or worse an aircraft to the eye…safety glasses all round please!
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You’re quite right. I didn’t consider that risk enough.
No cadets beyond the throwing line and I need a weather forecast so that I can judge the prevailing wind when putting together the SMS activity.
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wait?? you’re doing it outside?
have you considered the risks of exposure??
you’ll be best watching the blockbuster “climatic conditions” DVD first
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You make it sound as though you’re not showing it to the cadets at the beginning of every parade night?..
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Shurely you should be emailing it to them before every parade night - by the time they’ve arrived at the Sqn through the cold and wet it’s already too late…
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I haven’t seen anything banning it. is it just a local directive?
Playing it doesn’t seem a problem to me.
If I don’t tell you where it is, you’ll still be able to play it!!!
(it’s on HQAC announcements on SharePoint)
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Where does he dream this schiesse up? After nigh on 20yrs handling ‘military compasses’, I still have both my hands, all my fingers and thumbs; and no radiation sickness or whatever he thinks one might contract!
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He was clearly very confused.
He had included it in a long, A4 diatribe about Radium poisoning… Radium = Bad.
Clearly nobody told him that the gaseous tritium light source in the military Silva compasses is not radium, does not pose a radiation hazard unless broken (because it’s contained and the beta radiation from Tritium has a very low penetration depth), and even if the compass were broken open and the tritium vial were broken too it is the tiniest amount of gas which would disperse in seconds.
But hey… it’s not as though it’s his job to actually understand the difference.
He probably didn’t have time to learn because he was busy telling us that we must also predict lightning strikes.
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Has he not perished in a tragic shaving accident yet?
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Didn’t he pop up the other week to let us know about a product recall B&Q were doing??
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Yes - something about timer sockets.
Are those in widespread use in the ATC? Have they been recommended for some reason?
I’ve never used them, nor has it been recommended to me that we should use them!
We might laugh, but how much safer is the ATC now that we can’t do all the fun things?
(Or, conversely, how many more accidents do we have now as we have to find ways of filling time with other activities i.e. do we fill the hole left by flying, gliding and shooting with more AT and sporting things).
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I’ve checked now… wow.
Thank You all.
I concur. I turned out alright.
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So the discussion above suggests two possible scenarios here. Either the staff at HQAC have banned Crab Football for no reason, on a whim, or they have a reason. I decided to find out - I rang them up. A nice man in the “Safety Centre” told me that they had received a series of accident reports of injuries caused by crab football, mostly broken fingers and wrists. Now reading the thread above I know that one or two of you will not believe this but why would they make it up? Why ban crab football and not any of the other activities we all run?
Now let’s look at the MOD indemnity insurance. You are running an activity and little Cadet Smith breaks his wrist, it does not heal properly and he is left with a partial disability. His mum blames you and sues you for damages. If the activity is one of the hundreds on the Indemnified Activities list the MOD will sort the whole thing, lawyers, court case, damages - £500,000. If however, you have chosen to run an activity not on the list (crab football) and an injury has resulted you may be personally liable.
So there is evidence of repeated injury from crab football; it is not an indemnified activity; my Sqn will be doing football instead - it is on the list.
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So, where, when, how many players, what level of supervision?
There have been numerous youth accident reports for rugby (up to broken necks) & other sports, but until any related reports for crab football are listed in context, it seems very unusual that there would be such a high level of injuries to cause concern.
And lets not forget, most people are doing these activities on squadrons with no formal accreditations or qualifications! How many of us are NGB qualified sports coaches? Or qualified through something akin to CSLA? Very few. Even at Wg, Rg and Corps level often the only person qualified to deliver anything is somebody holding a FAaW.
It smacks of double standards that AT is so heavily regulated whilst “sport” gets away with such a high level of injury. But because they sit on “an approved list” the risk is acceptable? Is that risk accepted by the MoD on the basis of SQEP people being present - without realising how few SQEPs there are in the ATC?