Interesting to see DofE was seen as the least enjoyable activity by your cadets and also rated least well run.
Would be curious to know how the cadets would like the activity run in an ideal world.
Well with that specific activity, we don’t actually run DofE at all, other than a half-bummed attempt at blue DofE.
Pinching. TVM!
Would be interested to see any material you put together to use your 3d printer. We were gifted one and have struggled to find productive use for it that we can build a programme around. We’ve ran a small innovation club looking to solve small problems but how to connect it to the wider programme just hasn’t happened yet.
Aircraft recognition. Try to guess the aircraft before the printing is complete
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One of my team builds and flies his own aircraft. He wants to build a small wind tunnel and then let cadets design small objects and test the aerodynamics.
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We have the rules for an air to air combat table top game (think war hammer with aircraft). Cadets quite like it as different but still military aviation.
It’s at 1:144 scale so would definitely 3d print a load of the tokens / aircraft to make it more interesting g for the cadets as well as easier for have the different aircraft form other nations.
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On thingyverse there are lots of free files you can download.
Currently building a Jet Engine, different colours for the High Pressure and Low Pressure elements, casing, and ancillaries.
Will allow us to use when doing Jet Engine for cadets to assemble, while explaining the parts, what they do, etc.
Currently only the HP compressor, Spool and HP Turbine are built.
I left the outer casing on a 12 hour build the other night…
Would be interested in learning more about that 
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Star Wars X-Wing was based on Wings of Glory (I think).
Would be great to print your own miniatures.
I’ve stumbled upon Squadron Leader, a fully 3D Printable game.
Just thinking if you printed 3 extra sets of the aircraft and altitude tokens then cadets could play it remotely over radio, listening in and moving opponents aircraft on their own board to keep track of the airspace.
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Link here for the pdf
Anyone fancy acting as Games Master & writing a campaign that we can use with military air systems?
I have a fairly simple scenario one I wrote a few years back for Air Power, but it’s more a combined arms / ops scenario than just an air one
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WWO would be the first point of call on this, they usually have random bits that they have acquired over the years
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What 3d printer did you end up getting?
What 3d printer do you have?
3d Printable Turbojet Engine Remixed by linus3d - MakerWorld
Here’s a personal project that I want to get started with.
Electric TurboProp with Variable Pitch Propellers – Cadly by Adrian Barsotti
I’m trying to convince my sqn to start this project in the new year
That is a very interesting set of results - and perhaps telling that shooting rates a higher level of interest over aviation when compared to “how well delivered” they are.
While your flying is not a complete “good” result, there is positive bias. shooting however has a marked negative trend.
it could be that there is significant interest in shooting because the cadets do not see it happening (not well delivered) - people wanting what they don’t have.
Look at the drill and classification topics, these are readily completed on a weekly basis, some form of drill is done nightly, if only forming up, but not difficult to kill 10 minutes with some drill while waiting for an instructor who is running late.
and the vast majority of classroom work we do is on classification training so no wonder that is “well delivered” if you read “well delivered” as “time spent on this” it makes sense. If the Cadets are actually judging the quality of the instruction/delivery is hard to say without knowing more (ie are you providing shooting opportunities on a weekly basis having your own range on site, but actually the team delivering it are rubbish?)
when looking at what can be achieved on Squadron by a “typical” unit those Self-sufficient topics come out highly (drill, classification, first aid, leadership).
the lowest scoring are those which require more effort by the Sqn/more time from the cadets
flying, shooting, service engagement DofE - all harder to achieve on a Squadron parade night and so requires more effort from the CFAV to deliver it, and for the Cadets to make the most of the opportunity (commitment on the weekend , rather than a parade night).
with the above in mind - I think there is reason to take more positives away than negatives.
flying and shooting are hard if not impossible (without ACTO035) to deliver on a Squadron level.
FC and AT are possible to achieve on Squadron, providing you have the CFAVs and qualifications in place, and somewhere “local” to do it - but these are again harder to achieve on a Squadron level on a Squadron evening.
my point being while a trip to the local climbing centre* (AT tick) or using the Squadron range (shooting tick) might be doable for some within an evening - it is not practical for all to achieve this.
these results by and large are what i would expect from a “typical” Squadron and would be reassured that what is capable within the Squadron’s own remit is being done well - particularly those which can be done during a parade evening.
it also highlights where Wing provided opportunities (for many this is shooting, DofE, FC and aviation) are falling short of Cadet expectations.
*other AT activities exisit, such as watersports if near water, or mountain biking,
Yeah, while the results are that of one fifth of my squadron numbers (11 of 52), it largely tells me what I expected.
Looking at the Core Activities, my squadron doesn’t do AT, Shooting, Camps, or DofE so I expected them to all perform poorly in terms of delivery. And based on the interest ranking we can look at improving our delivery of shooting (we don’t have a range on sqn, nor qualified staff at present) and fieldcraft (only two FTI(R) on Sqn atm with limited kit). Flying and Gliding is what it is, but the delivery of wider aviation do-able (Sims, Drones etc). AT is difficult at the moment as we only have one staff member qualified (BEL) and so we’ll need to look at outsourcing (something I’ve been aware that we should be doing). As for Classification Training and Drill, I’d love to think that we’ve scored highly because the cadets think we’re doing a good job at delivering quality, rather than just quantity, but who knows.
Its hard if you dont have anyone qualified for the expeditions. We have a very experienced member of staff. With all 3 D of Es but he cant take them out as ‘they’ from above need a Bela etc. We dont have a young staff age group that are interested. I do the blue. We have nearly all cadets with it. Its quite easy to do really.
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It’s very impressive. I’m shocked how quickly they print.
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