10/10 would recommend!
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Short answer is its difficult at the moment. We are only (by policy) allowed to use the Joint Service Parachute Centres. With us being written out of JSP419, that means we can no longer access joint service courses, and thus canāt use those centres.
Using a civilian club (e.g. the APA at Netheravon) requires them to be assured by 22Gp as we have no technical advisor on staff within the RAFAC; so far my experience of trying to get this assurance done on two schools within the Region is simply a nil response.
Iāve recently read that the ACF have assured the APA at Netheravon for use by cadets so my next avenue is to see if that assurance is somehow transferrable so that the RAFAC would accept it.
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If you can keep me in the loop with your progress that would be awesome!
I am 99% sure Netheravon is assured by us. I know of current cadets who have flown from there.
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JSPC (Netheravon) and the APA share the same airfield and facilities; they are not the same thing which is where the confusion occurs and why some people who donāt know the difference have authorised courses there in the past.
Happy to be convinced otherwise if someone can show me the assurance report from the Robson Academy.
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They do - thereās a badge too.
Didnāt last year due to COVID
Week long course at Weston OTG.
Donāt hold your breath on that one. With the latest tragedy thatās happened there, I wouldnāt be surprised if HQRAFAC slammed the door shut on parachuting at Weston, in the name of ātotal safetyā
Our Organisation could all do with reading Bob Bartonās āSafety Risk and Adventure in Outdoor Activitiesā.
If you remove all of the danger you remove all of the adventure, might as well go to one of those indoor skydiving places.
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Not to mention the venture
Maybe the motto should should be changed to: āno venture, no adventureā?
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Donāt give them ideas
āsafer in the hangar, not in the Sangerā
But, ahem, parachutingā¦
Itās something Iād love to do, historically I think we should have done more - we have FT, because we have the Regiment, so we should have more parachuting because we have 2Sqn.
Out of interest, how much do ACF actually do on a typical year and do para associated units do more?
Personally I think itās something we should contract out, itās one of those areas where a Civvy School will have far more experience than the Military, especially when you consider what we actually want out of a Course. (Idiot proof training, get out of the aircraft, land safely).
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Unfortunately a recent incident (WOTG) has stopped sports parachuting ops at Netheravon, pending an ongoing investigation.
Obviously condolences to the parties involved, hopefully not the nail in the coffin for this fantastic sport and opportunity for cadets.
So I see on Instagram that 593 and 31 sqn have managed to get cadets on a parachuting course. I thought we had worked out there isnāt really a way of doing it at the moment?
Parachuting is fun, so obviously, it is banned in the Air Cadets.
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And the RAFAC instagram page shared it with ādid you know we do parachuting?ā 
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Tbh , itās HQAC media so Iām surprised it wasnāt a āTILā post
Who knows anyone at Swanley or Tower Hamlets for the provider of said course?
Or even if this was a recent course?