picked up, and with it the rain. This delayed my progress, and we were all grounded for the next day.

 As the weather cleared, the weather report suggested the clearing would last for only a few hours. It became a race to get the students, me first, in the air and onto solos. One hour of checks, necessary, and I was on the runway, ready to take off. As I climbed I, as most others did something special to mark my first solo. With no one else in the air, and the radio not sending, it was my turn. I will leave my aerial escapades to those whom I told, suffice to say it was nothing to endanger the craft or myself, and would only bring amusement to onlookers.

After the 2 weeks, and 12 hours I reflected on my time, and committed my self fully to my goal of becoming a pilot with the RAF. If I got the chance to go back to Tayside aviation I would jump at it, as all the staff were friendly helpful and at all times highly professional. It is clear why the RAF have chosen them to train its future pilots, and also why their contract has been renewed. I would recommend this to all in the ATC, as it has turned out to be one of the greatest achievements in my career.

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Wing Athletics

By Cdt Steven Smith

On the 9^th of May, some other cadets and I went to the Wing Athletics to win some shiny medals, and have fun as well of course.