By Cdt Abass Kayani

On a sunny Saturday morning all the cadets and staff met up at the squadron. About 8:10 the coach arrived and then we set of on an excellent day to leuchars. We all made it their safely and then made the 10 minute walk to the air show. When we arrived at the runway there was a lot of noise. The tornados, spitfires, and red arrows  made your ears burst the best ones were the team of red arrows they made a love heart with a red arrow through it and the arrows had flares of colours shooting out it was awesome! There was lots of stalls too, from the RAF, Rolls-Royce, BAE Systems as well as a lot of smaller companies. They only had the euro fighter typhoon out once but believe me it was like a rocket, it shook the ground! For the finale, as we were leaving we heard guns going off. We all made it back to the coach and set of home we all were knackered so we all went for a bad and sore sleep. We arrived back at the squadron about 5:45. We all loved it and will go next time.     

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Wing Swimming

By Cdt Zain Kayani

On a Sunday morning with the typical Scottish weather a number of cadets went to Larkhall sports Centre. We were welcomed by a number of cadets that most of us met at a pervious camp. Once all of the cadets were kitted into their Swimming gear they were all allowed a short 10 minutes in the pool. There were a lot of cadets from their squadrons; at least 4 cadets from each squadron.

Anyway, Cadet Kayani (A) and I were first in to race and as we are both Kayani’s we were both competing against each other. Just to let you know I can not swim for toffee. From the pervious information you may have guessed that I came last, but what made my day was I managed to finish the 2 lengths (50 meters).

Next up was Cadet Hastie (P) and joining him Cadet McLean, they both unfortunately did not get through their heat. Although both Cadet Hastie (D) and Flight Sergeant Kayani at least made it through to the finals.

The last event was the relay, which included Cadet Hastie (D), Cadet McLean, Cadet Kayani (A) and me. We all swam like rockets, but were not able to keep up with the other squadrons. As I say, always give 110% and we will be proud, no doubt about it. Mainly, it is all about having fun and that is what we had plenty of. Also remember we will make it next year for a fact, believe me!

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Altcar Training Camp

Between the 1250hrs on the 19th and 1900hrs on the 21st of October, 16 cadets from our squadron as well as several others from 449, 32F and 1701 squadrons all attended a weekend squadron camp at Altcar training camp in England, north of Liverpool. There were three courses - the main course (field craft, first aid and some leadership), the recruits course (a basic level of the main course) and the Junior NCOs course (Drill, leadership and NCO training).

We arrived at the camp around 2000h on Friday 19th of October. It had been a long bus journey and we were all fairly tired by this point but looked forward to the rest of the camp. The males were driven to their
accommodation and got unpacked. Soon after, we were given the brief, detailing times for breakfast, dinner and lunch and the main course being split into flights. The camp was crowded that weekend with 7 or 8 troops on the camp. The rest of the night was free time and many of us spent it at the Red Rose (a small club just up the road from us).

The next morning we woke at 0700h and marched to breakfast in the canteen on site. After breakfast the main course’s flights split and marched off to their designated range. I was in flight number 2, Sgt Hanif’s flight. We marched off to range 5 to do some field craft like camouflage and concealment where we learned how to apply cam cream. We also had a go at some patrols and the commands for the formations e.g. (arrow head, single file, staggered file etc). After lunch we swapped over with flight one and went to range 6 for some first aid come stretcher race. We were told to assemble and operate a stretcher and then place a mannequin on it and complete a lap of a course as quickly as possible. Our flights time was far quicker than the other flight. We then did some leadership exercises in late afternoon. I am sure that all the cadets in my flight thoroughly enjoyed all the activities that day.. We then went to the billets and got washed and
had dinner. After dinner there was free time until lights out.

The next morning the last on camp we woke around 0700. We packed our bags and loaded them onto the minibus and the entire main course and recruits course marched off to range 6 where we had a large game of hide and seek. Many cadets had crafty hiding places e.g. under pine needles in thorn bushes etc.. We then had a lesson in how to make stretchers and then had to rescue in silence three senior cadets from the woods. After this we went back to a small room in the camp and could change in to civvies and travelled home.

