Hi all,
I was tasked with organizing a flight night, however, I have very little idea of what to actually organize. It needs to be on squadron site.
Any idea or help would be appriciated!
Are staff getting involved or is this purely one that Cadets are being asked to manage?
Cadets are generally expected to host it on their own.
Well you have 2 Flights. Organise it on things you have learned or are going to be taught about like Aircraft recognition. 15-20 pics of relevant aircraft including the hurricane and spitfire and some general aviation. Have the IC of the flight hold the pen and paper (Important job) and have them guess the aircraft and working as a team. I chose not to give them choices of what the Aircraft should be so that you can see what level of Aircraft Recognition they know.
Have them marked on basic drill movements and uniform by your WO. You could also choose some basic initiative exercises for them to work as a team through, example challenging course of chairs and cones for the team to get a blindfolded cadet through, as each cadet goes through change the course until all cadets are safe on the otherside.
Have your NCO’s had any ideas of what they could do? Have they done a Flight night before?
They have, it is unusual for cadets to host the flight nights, however, I was asked to host it this time. I did ask the flight IC but all he replied with was “something fun”
Well some ideas from him/her would have been nice if you haven’t done anything like this before…
Are you just expected to run it as a flight including the NCOs or excluding the NCOs?
Are they looking for you to demonstrate your leadership and organizational ability - or because they are too lazy to do it themselves? Or have they themselves run out of ideas?
Every squadron is setup differently with different levels of resource - even down to different numbers and sizes of flights!
However, given all of the above, there are some very broad and generic activities that can work - some require more prep than others. Rather than go with the broad “fun” remit, you might want to develop skills, test knowledge or look at something else! So… here’s some ideas.
Observation task - Get them to watch a 10minute videos and then answer a quiz based on their observations of the video. It could be a video on anything - but you could easily tailor this to something aviation based to keep in the ATC theme. I’ve given them Ray Mears videos or Danger 50,000 Volt videos previously. Set the tests on what is visually happening in for the foreground, the background, but also what’s being said. Ask about the colours being worn, any numbers, facts or figures mentioned - basically try to attune the senses to “situational awareness” - rather than just “watching”. I normally give them a warm up task (this one is amazing for that - Observation test - YouTube) - then move on to the next bit.
Planning task - Similar to OASC tests, give them either an individual planning or group planning task. There’s one in this pack - but plenty more available online - https://www.raf.mod.uk/recruitment/media/2029/uas-oasc_notes_for_guidance.doc
Planned two minute talks - give the group 30minutes to plan a 2minute talk either on a subject of their choice - or a subject you give them. For the second half of the night, you listen to them deliver said talks giving feedback as you see fit. If the group are mature enough, get them to do peer feedback or peer marking. If not, you give the feedback. We often extend this to 5minutes talks later in the year which they actually compete for a trophy for.
Public Speaking/improvisation - This is all about building confidence in public speaking - and there’s a number of ways of doing it. One of the favourites I’ve done recently involves 2 separate containers. One has a series of titles about which the group might be familiar (for example, subjects from first class training or similar), the second set of titles are random (for example, “what are your favourite type of socks and why?”, “Tell me about the colour green”, “When in Rome, why must we do as the Romans do?”). Give an individual a dice - if he gets an odd number, it’s an odd topic, if it’s an even number it’s an even topic. They then pullout a topic of the appropriate box and give a two minute improvised talk on that topic.
Radio exercises - don’t worry about having a radio for this - and don’t push it for two long (I certainly won’t spend a whole night doing it!), however radio phonetics hangman is a really good time filler in and around other radio based tasks (depending if you’ve got the kit!) or just getting them used to thinking with phonetics.
Universally challenged - this was floating around a while back on ACC - not sure if it still exists - but a few people put together a quiz based on the first class syllabus - it acted as a really good refresher for all the cadets - but was especially good at the NCOs who have forgotten their first class knowledge and “moved on” so to speak!
Local map making - make a map of the squadron hut and surroundings, to scale and as accurately as possible. This could involve inside/outside the building, room layouts, electrical outlets - make it as detailed as you want. Give them a 1m fabric tape, a compass, a few sheets of A4 and a massive piece of A2 paper and see how they get on. They normally come up with some really novel approaches to measuring stuff using this method!
Local model making - Similar to above but, rather than make a map, make a model.
Lego based exercises - I’ve done a few of these and am yet to get the flights to successfully construct a model - however, it doesn’t mean it’s not a good exercise! It involves developing communication skills and ensuring people stay on message and subscribe to KISS principles. Go and buy a cheap and cheerful lego model. Put the lego pieces in one room (but NOT the lego box!), the instructions in another room. Have a couple of cadets who are “readers” and they stay with the instructions. Another couple are “builders” and they stay with the lego bits. The rest of the flight need to relay instructions between the readers and builders until the model is built. It sound really easy.
Lego based exercises… with radio! - as above. But get them to use radios to communicate (and stick to correct protocols whilst doing so!).
Swimming evening - whilst you said “on squadron site”, if you get the opportunity again - and enough of a time scale to do it - get everybody to go swimming for the night! Try and cover the Basic & Intermediate swimming proficiencies - or just have a mess about. I’d prefer both!
Pre-DofE badge gubbins - start them on their physical exercise section of the Pre-DofE badge - give them some fitness tests etc to benchmark themselves.
I’m sure others will be along to give some more ideas in due course! 
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Thank you very much! That must of taken some time to write up.
I really like the idea of the public speaking one. I think I may use it on radio comma topics!
I shall contact my IC and see what he thinks of the idea