Who requires?? All I want to do is give kids an opportunity to experience gliding. Not fussed about badges and faux nonsense. I just require them airborne. You know, doing that whole USP thing which has been so badly lacking.
Besides which, is it so bad to give kids exposure to a “fundamentally different” type of gliding???
Indeed the blue “badge” is just getting them airborne
Nope it’s not a bad thing anyone wanting to do BGA quals should be encouraged but to get to the bread and butter sports flying the BGA are really geared up to takes a lot more time than day trippers.
I make it six…
a quick search on the BGA website offers
https://scottishglidingcentre.co.uk/
https://members.gliding.co.uk/club/fulmar-gliding-club-2/
https://www.dumfriesanddistrictglidingclub.co.uk/
http://www.deesideglidingclub.co.uk/
http://www.gliding.org/ (Cairngorm gliding club)
Also a VGS
A miniscule fraction of gliders, in limited parts of the country, sure.
I had 1 cadet that went gliding to Kirknewton as a PR stunt to say we are gliding that was 2years ago.
Since then nothing and before that nothing.
Anyone who was serviced by kirknewton hasn’t been gliding since about 2010 long before the pause came into effect, due to “incorrect grass” being used on the runway after repairs
We have heard of gliding available but never saw any offers of places…
The whole thing is a shambles… but let’s not worry we can still give out shinny badges for rubbish!
Wessex to the firth of forth is a fairly wide spread.
Sounds like pretty much the only 2 locations…
No matter how it’s spun, the inescapable fact is there is nothing like the amount of gliding on offer. I can’t remember the last non-PTT session we were offered. I don’t know of any cadet in our sqn who has flown this year (outside of a lucky one getting a flying scholarship place).
Yeah, a tiny handful of VGS’ are in place. But they’re either spread so thin they fly one or two cadets at a time, have had their assets mismanaged so poorly that they prioritise flying a computer, or look after such a colossal area that nobody really sees the benefit.
Our nearest VGS - now double the distance away it used to be - has only just re-roled to Vikings and every update they publish is talking about how they’re training crew. Important, of course, but until they are crewed up they’re not a VGS. So let’s stop talking about them as though they are, let’s use the correct terminology and say they will be. A pattern which will be echoed around the country for a good while yet.
In the last 7 years of Command in 2 different Regions serviced by 2 different VGS neither of my Squadrons has had a single Cadet glide (5 years without for one unit and 7 years without for the other).
The Commandant has had more gliding than the approximately 400 Cadets that have gone through those 2 units since before the pause. (Unit averages 50 Cadets and according to HQAC ten average Cadet lasts 18 months).
No we can’t. HQ are incapable of providing them. I’ve spent hundreds of pounds of my own money getting the badges for b cadets on our unit as we have no budget for them and HQ don’t even have the courtesy to respond to requests.
According to their Facebook Kirknewton has flown one cadet recently. They went on about how it was the first one in years.
Wow…
1 cadet out of how many? and in how many years?
sorry if I dont seem enthused but it is pathetic!!
And everybody, the main point of the ACO and it’s shown constantly in all its recruiting documents shows cadets doing that one thing it’s lacking…flying.
If this were a company then they’d be prosecuted under the trades descriptions act.
That is as Lord Sugar would say is its USP and as he says if you fail to deliver ‘with regret you xxxxx are fired’.
How many, where and how many squadrons have been allocated ordinary slots for cadets to go gliding?
@GrandMaster_Flush don’t burst their bubble
Someone somewhere seems to think that badges matter, they don’t. The “flying” badge has to be about the most pointless thing since the broken pencil and it is far too convoluted and is an epic example of something dreamt up by people without a clue.
A few questions on the ‘sorties’ at AEF;
How do squadrons keep track of them when there is nowhere in the 3822 or on the 2FTS Form 007 to record them? If you ask a cadet what sorties they have done in the past, they don’t usually have a clue!
Can multiple sorties be done in the same flight? Bronze wings require sorties 2, 3 & 4 to be complete, but surely this doesn’t require 3 separate flights?
We write the sortie required on the latest version of 2FTS Form 012 (AEF Programme Sheet), but how does this get relayed to the pilot? Usually they go off and do aero’s no matter what.
637 & 621 Little rissington
622 Upavon
644 Syerston
645 Topcliffe
All have been flying cadets for some time (given 645 are now converting)
661 kirknewton have recently been cleared for cadets
632 Ternhill are autonomously operating and shortly if not already to fly cadets.
Can only give numbers for one of those squadrons but that single unit has issued “ordinary fkying slots” to 184 different Sqns or CCF contingents, plus additional PPT training sessions. Plus GS slots to cadets, Gold wings to cadets, grade 2 pilots wings to cadets. There is even an FSC Grade 1 out there flying other cadets.
Which just leaves most of the north of the UK without excpet eastern Scotland !
Bob, I don’t know if your aware kirknewton will be responsible for all Scotland and NI
Long long way for cadets to travel to glide, hardly a weekend job, in particular relevent to those coming up towards exams.
Local units may manage it as a day trip, but my lot are looking like an overnight stay and some of the units in the Highlands/Orkney/NI might have a bigger challenge than that.
I am pleased to see the return of gliding so that we can now learn the full extent of the logistical nightmare that is providing it evenly with fewer locations.
It will hit uptake. It was hard enough to get enthusiasm for wasting a whole day for a 30 minute flight, but stretching that to overnight (with the associated supervision faff) will be a challenge. There may be initial interest due to the novelty of gliding but I see that waning rather rapidly. That said, we will probably only get 6 slots per year.