How many cadets do you currently have affected by F6424

How many cadets do you have affected by us having no CFMO help anymore so no new F6424s so they are mot allowed to go flying or gliding?

Without checking, I’d guess 25% of the squadron.

I wish I knew.

When the original announcement was promulgated, I made sure that every cadet that hadn’t completed an Av Med Form was aware so that any that might require F6424 action could get one completed / signed off before the CMFO support ended. No takers!

Since then, we have had a new intake of around 20, but they don’t have uniform yet.

From around the 40-50 cadets that I have completed AV Med Forms, there are less than 5 that have F6424s. Only one of these required CFMO action - only because the GP was super-sensitive about signing off the form, not for any of the listed medical conditions that he saw as “severe.”

I would like to think that our stats would be representative across the Corps; however, I also suspect (as an unqualified medical person - but perhaps with a better insight into aviation medicine) that several cadets haven’t had “neurological diverse” conditions declared by parents on their 3822. :thinking:

Yes totally agree i have had for sure cadets with autism and its not declared by the parents so it won’t affect them flying but there is obviously nothing we can do and can only go by the forms the parents completed.

We actuall have probably about 65% of our cadets have autism /adhd etc we have quite a high percentage and it just keeps increasing of recent. Obviously none of these new ones eill get to fly.

This is really tough conversation to have with parent and cadet thats new lets join air cadets but sorry you aren’t allowed to fly which surely is taking the air out of air cadets

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Potentially silly question but how does Autism or ADHD affect your ability to enjoy AEF?
Especially considering it’s a whole organisation of neurodivergent squirrels then the potential pool of people who can fly would be tiny?

Which is exactly why we need a CFMO type who can work with their GPs to see if they can or can not fly.

put simply, because it is on the form…

ADHD AV Med Form

Edit to add: To answer the question - having those conditions don’t impact someone’s ability to enjoy the experience, but as with all the questions on the form, it isn’t about the Cadet’s experience but considering the safety of the pilot they are flying with.
is the pilot going to be distracted because their passenger is “going off script” and not able to cope with the experience, not listening to instructions or are in a medical state (physical or mental) that suggests they should not fly which could impact their ability to escape the aircraft should the need arise or their condition could be triggered by the experience

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Didn’t the older form not list ADHD? I’ve not been in long but have done AEF’s with cadets and some of them certainly have it, so lord only knows what’s going to happen here! Will parents not declare it… do we have a DOC to point it out if we suspect the parent has withheld information??

The OC has to sign something (the nominal roll?) before each detail saying that as far as they know, everything had been declared that should have been.

yes it did - as did Version 3.0

the issue is having it triggers an F6424 form…filled out by the GP

that form includes the wording:

Where applicable, I have discussed the case with the RAF CFMO as per instructions overleaf and recorded the CFMOs decision in box below

where there is a list of

and the trouble is we have no CFMO for a GP to discuss with and therefore permit a GP to sign the form

Welcome to the “clear as mud” situation. :wink:

V2.0 of the Av Med Form had mention, but a different emphasis on the F6424 action::

There is also the parental declaration:

The CO’s signature on the 2FTS Form 012 (Programme sheet / nominal roll) isn’t really doing anything useful - it’s linking indirectly to the Av Med Form or F6424:

For AEF, a pilot will see a cadet for 20-30 mins. CFAVs see them for a much longer duration, over a period of time, including parade evenings, weekend events, DofE, stn visits, whatever.

None of us (AEF pilots or CFAVs) are likely to be medically qualified to diagnose ADHD or other neuro-diverse conditions. Therein lies a huge problem. As a result of simple observation (something clearly not “right”), in the past, I’ve very gently asked parents of new cadets to confirm that any / all medical conditions had been declared, outlining that this is for a cadet’s safety, as well as the safety for others. Nothing else was declared / added.

From general life experiences, & comparing against cadets with declared conditions, I would bet an awful lot of money that for a few cadets, things haven’t been declared (medical or related educational plan / needs). What can we do? Very little - although we certainly might monitor them more closely when they are participating in some activities.

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Sqn staff also have to sign AvMed forms now. Can’t remember what the declaration says though.

All is states is:

I confirm that I have seen and scrutinised the above AvMED 1 and, can further confirm that, where required, the F6424 process has been completed and that the F6424 is attached

signing the form is not new, and only indicates a Staff member as seen it and not simply a Cadet has produced it at the point of walking out the aircraft

does the air cadet training environment (unintentionally) select for those with autism, much like how scientific occupations attract those with autism?

Features like: organised fun/ structured, rule driven, predictable, links to STEM career pathway

The declaration of ADHD isn’t just about whether the cadet will enjoy the experience, it also need to take into consideration the safety of the pilot and aircraft.

As an example, not so long ago, a cadet with ADHD was a couple of minutes into his AEF trip when he had an episode and tried to take control of the aircraft. Fortunately the pilot calmed the cadet down and asked them to sit on their hands and they landed immediately.

If we know a cadet has an issue, our pilots are made aware before the cadet goes flying.

OOI, are pilots trained at all on SEND subjects?

Are other CFAV’s?

No, which is why I was asking!

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No, why should they be? It’s not really something that should be put about the Bazzars as it could open a can of worms.