Hi,
This is my first post on here so forgive me if I’m doing it all wrong, I’m a greenhorn
My son has about 20 gliding sorties under his belt and is looking to go solo by Christmas. He is in his local air cadets and recently they went on their first gliding trip. My son didn’t get picket to go and is so disappointed that they have all gained thier Blue Gliding badge from 1 trip.
He’s been told he cant gain his badge from private lessons.
I find it bizarre to say the least that there may be a point where he is flying solo with no badge whilst his friends have a blue gliding badge for what was essentially a taster session?
Can anyone shed any light on this or does he have to just take it on the chin?
The Blue ‘Wings’ badge is part of the RAFAC progressive training syllabus and it, along with its bronze/silver/gold counterparts, are only awarded for flying/gliding done within RAFAC unfortunately.
But as @Letsthink430 correctly pointed out, there are Civilian Wings which are awarded to a cadet for going solo with a civilian gliding or flying club/training provider. So once your son goes solo with his civvie gliding club, then he can be awarded these.
When he does just speak to the OC and they will be able to speak to the right person in Wing to request the badge. Probably worth also providing evidence of his solo to preempt any questions. A copy of the BGA Solo Endorsement certificate/application form I imagine would do the trick.
Normally the Wg Av O - yes, proof of solo is required - for the last few in my sqn, I’ve sent off copies of their signed off civvie log book page(s) which have been accepted. SMS qualification needs to be updated too.
They are the same size/style as the RAFAC silver/gold flying badge, just with ‘C’ in the middle instead, so in that respect yes. Number of cadets with silver/gold vs civvie wings would be interesting statistic.
There was always something quite satisfying about sending students who i knew were cadets solo, the just doing the admin and sending the WAvO (and CC’ing Sqn staff) the scan of their logbook directly on the same day.
Fully supportive of this initiative, but does anyone else feel it’s incongruous with a certain big wig’s position on the auditing of civilian sites for getting cadets airborne?
