Hello
We are based in Leicester and looking to establish a flight sim facility for cadet training - not for gaming.
Is there an Air Cadet Syllabus/Instructors Guide for flight simulator lessons?
Is there an ATC ‘guru’ who can help me with how best to approach this? Not looking to reinvent the wheel.
I am a CAA Flying Instructor and former A2 but not a flight sim expert. Which software, hardware, is VR now viable? etc etc.
Budget not an issue as we can access funding and we have space allocated in a separate room.
Any help greatly received
Terry Moyes
There was a previous thread that showed a nice rig (we have a simpler set-up at our sqn, using XPLane); not aware of any strict syllabus / guide as such.
However, useful to follow basic scenarios, Effects of Controls, etc, as per the Blue Flying Syllabus.
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I have heard rumour that an official flight sim syllabus is on the cards… but goodness knows how long it is before something materialises.
@MikeJenvey has good points above.
We built our own sim and have multiple setups now.
Following a basic lesson plan for each cadet.
- Straight and level.
- Turns.
- Taxiing.
Etc etc pretty much just as a ppl, but reduced to a sim set up.
Costa vary wildly, depending on what you’re after and if all new kit.
If new, I would budget £1500.00 for a basic 1 station set up.
Good luck with it.
its worth being aware that Blue wings will soon be deliverable at squadron level.
as far as a training syllabus to used in the mean time, the Flying Scholarship and Gliding scholarship training manuals have been broken down into lesson plans and can be found on here on the ACC Drive.
As for talking to people, I’d recommend talking to your Region Activity Centre Coordinator who will probably point you to the IT support team.
Care to share?
Is this via simulator? Or PowerPoint or something else?
Thanks
If this is true then that’s an amazing step in the right direction
I don’t have any hard details i’m afraid. Your Region and Wing Aviation officers will have the details.
All I know is that we will be able to award Blue wings after some sort of course on a squadron (or a sector/wing/RAC etc) simulator, however we will have to stick to the letter of the (yet to be released) bible and not deviate in delivery. . .
Is it a step in the right direction? Whilst I get the idea of ground school and PTT / Sim being delivered at squad level this suggests that the first cadets will take to the air is for Bronze at an AEF or VGS - These take more flights per cadets, so fewer cadets will fly per annum.
It will also make the AGS system redundant in addition to differing A and G Blue Wings.
It will be rather interesting to see what the IBN says, when released.
I feel this is open to abuse. I’m hoping there is strict policy on who can instruct/assess. Theres a huge difference between CI Blogs who’s partial to a bit of microsoft flight sim at the weekend and CI Jones who’s a qualified CFI instructing on a sim effectively
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To the OP - make sure your squadron consults your RAvnO (via WAvnO) before you buy.
As stated there is a proposal to allow delivery of the blue wings groundschool at squadrons and you don’t want to buy something and find it isn’t suitable.
(And to those worrying - if this goes ahead, blue wings would still require a flight. No badges just for sitting at a computer.)
Whilst I do have the relevant commercial qualifications ( 
), having sat through numerous PTT groundschool sessions, I don’t see an issue. If the same syllabus / presentations / notes (or similar) are used, it is very much simple Principles of Flight. Same for the “flying” bits - use the same criteria - & from what I could see, there was no pass / failure element, albeit of course, some cadets improved on their “skills” better than others.
My problem is that whilst this will be a useful sqn-based function, it will generate a much greater number of cadets who will have passed the “theory / initial practical” so then there will be many more waiting for a flight to get their Blue Badge. Unless the AEFs / VGS can up their output, that will make matters more difficult.
We can only fix one thing at a time 
I can’t be the only one who is thinking of the potential negative aspect of this sort of move…
We can deliver ground school at the squadron… Great. No more silly journeys miles away for 10 minutes in a mediocre ‘flight simulator’. However, now that means that we’ve got to provide yet another activity for cadets locally. Just one more thing on the ever increasing list of responsibilities for instructors to plan, deliver, monitor, and manage.
Whilst in principal, and on the surface, I like the idea of blue badge being very much a Squadron level achievement it could set a precedent of deciding “We’re not supplying enough opportunities for cadets, so instead let’s just dump all this back on the Squadrons. By ‘empowering’ them to deliver we can wriggle out of our responsibility and just make the average volunteer do all the extra work”.
Well, we encourage flt simulator trg as being a suitable parade evening activity, so perhaps not all negative if a partial “qualification” could be achieved. I’ve just asked our Reg Av Officer about these aspects - & also about the proposed replacement for ACTO35 - useful to be able to link suitable flights in non-Service aircraft to the Blue Badge syllabus?
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Yes, we do… But then somebody has got to arrange it, set it up, take responsibility for it…
Where once the complaint that we are not getting enough opportunities for cadets to achieve their Blue wings could be kicked back to the Wing Aviation Officer, now it will be landed on the shoulders of the already overloaded Sqn CFAV.
No change if your sqn hasn’t got a flt sim, or, if sqns with a flt sim are unable / unwilling to action any Blue Badge syllabus requirements.
No change except for the inevitable gripes from Wing that we are not providing sufficient opportunity for our cadets and pushes to start offering it.
I’ve seen that plenty of times before.
We currently have access to 2 PTTs: one is 2 hours away and the other is about 2½ hours in the other direction (they have 2 machines but one is broken). Both locations are under quite heavy demand.
I cannot see that increasing the number of locations where we can carry out this elementary sim-based training is in any way other than a positive move, however we choose to provide it. Whether that be some kit at a wing which is more easy to access, a unit with its own equipment that can be used at a whim, or any solution in between, it is all an improvement over what we currently do.
I’d be quite happy with Wing, or even sector level delivery; and it may turn out that’s how it will be run (as I said, this is a potential concern at this stage).
What I’m worried about is that too many slopey shoulders may just expect Sqns to pick up their slack and then it’s the Sqn staff who are blamed for not running the activity / the Squadron’s cadets who are missing out (I consider past experiences in this regard).
I’m not complaining about the move, I’m highlighting potential areas where it could be mismanaged as
I’m keen to avoid such devolution becoming a trend of just dumping everything back at Sqn level.
Personally, I think that there might have to be artificial filters - within “x” months pre-AEF / VGS for example - otherwise every cadet on a sqn with a flt sim would be Blue Badge “ground school” qualified in a month!!