To throw my high level thought into the mix, I’ll say this:
It’s been said that we are the ROYAL AIR FORCE Air Cadets and that’s an important focus on how we should operate and the portion of our identity that should take primacy.
However, while important, holding that view risks neglecting the important factor for the organisations’ members: that we are the Royal Air Force AIR Cadets.
I believe it is important and purposeful to maintain and offer “military” flying and to do so as much as possible, to the highest level possible, but that we should be ensuring we find ways to increase volumes through any safe means to get the maximum number of cadets in the air as many times as possible.
Those who wish to or are suitable to pursue further could be streamed into “military” flying opportunities and syllabi.
Getting in the air is the inspiring part, cadets don’t care who it’s with, but if they can’t even get airborne then they’ll never get the bug.
It’s vital and commendable to be seeking to increase internal capacity, but that doesn’t exclude investigating and introducing external options - it’s not a zero sum game; introducing external providers doesn’t detract from internal, assuming the quality offered is good.
My equivalent is having KPI for machine running time. Say 90% of working hours should be running time to get ‘green’. I can’t just decide to change that to 70% because things aren’t quite going as well as they should.
“Oh sorry boss, 2 machines broke so we’re only at 70%, but it’s fine as I’m hitting my new made up KPI”
This is only reflective of the cadets currently active on the Squadron… so you might have flown 50 sorties in 2018, even if they were all unique cadets if 48 of them have left you then the figure you have presented of 2.
So you need to look at the number of cadet’s who’s ID has digits 9 & 10 as 18 or less, this then gives you the number of active cadets on the unit who were also active in 2018.
Cadet ID Breakdown - WWSSSS00YYXXX
WW = Wing Identifier
SSSS = Squadron Number
YY = Year of Joining (last 2 digits of year, so any joiners from 2024 will have be WWSSSS0024XXX)
XXX = Represents the cadet joiner number in year
This is why your 2022/3 figures are so much higher as less of the cadets that flew in that year have left.
I question how you have flown 1 cadet in 2024, locally our minimum slot size is 3, so was this camp flying and you’ve had 0 allocations YTD?
Have you been offered flying in 2024 that you have turned down due to being unable to staff or were cancelled due to Weather / Aircraft Serviceability / Pilot Availability?
We currently have a slot for 6 cadets in October Half Term on cadet portal, currently only 4 cadets are bidding for those slots, so some work to do on drumming up interest.
this is certainly the route i am going to be taking with my child once they hit their teens.
several years ago now…more like 8 now i think about it as it was well before C19, a colleague knowing i was involved in the ATC asked me what the airbourne opportunities are like as his son was desperate to go gliding. i made it clear he’ll do far better going to the local BGA club, and a few years later his son was competing in national gliding competitions!
a number of years ago i completed a study of Gliding versus microlight flying costs.
on average the “trial lesson” cost was £78 vs £123 but it was as low as £40 vs £90
I know that isn’t pocket money, but gliding is still “cheap” in comparison to the cheapest powered flying
I also looked at the “cost per min” as gliding sites charge per minute in the air,
On average, a 30 minute flight from a winch launch cost £20 while with a tow to 2000ft £40.
so taking that suggested monthly cost of subs of ~£40 a civilian gets somewhere between 1-2 30 minute flight a month at their local BGA club(although they do need to be qualified to do so)
and if if they go for a trial flight, they can go once every other month based on average prices that i recorded*
and based on the above numbers could transfer to one flight every other month (or better) at a local BGA club
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i read two monthly aviation themed magazines and many of the reporters, contributors or persons interviewed or mentioned have followed a route into flying after being an ATC Cadet, which lead onto life in the RAF (not necessarily as a pilot) or into aviation themed career in the civilian world, or simply to persue a civilian private flying as a hobby
there are articles in those pages about the lose of ATC opportunities and the impact it will have on the UK’s aviation sector. and i find it hard to disagree. I am a PPL holder and aircraft owner, something i would never have dreamed off without being in the ATC as a Cadet.
My CO at the time was also a PPL, and I know of one other from that Squadron who has gone on to get a PPL.
While the numbers who do get a civilian PPL are less than those joining up (be that RAF, Army or Navy) I need more than two hands to count the number of Cadets/Staff i can think of who have either gone into an Aviation themed career or have got a Pilots licence
*these figures were completed during the pandemic, and so at least 3 years old, they are likely to be out of date, particularly given a cost of living crisis and large inflation we have experienced since 2020/21 but gives a ball park figure
If I exclude the 14 cadets that started last night, 2024 increases to 27%, if we assume that the 6 slots we have in October are all flown, it moves to 43%.
Assumption that each flight has been flown by a unique cadet with above %, this also includes both Tutor AEF and Viking GIC
13 unique current cadets have flown at some point in their cadet career, there are additional flights recorded for 3 x CFAVs in the data above. This is 35% of the squadron (ignoring those who joined last night) that have got airborne at some point as a cadet. If all 6 October slots are first time flyers, this moves to 51%.
Yeah, pretty sure that’s wrong. It’s wing. I moved Wings within the same region whilst a cadet and the first two numbers of my identifier was different to the other cadets on my new squadron.
Yep I have gone back & looked - even if it was what happened at the start of SMS roll out it certainly doesn’t happen now.
I remember something saying it was region based from adding cadets to ultilearm exams - where you typed a cadets last name & every cadet in the ACO with the same name popped up.
Sorry bout been working under a false impression for the last decade or so.
Back on topic… an able young person can get solo at our nearest BGA club for less than £400 - I know specific people who have done exactly that. That’s within ‘weekend job’ earning potential and indeed I made my son work for his - all his Christmas & birthday money, too.
That compares quite well with the cost of a single AEF flight. But that’s comparing apples with oranges, really…
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