Activities in this heat!

I’m the training officer for my sqn and with the days getting hotter and hotter, my list options on what to do on a parade night is getting smaller and smaller. It’s too hot inside to do anything so i’m told I can’t do things inside, but also getting told it’s too hot outside so can’t do things like drill or other blues based activities. From a first aid point of view I’m being told sport is not an option (I don’t 100% agree on that, but I see where he’s coming from and can’t go against my CO’s wishes). Anyone else finding this struggle? Any ideas on activities that won’t ‘kill’ my cadets? :rofl:

Drinking water? Erecting tarps/gazebos outside to provide shade? Water fight?

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Just because it’s hot doesn’t mean you can’t do stuff. Suggest that your OC comes up with activities they think are suitable if they’re the ones putting the barriers in place.

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Water, water, water, water. Sun screen, clothing as appropriate then water and more water.

Cadets in blues? Make sure shirt sleeves and loads of hydration. (even in wedgewood I’d get rid of ties and suggest sleeves rolled up)

Greens? I’d do away with the shirts and just have the under-shirts.

No reason activities can’t go ahead, just take reasonable steps!

SSSsssss!
Plan ahead and put people in working blues instead. If unavoidable, limit exposure to the elements.

Depending on the activity it may be better to work in civvies instead as it allows much more flexibility - shorts, t-shirts and floppy hats may be the most sensible apparel.

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yup, civvies - shorts, t-shirts and floppy hats. if you have space i’d do outdoor things like practicing putting up tents and bashas, you could do a town hall job where the cadets can let you know what they’d like to do, and you can talk to them about the hurdles, training requirement etc… that are involved, and you can then make some decisions based on that.

and a waterfight.

Spend a night watching the Climatic Injuries DVD?

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Try suggesting that he grow up, the world doesn’t stop just because it’s a bit hot!

Yes you need to be more careful and Make sure you mitigate risks with water and shade etc but there is nothing you can’t do.

If it’s such a problem for him I suggest you go and sit in a pub beer garden and tell him to get on with it!

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Assuming you’re an ATC squadron, aren’t you parading in the evenings? I struggle to see how it can be too hot for most things between 1900 and 2100, as long as things are done vaguely sensibly.

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I agree.
It’s definitely not THAT hot during the evenings. It’s not even too hot during the days.
We’ve taken cadets around Nijmegen in 40° heat… It just requires more diligence on the part of the staff.

Pick the right uniform for the right task and ensure that everyone is hydrated and monitored.

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I’ve taken the opportunity to do DofE and other sports, cadets dressed in better fitting and more comfortable clothing than any uniform. I’ve had too many planned sports nights screwed because the weather is crap.
With no or hardly any breeze and poxy ‘slit’ windows, even with all doors open you can’t get the hut cool enough to be comfortable to sit in.
I love it how adults will say things like it doesn’t stop because it’s hot, yet during the day they will find any excuse to be outside / away from their desk, when the weather is hot. Remember that many of the cadets will be in prisons (oops school) all day and this their hobby as well.

Wing Parade this weekend, whoop whoop. Annual Sweepstake on how many will go down should be quite high this year.

And before anyone says anything, squadrons are tasked to ensure everyone (including staff :kissing:) have a good reakfast and take onboard plenty of fluids. Water is also ‘on tap’ during the parade, just in case.

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JSP535 (Cadet Training Safety Precautions) used (back in the days when the ATC weren’t signed up to it) to include a blanket ban on training above 28 degrees. Thankfully common sense has returned…

Who’s running the sweepstake this year? I’d have a punt at about 30 cadets plus one staff member.
Certainly higher than a couple of years ago when it rained sideways…

Is that ensuring cadets have breakfast when you have to leave at say 0700 and then get to somewhere, where you are forced to stand around for 2-3 hours, doing sod all, waiting for someone with a lot of braid (absorbing the adulation no one else gives them) you don’t care about spending 15 minutes looking at cadets and getting a salute. These are a complete waste of everyone’s time and is the only time I doubly ensure everyone who can claim something does.
We’ve had a couple of these when it has been really hot and the number of cadets gping over was a joke, mainly because they are expected to just stand around with idiots telling them they can’t move or talk, while waiting for the ‘big wig’ to turn up in the air conditioned car, with the expectation of being there for about a ¼ of an hour, before it’s back into the car and be fawned over by Wing Staff during and while they wait for lunch.
If you Wg Cdr had the kahunas they’d be cancelling it, as it means nothing.

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We paraded on Monday, so put a message out for the cadets to come in civvies.
Then took them to a local playing field for a series of team games featuring water.
Plenty of water was available for them to drink - so no real issues.
At 19-30, it was still very warm, but cooled down towards the end of the evening.
It always amazes me that a bunch of smart-phone/gaming obsessed teenagers can have so much fun doing ‘games’ transferring buckets of water over their heads in relays!

Chris Evans just read something out which said other countries call a heatwave … summer and don’t lose all sense of proportion.

Can’t we just enjoy the summer and have a nice time.

Some of us older types were chatting at work and none of us remember walking around or feeling the need to walk around with the modern phenomena of a bottle of water almost permanently attached to our persons, just in case we got a bit thirsty. Mind you when I was growing up I don’t remember ever seeing bottles of water in shops. Lots of sugary, flavoured and coloured fizzy drinks and Jublees(?) the pyramidal flavoured ice blocks. God knows how we survived to now, given the doomsayers today.

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I agree. We haven’t changed our training programme because of the weather (although we have moved inside lessons outside, just because it seems a shame not to make the most of the nice weather!).

Tonight we are doing sports - all have been briefed to bring water bottles (as stated in the RA) but that is the only concession to the hot weather. @TrainingOfficer - your CO is a tool. You may as well tell your cadets to stay at home!

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do you know what would make interesting reading?

the death statistics for the summer of 1976 - while you and all the other Daily Anschluss readers were just cracking on with it and not losing any sense of proportion, the ‘excess death rate’ went up by 20%.

it went up by just short of 59% in the 2003 heatwave.

its almost as if you’re a moron…

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When you’re in your teens you don’t look at things like that, plus as I said bottled water didn’t exist for ordinary people as it would have been an extravagance when you could, like now, turn on a tap.

Who does the heat affect and why? One of my nephews was a year old in 2003 and my parents in their early late 60s / early 70s, they drank more and it meant my brother and his mrs kept more of an eye on the little one.

I don’t understand the need to walk around with a bottle of water all the time, just because you might get a bit thirsty, when unless you’re stuck somewhere, you’re unlikely to go without a drink for a couple of hours., ,especially in this day and age of almost 24/7 shops, from the times when most shops shut at 5 or 6.

We do seem to lose all sense of proportionality when the weather turns warm or cold for more than 2-3 days. When it gets cold with a bit of snow, the advice is like you’re going into Siberia, when in fact 99% of people are going from A to B along gritted roads. There are people in places where the advice may be sound, but they’ll know and be a bit more wary.

As you get older, people dying is just another thing that happens and unless it’s out of the blue, you accept it, except with young children, where it is always a bit more of a shock.