It is indeed a very busy day!
RAF Sections put forward team a team of 15 for the Regional Air Squadron Trophy events where the top 3 finishers in each RAST move forward to the National Air Squadron Trophy to compete for top honours. It is encouraged that the team compose Cadets from across the classification ranges.
Each team competes collectively in Drill & Uniform, Command Task & RAF Knowledge.
Specialists in each team compete also in Shooting, Air Recognition & First Aid. No one Cadet can compete in more than one specialism.
Prizes are awarded at both levels of the competition for top scoring Cadets, winners of each event category and the top 3 teams overall.
In regards having the ATC compete alongside the CCF(RAF), I would be all for it.
An extra competition stage would make that easily achievable:
CCF/ATC combined qualifiers at wing level, CCF(RAF) sections within the Wings geography compete here too.
Top 3 Teams at each advance to Regional Semi-Finals, Regional Air Squadron Trophy as is
Top 3 Teams Regionally advance to Finals, National Air Squadron Trophy.
The important thing would be that instead of best of best Wing Teams competing regionally, it is the Sqn Teams that advance from Wing level, in line with what happens currently with the CCF(RAF) sections. For me that is essential, what makes the events so fun for the Cadets are the bonds they make training and (hopefully) advancing together.
The trick I imagine be in finding a way to make it balanced for those competing, as the time to train for these events is greatly limited for us Sections, 2 hours a week during term time vs ATCâs 2 parade nights a week 50+ weeks a year. All the standard training still has to happen.
Regards the standing around experienced at Wing Training Days - there is some marking time in the day for those competing at RAST/NAST. But some stands are laid on to keep the Cadets occupied & the remaining time the Cadets use to practice & test each other.