Navigation Training Day

An enjoyable and useful day was had by all.

Pictures available here http://picasaweb.google.com/towcesteraircadets

Wing Field Day 2010

After many weeks of preparation a mini convoy set off from Towcester on the longish trip to Halton for the Wing Field Day. Sgt Percy registered the team whilst Parker and Waterhouse finished off the diorama. The first stand was air rifle shooting. Howe D, Howe M, Winlow, Dairy and Lacey fired some good targets (well four of them did!). It was too early in the day to think about placing, but the suggestion of some marksman badges being earned would surely suggest a high placing?
Whilst the models and photos were being judged Cpl Quilliam, Parker and Warr flew the hand launched gliders. The prize for longest flight should have gone to us, but getting the glider stuck on the ceiling didn’t count apparently. The round the pole went a similar way, with the model not quite getting off the ground. Warr and Steven went to take part in the blimp flying, and the aircraft recognition happened at the same time (Cpl Quilliam, Sgt Percy Parker and Waterhouse)
The focus for the rest of the day was the drill competition- Dairy seemed to polish shoes for the whole day in preparation. Whilst our drill was better than 12 months ago, it can be even better next year.

So- onto final parade, and waiting to see who had won what. Air Rifle, third place 1875 (Hemel Hempstead) squadron- what was it, us or them. We had to sit through more presentations until we found out we’d done it. The first placing at a wing competition- big congratulations to Cdts Howe D, Howe M, Lacey, Dairy and Winlow- who shot on the day. Another big thanks to Sgt Martin Baillie who has injected some real enthusiasm into target shooting at Towcester.

Special thanks to Mr Warr and Mr Parker for the transport they provided.
More pictures here http://picasaweb.google.com/towcesteraircadets

Complete ttendance Warr, Cpl Quilliam, Steven, Waterhouse, Howe D, Parker, Dairy, Lacey, Howe M, Winlow, Sgt Percy. CI Webb, ASgt Baillie, Fg Off Tomlinson

The Web Site

We have given the Squadron Website a bit of a make over. All calendars are embeded and take data from google, the news is posted to the blog and other pages have been made cleaner and easier to navigate. E-mail is now just one link with the message being sent to both the out of hours contact and the Sqn HQ. Let us know what you think.

Chiltern Hills

Recently there have been two Chiltern Hills events that we have attended. One from 12th - 14th March and the other 2nd - 4th April. Flt Sgt Oldrey and Sgt Jones went on the 1st Chiltern Hills and both completed it without any major injuries. On that event there were two drop outs. Cpl Ferrie went to the second event and also completed it without any major injuries. This now means that we have all qualified for the Belgium Ijzer. If we want to take part in Nijmegan or the Death March we need to complete RAF Cosford, which is 50miles in two days.

Chiltern Hills is a two day march where you cover 40miles in total. You arrive the night before and sleep at 1187 sqn so that you can be up early ready to march at 0800. You are fed a huge cooked breakfast which you have to eat if you are to make it through the whole day, it doesn't taste too bad either. That day you will march approximately 20miles, maybe more. Along the way you will recieve snacks and a packed lunch, which again was huge. After that you are taken to a health club where you shower and recieve a full meal. When you return everybody is made to clean their boots and have all uniform checked for the next day. If you are sensible you will go to bed early that night. Next day is exactly the same as the first day, only a different route and once you've finished you can go home and sleep. This event was great fun and i would gladly do it again.

Navigation Course

On the 27th March Sgt Percy, Sgt Jones, Cpl Hollins, Cpl Webb, Cdt Knapman, Cdt HoweD and Cdt HoweM arrived at the squadron at 9am to receive navigation training. We started the day with a brief about the quick test we were about to have. The test involved sitting in a semi-circle and having cards labelling from A to F with questions on them, once we had finished the question we passed on the cards to the next person.

After finishing the test we had to revise different navigation skills such as; Grid References, Scales, Contours and Symbols. We then learnt
What was needed in a backpack when going on a navigational exercise such as; a torch, emergency food, extra clothing, water and high visibility vests.

We then learnt outside and we had a quick briefing about what we were doing, we were then shown a point on a map and had to navigate our way to that point using a compass, we found this relatively easy to do, once at our appointed place we had to use the features around us to orientate and set the map relative to our position.

The cadets found this navigation exercise relatively easy but still challenging and would happily do it again.

Cadet Knapman

First Aid Training

First Aid Training

This was a very enjoyable course.We were taught life saving skills which we can use throughout our life and will hopefully be able to use these to save somebody's life if that situation ever arises.
We were shown how to deal with and treat the following:

1) How to deal with different situations appropiately
2) The Recovery Position
3) How to carry out CPR on dummies and how to put this into practise in real life situations
4) How to treat somebody who is choking: backslaps and abdominal thrusts
5) Heart Attacks- signs and symptoms and how to initially treat
6) Serious Bleeds - how to bandage arms,legs and head.We practised on each other.

Cadet Harrison

Assault Course Training 20th March 2010

On the 20th of March 8 cadets travelled down to Bassingbourne to take part in an assult training course. After a few navigational problems we arrived just after 9. Once all our car passes were sorted we could go to the assault course.
Once the whole thing kicked off we all had a great time, and all survived the assault course.

The aim of this course was to help us learn techniques that we can use on the assault course at the WingEx this year. The WingEx is held at Longmoor, the 30 squadrons in the Wing compete against each other during many different leadership exercises as well as a 4km speedmarch, navigation exercises, log run and target shooting and an assault course. WingEx will be held 30 April-3 May.
The cadets that took part in this event were Sgt Percy, Cpl Hollins, Cpl Ferrie, Lacey, Carr, Howe M, Johnson O and Johnson G
Thanks to Paul Carr as well who drove 4 cadets down to Bassingbourne and stayed the whole day before driving them back again.