Has anyone got a copy of ACTO 120 for 2020? If it’s been released
Thanks
The ACTO doesn’t change annually. The sequences for 2020 do not appear to have be published yet.
The WWOs were shown it last weekend. So it will be soon. New sequence this year!
Hurrah!
I do hope it has been properly proof-read and beta tested, and won’t leave us wondering how to achieve it as 818 doesn’t quite work for us. Again.
From what I’ve been told from two or three sources it had mixed opinions. I’m looking foward to something different though.
My favourite sequence so far has been the one with the left form!
Are we sticking with the same banner drill sequence again? I think that could do with a bit of a fresh take, though the current sequence does mostly achieve what it was meant to.
Not a clue to be honest. All I know is the WWOs were shown a new Foot Drill Seq.
The new foot drill sequence starts with a classically unnecessary movement.
Flight are stood easy and the first command is “Squad… Stand easy”.
…For no other reason than to mark them as they brace up on the word “Squad”.
The second command is “Flight Shun”.
Why can’t we mark them bracing up on the “Flight” or “Flight Shun”?
Who knows…
Cringworthy, why call them a Squad when next minute you call them a flight. “Squad” is an Army term (known from past life in green).
Well, “squad” is an RAF term as well - defined as “a small body of personnel formed for drill or working party”. But I agree that is senseless to change the way we refer to them in the space of 5 seconds.
Is there a time where squad should be used over flight and vice versa (for drill purposes)?
It’s a good question which I get asked a lot on drill courses… But the answer is a pretty open one.
For general drill practices, marching a small body from A to B, &c “Squad” is perfectly fine and is almost the go-to form of address.
“Flight” would commonly be used when practicing/performing “Flight Drill” (just as “Squadron” would be used when addressing an assembly consisting of more than one Flight of that Squadron); but could also be legitimately used if you’ve got a larger body (since a “squad” is officially a “small body of personnel”). There is no hard rule which says “more than x number of cadets and you must call them a Flight”.
The difficulty/confusion comes because on our normal Sqn first/final parades we are often not performing parade drill as per AP 818. These are merely musters where we get everyone together for notices, &c.
If you’ve got 20 cadets present all formed in one unit are they “Flight”? Are they “Squadron”? …They’re all from 1234 Sqn but they’re not formed as two sub-units… The answer there is that it doesn’t really matter and as such, no rule has ever been created.
The parade section of AP 818 deals with formal ceremonial parades where a “Flight” is a sub-unit, a “Squadron” consists of one or more flights, and “Parade” is used to address everyone.
TL;DR or got confused halfway through:
It doesn’t really matter, just prep cadets to know to respond to accordingly to all options in whatever scenarios apply on your squadron.
So, AP818 describes a flight as being roughly equal to a platoon, and either to me is usually 16+ from a fighting perspective (although I know there is variance).
With the exception of listing introductory commands as “Squad/Flight…”, Part One of 818 almost exclusively uses “squad” to describe the body of people drilling. So it’s safe to say that you’d be pretty ok with that regardless.
Semantically, if your squadron isn’t organised into Flights (for lessons, competition, etc), then you don’t really have a “Flight” to march around. But if you do have flights, and had split (for instance) “B Flight” into smaller groups, then you aren’t drilling a whole flight and would therefore use “Squad”… to say “Flight” would technically refer to all squads. Or, if multiple whole flights are practising separately in the same area at the same time, you could argue that each should be referred to as “flight” or “A/B/C Flight” instead of “Squad”.
To add more confusion, “Flight Drill” is a very specific set of guidelines within 818, just as “Squadron Drill”, and “Wing Drill” are. Each is actually very specific in terms of layout, structure, command structure, orders, and movements… None of which will usually apply to a group of cadets practising basic drill on a parade night.
It really is possible to over analyse this…
The drill manual is a set of guidelines, are ambiguous in places and irrelevant or unsuitable bits can be ignored or amended. Regardless of what 818 says or doesn’t say, do what is sensible and relevant to your unit - as long as everyone knows what that is.
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It has just Sharepoint in last couple of minutes; 2020/2021 version.
Well there is a folder at least. Nothing in there yet.
I’m in two minds…I dont like the fact it’s not particularly challenging but I also like the fact it will open up the competitiveness of the competition this year
Thank you.