I’ve not been for a few years but we’re taking a coachload on Sunday; if I remember correctly it’s no headdress throughout?
Correct. Ive been to a few Cosford shows over the years.Any cadets/staff ive seen there have not been wearing headdress.Any air shows ive been doing with cadets primarily Sunderland no headdress there either unless you were arriving or going home.
No CS95 or MTP though!!
Does the drill manual still mention No 1 HD for airshows?? (It used to!)
Erm no!
No.2 is fine.
Dont forget also, that even after the show, when headdress is applied, a saluting amnesty remains in effect until 0600 on the monday, we attended and had an officer try and chew out the gate guard for not saluting by exclaiming “oh, we don’t salute officers anymore in the RAF?”, which was swiftly met with said airman placing his head through the dpor, and calmy saying “there’s a saluting amnesty in place, but then again, a real officer would have known that wouldn’t he…SIR?”, i felt both embarrassed by the “officers” actions, but somewhat amused with the airmans
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Just to clarify, where does it stipulate the uniform for the RAF Cosford Airshow? I can’t find any regulations or documents on sharepoint and looking a social media it seems some squadrons have gone in working blues while others have gone in MTPs and others in full civilian dress.
My rough understanding was
Helping with the logistics of the airshow - DPMs / MTPs
Official ATC stands & showcase events - Wedgewood Blues
Visiting Cadets - Working Blues
No head dress for all due to the amount of reenactors. However I cant find this anywhere in documentation.
Cheers for any help
Certainly last year the Gruppen Fuhrer for Cosford sent out an email detailing uniform, can’t say I’ve seen one this year.
If i was calling it
I’d send my little ones in no3.
They already seem to come up with enough excuses for battered shoes dont want to actually give them a genuine reason
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I’d wear civvies and be done with it to be honest
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Unfortunately Alex the issue is that we aren’t calling it & I do remember something coming out specifically stating the dress to be worn. We need to be doing whats best for the cadets while maintain the military ethos . Worry about giving cadets a genuine reason leads into doing whats easiest for us than what is the most appropriate.
In hot weather No 3s is the worse option as its thicker than blues and leads to more over heating. I would rather the cadets have scuffed shoes or go in civvies than be passing out during the day due to heat stroke.
Daws1159 - do you have a copy of the email from last year? I can’t find it my email archive.
Fair shout.
I used to go to riat in no2 with polished boots. But that was my preference
We went on the ‘coachload of cadets for £90’ deal (which for 43 cadets + 5 staff was an absolute steal) but there was no guidance given on uniform. The first year I went we took headdress and found we were wrong; luckily I knew from previous years to check about headdress. I did see a small number of ATC cadets with headdress on during the day (off duty ones) but on the whole almost everyone was in 2C or 2A with only a minority in 3s.
I agree 2C is the way forwards in hot weather.
Well the official word is out for uniform, no word on head dress though:
Cadets – No 2C ROUTINE WORKING DRESS (No 2C SD)
Staff - No 2A (LONG SLEEVED) ROUTINE WORKING DRESS (No 2A SD) or No 2B (SHORT SLEEVED) ROUTINE WORKING DRESS (No 2B SD)
Under no circumstances are cadets or staff to wear CS95 / MTP
was that instruction issued to those “working” at the show or general public visitors?
Personally when I visit the local airshow I purposely don’t go in uniform, 1 because I don’t want to be confused with a “working party” 2 its a fun day and I don’t want the “pressure” or “hassle” of being in uniform on a warm sunny day sitting on the grass trying to enjoy the air display with an ice cream conscious I am in uniform
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Sorry forgot to mention its for visitors.
was that widely shared?
or are you confusing the topic of Cosford (last weekend) with RIAT next month - i see there is a Sharepoint memo item under announcements which looks like a source you could have copy and paste the words from?
Our neighbouring Wing went to Cosford (based on social media photos i saw) and they were in civilians…so if the above was for Cosford and was widely shared it was missed by this corner of the Corps!!
Edit, sorry I see Alex has moved off topic and now discussing RIAT not Cosford anymore 
My bad was not really concentrating and thought the announcement was for cosford 
Overall it surely appropriate to have Cadets understand that at an airshow, where Cadets are helping or just visiting, the rule on Stations is NO headdress behind the flight line.
if you were there you will have noticed that those Personnel still on guard duty NOT behind the flightline were properly attired with headdress in place.
And there are indeed those who like to make other salute, thinking that the salute is for the person ,whereas in reality the salute is to the Queen’s uniform.
There are a few RAFAC senior ranks who forget that they are junior to any RAF rank and therefore should salute first when there is no amnesty.
Such failings can give the RAFAC a bad name, but evidently from the example cited by John51278 there are Airmen who can deal with such situations and maybe spot an RAFAC officer at a hundred paces.
Well that simply isn’t true. Raf officers are junior to any officer of the same rank or above. Officers and airmen/women below there rank are junior to said officer.
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