External field craft exercises

Hi all,

My flight came up with an idea of doing an off the squadron field craft exercise doing 1 half of hide and seek and one half of catch the flag.

We tried to come up with a few ideas of how to play the capture the flag in a smallish local forest but we couldn’t quite figure out how to work the game. If anyone has any experience or ideas please share so I can suggest at my squodron.

We have about 45 minutes per game and around 40 - 50 cadets.

Many thanks :grin:

Just a heada up

Organising fieldcraft “training” will open a can of worms

Lots of policy and paperwork

Basically you cant just rock up and do hide and seak or capture the flag.

I dont know the ins and outs of fieldcraft application or exercises

@MattB will know he likes pretending to be a tree.

Sorry to be a fun sponge!

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I myself have no idea about the paper work and so on just wanted some ideas for the game itself.

There’s a load of stuff to consider - rightly - for fieldcraft.

If it’s a team building type exercise maybe look at it that way, but unless your woodland is attached to your Sqn HQ or part of its Extended Footprint (a formal thing) you will need landowner and MOD permission.

Sorry also a fun sponge :frowning:

TOPLs are easy, you just have to submit them far enough in advance and remember to use a date range, not a specific date.

I personally would drop the fieldcraft idea and treat it as a sports night.

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TOPL = training over private land. You’ll need to contact the Army brigade for your area, your OC or Trg Off will know the details. It’s not onerous as @talon says; for ours a simple email is usually enough.

Thank you for all that information but I didn’t ask for that I am only asking for ideas for the games.

Ideally find out what permissions and forms you need to have filled out before getting ideas on what you can do.

I’d avoid using words like “Games” and “Hide and Seek” as they conjure up the old image of Fieldcraft as a cowboy activity. If your going to do Fieldcraft, it should be done in a professional, structured and formal way.
When you say you have no idea of the paperwork, this is a little concerning.

Please be aware that TOPL and correct Activity Clearances for Fieldcraft need to be in place or you wont be covered by any insurance (TOPL and Fieldcraft Clearances for Local Training can be done for a 6-12 Month period).

Any night activity must have Regional Clearance.
Also it is in writing in ACFTIs that Fieldcraft Instruction can only be delivered by an FCI who has been trained by an FCI(T) Qualified person and signed off by their Wing Fieldcraft Officer. You’ll need the correct ratio’s of FCIs to Cdts too.

If you want your Sqn to undertake Fieldcraft Training, then contact your Wing Fieldcraft Team for assistance to do it in the right way.

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Thank you for that but I am not in charge and I am just getting ideas like my warrant Officer asked for before she plans the night.

Sorry if I didn’t make that clear enough

Assuming the username is linked to the sqn.

There is no Wing FT Team, but it’s a nice idea

There may have been a different load of replies if you’d have mentioned that your WO (I’m guessing not CWO) had asked you to find ideas.

You would be correct by saying that

And I should have mentioned that earlier sorry