Hello all,
I’ve recently finished ACPS and successfully got gold wings. I believe I’m one of the first to do it on a UAS, rather than at Tayside. Does anyone have any cadets on the course or have any questions about it?
I had loads of questions before I went, and I want to ensure that cadets going on the course in future can have those questions answered.
Was it residential? If so where did you stay? What messing was provided? Was there any CFAV supervision? How long did it take you to complete the course and how many hours did you get?
Ahhh, back in the day I did the trial UAS based scholarship - 2002 I think 
There were 6 trials, 2 on UAS, 2 on Tayside, 2 on Microlight. They went was Tayside as it was more scalable I believe.
Ah, back in the day when a Flying Scholarship was 30 hrs of flying at an approved civvie club!!
Did mine out of Southampton.
Was it residential? If so where did you stay? What messing was provided? Was there any CFAV supervision? How long did it take you to complete the course and how many hours did you get
Was it residential?
Yes, stayed at RAF Cranwell in the Cadet Accomodation Block. We had it booked from the night before until the night after the course was scheduled to finish, though we finished early.
What messing was provided?
First week and a half was in the Junior Ranks’ Mess, and the last few days were in the SNCO Mess. We finished the course almost a week early.
Was there any CFAV supervision?
We were plonked into a group chat with two officers, but nothing in person at all. They were very helpful and always available, but they didn’t babysit us.
Hours
We were offered up to 13 hours, I had about 10 - this was taking my time and I’d never had any flight instruction before. I think most cadets would be hard done by to not pass the course - especially given the quality of instruction. Your last flight after solo is usually a sort of AEF/aerobatics sortie, and your first “familiarisation” flight is an AEF flight also.
30 hours! We got told that it takes as long as it takes, but 30 is a lot!
It takes as long as it takes
As in, if the other students do it in half, you can use their hours to keep within budget.
That was a loooooong time ago, when Chipmunks were the AEF aircraft (& they would travel to your location - for us, Bembridge on the Isle of Wight) & we shot with .303" rifles!
Haha at least you got to do AEF! It’s become somewhat of a rarity these days sadly
There has been a sloooow increase over the last few yrs but not helped by Ukrainian-pilot trg (their need is much more urgent than ours!) & also the fact that our primary AEF has been allocating weekday slots for quite a while. Rumour has it that they may even commit to weekend slots at some stage in the near future!