In conclusion Altcarwas a fantastic camp and the cadets thoroughly enjoyed the camp.

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RAF Aldergrove

By Cdt Grant McGregor

On Saturday the 21^st of October I arrived at Glasgow international airport at 7.00am to meet my fellow cadets to travel to Belfast and then on to Aldergrove. When I arrived my good friend Stephen Hogg was waiting for me. We went to check in but my name was not on the manifest, turned out that it was because someone at easy jet had put a space between Mc and Gregor so it wasn’t accepting my passport, good start huh. 

When we arrived we were shown our accommodation we were told for the males it was 20 to a room so I said you must be having a laugh! However,  it turned out that I was in a room of 6 so I was happy, so it was myself and Stephen and 4 people from Dundee wing who turned out to be a great laugh. After lunch we were sent to do our familiarisation exercise, so I done a cadet special and went straight to the guard house and got every answer so I was happy . We had dinner that night then free time to 11pm then bed (yeah right, possibly got to sleep about 3am) 

Sunday was range day so we were all in greens early to go shooting. I personally shot around 150 rounds but that was well above average.We later went on a visit to the police helicopters which was very `exciting‘ . Dinner was good that night and was followed by leadership classes. Monday we were back on the range in the morning followed by lunch and Drill which was fun. Tuesday was the section visit day, we went to the police flight and learned about bombs and personal security. We then went to the army air corps to see their Gazelles and Lynx helicopters which was very interesting. On Wednesday we went to Ballykinsly ranges for the sat range and field craft. This was clearly the best day and  by far the coldest and wettest. All cadets got a 10min flight in a puma except me so I was absolutely raging but Sqn Ldr Aston told me he’d sort it. Thursday was training for the drill comp on Friday and a bit of PT followed by free time to get ready for the DISCO. The disco was a great laugh the DJ was brilliant as he was constantly playing techno music for us. Friday was the drill comp and presentations but I had other things on my mind such as my 2 and a half hour fight on the puma on operation with 230 Tiger Sqn! We flew low attack formations over the countryside for two hours it was brilliant .Then Saturday was home time. I was gutted but it has to happen. I have been in good contact with my friends that I made at camp  

All in all the camp was good but it was made excellent by the people,  2^nd best camp ever!

1.    RAF Cranwell

2.    RAF Aldergrove

3.    RAF Northolt

4.    MOD Macrihanish

That is my camp ranking table and even though it was second it was very close to Cranwell.

NB. A BIG hello to Steve, Craig, Blair Chic, Cristie and Rhona

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Adult Lifesavers Course

On the 28^th and 29^th of October myself and Cpl Hastie went to an Adult Lifesaver Course at Motherwell TA Centre.  We were to arrive at Motherwell for 9.00am, Cpl Hastie’s father was going to give myself and the corporal a lift there so I went to his house at 8.00am.

When we arrived there, we were the only people there and we both felt a little lost.  Gradually other people started to arrive so we were okay.  We then had to wait for about an hour because a lot of the other cadets were late and others had no idea where the TA Centre was.  Finally when everyone arrived we began.

We first learned how to put someone into the recovery position.  This was very easy for the corporal but trying to move him was a different story because he was so tall.  The recovery position is only used when the casualty is unconscious and breathing.  Since the casualty is facing down if they are sick they won’t choke on it.  We then learned about choking, asthma, burns and scalds and heart attacks.  The day ended at 4.30pm.

The next day we started at the same time as before.  We learned all about bleeding, fractures, epilepsy and CPR (cardio-pulmonary resuscitation).  We also met a dummy called Annie who would help us practice this, lol.  CPR is only used when the casualty is not breathing and does not have a pulse.  Then came the test.  We first sat a written test which only took about twenty minutes and was soooooooo easy.  Then we had to do two practical tests.  The first was a scenario where you hear someone fall and have to go and help them and give CPR.  The second was that you heard a scream and someone fall.  The person would have a fake broken arm and you had to patch it up.

In the end I passed all the tests and was awarded the Adult Lifesaver Course badge which looks very nice on my brassard.  I would definitely recommend this course to everyone because its very interesting and could save someone’s life.

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