Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme - Bronze Ex autumn 2010

PRACTISE EXPEDITION - 18-19th September 2010

16 cadets took part in the practise expedition in preparation for the final expedition. We all arived at the squadron at 9am and were then split into our 3 groups and given our planned route. The first group left at 9:30 and the rest followed with half hour intervals. Overall all the groups did really well on the first day, two of the groups got marginarly lost but still arrived back at the squadron on time. All the groups camped and cooked around the squadron building that night. During the night it rained a little but luckily nobody got wet.

The second day went really well for all the groups and all finished the planned route faster than expected. They were then able to sort some of their kit at the squadron afterwards and begin to plan their final expedition. Everyone had a good time, but some were left a little stiff the next day.

FINAL EXPEDITION - 9-10th October 2010

15 cadets took part in this event, we unfortuanatly didn't have Knapman with us because she chipped her ankle the week before. All cadets arrived at the squadron at 8am and were split into their 3 groups just like the practise expedition. Our kit was then checked and if we had mobiles they were put in a sealed envelope so that they could only be used in emergencies. The first group set off just after 8:30am the rest following at half hour intervals, just like the practise expedition. On the first day all the groups followed the same route to The Quarries campsite in Cosgrove. The route was mainly through fields and footpaths occaissonally crossing main roads. All groups were on time apart from one group that accidentally managed to get to Paulersbury rather than Pottersbury. They were slightly later than the other groups arriving at the campsite. At the camsite we were visited by the DofE examiner who asked us questions about how we got on and any incidents that had happened. He also checked that we knew where we had been and any changes we had made to the the route.

Everybody cooked and ate on site, luckily it didn't rain but it was really cold.

On the second day we got up early and left around 9, after clearing our pitches. Our route for this day was mainly along the Grand Union Canal. On the canal Cpl Webb suffered a knee injury and her group had to support her along to the next bridge where she was able to drop out but luckily has done enough to pass her DofE the rest of her group completed the route with time to spare along with the other two groups. There were no other injuries and we all enjoyed the expedition.

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