I tend to agree. I’ve dropped them but used to do it regularly in the past. I just got lazy. Might actually reintroduce them for my new recruit intake in Jan - likely to be recruiting 40+ cadets into three flights.
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PS never worn off the unit, of course.
It’s okay though, you’re CCF, so the uniform rules don’t apply 
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…and never worn when you know the WWO is visiting…
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Great idea… they were rank slides with the intake names at Halton in MTP
Yes, as I said earlier they’re used in training environments or on courses where either no one holds rank or it is desirable to remove rank differences. They are not appropriate alongside RAF rank slides.
Why?
If a Sqn number, or formation flash is appropriate, why is it inappropriate to distinguish between Flights or Sections?
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And the key thing is, AP 1358 allows it. ACP 1358 does not.
(assuming that is up to date of course!)
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The lanyard one is funny.
I had the yellow lanyard as I was senior man during phase three, and the maroon lanyard on the other arm as we were the senior course.
Bit mental really.
I’ve still got my phase one “flight flash” kicking around somewhere as well.
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or when posting photo’s on your social media
If there is a demand for it. Just change our dress regs. Why can’t we follow our parent service.
AP1358c, now ACP1358, was originally a copy and paste of AP1358 with appropriate adjustments. That means someone has actively decided to remove this section. (Someone also added the stuff about not ironing PCS, which isn’t in the original AP.)
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Hard disagree. I don’t think you’ve really justified why it would in fact be inappropriate alongside rank slides.
We’ve correctly identified that they’re frequently used in the regular services for visually recording flight identity for the purposes of team building.
The cadet forces put cadets in a permanent state of training (and they do, because even at their most informal, they exhibit the formality of the training system), and so visually bonding the cadets by flight is an excellent idea.
We already recognise the value of unit identity, and every unit I’ve even known over the decades has named their flights and seems to roughly attempt to keep cadets in those same flights (some even keep them in their recruit intake as a flight).
A flight tag or whatever we call them clearly has immense value because many use them successfully.
This would be an excellent case of dress regs capitalising on something that has emerged organically and giving formal blessing to those who wish to use it.
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Fixed it.
Only really used in training environments.
Only time I’ve actually seen anything like that in the wild is to distinguish SATTs (Servicemembers awaiting trade training) so they dont get picked up for being ARs and cutting around with no rank badges. Because everyone generally has a rank badge in the RAF.
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“Only used in training environments in the RAF” is not the same as “can’t be used for flight identity on cadet units”.
I mean, are we really going to list all the ways you’re different to the parent service?
It isn’t the strong argument you think it is. People need to understand that regs can in fact be changed very easily. And in fact should, if a reason shows merit.
We might not agree with the reason for the proposed change, but that doesn’t mean the reason to oppose it is equally strong.
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Didn’t say it was.
But only in training environments ≠ frequently used.
I’m not against the idea of it, there are decent quality options out there.
But I will be against it, until units stop using poor quality flashes and the book gets changed. If you’re going to enforce standards of uniform, you can’t pick and choose which rules you follow or add rules in.
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Exactly. Deciding to add your own identifiers alongside regulation rank slides is no better than someone deciding they don’t like recent changes to policy and won’t allow beards or pony tails, or that females should all wear skirts, etc.
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You’re changing your argument.
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Stating the obvious perhaps but what does the “T” stand for in ATC???
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Didn’t say I was against it in practise.
Just pointing out the only places these things are used.
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