Yes… Our unique selling point is aviation… Which is quite frankly on its knees at the moment
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Depends where you are, I haven’t had a gliding detail in over a decade so I have to question how great we are at the Air part.
On the flip side I’ve got a better record with DofE than the 2 local ACF detachments added together.
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Activities that require skills and qualifications (e.g. FC, shooting, AT, road marching, etc) can be delivered by squadron & wing CFAVs. Squadron CFAVs are quite redundant when it comes to VGS and AEF activities.
Here my maths works out at each squadron getting a sortie for gliding once every 3 years. AEF was more regular, but grob issues atm, so…
I don’t think the ACF have a better offering per se, just different.
Yes, some of our cadets like to do a lot of field craft, but a lot of them don’t, so although delivery of our usp is currently limited, it doesn’t render us pointless by any stretch.
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Only in terms of field craft - which shouldn’t be a surprise.
Even in a good year where every cadet flys or glides at least once… either on AEF or on camp… we as an organisation are not defined by flying.
We have never had every squadron flying every weekend.
We are aviation themed.
That means we have a strong undercurrent of physics, stem and principles of flight throughout our syllabus…
Leadership theory, shooting, d of e, at is all much the same as any other cadet force.
I’m as disappointed as the next CFAV in the lack of flying opportunity, but it does not render us as pointless. We have an awful lot to give, and cadets can take what they can from us.
We need to explore the next generation of flying opportunity; and in fairness there is a lot of good work on space etc going on.
Yes, we know the glider fleet could have been handled better, but here we are.
Let’s be realistic, a massive % of what we do is on a squadron parade night, a % at wing level training, a small % at regional level courses, a tiny % at Corps level courses.
Many air cadets through choice go through an entire cadet career without leaving the ground…
I’m not defending the record on flying at all, you’ll find me to be an outspoken and fierce critic… but, we are not defined by the success or failure of vgs/AEF. We are bigger than that.
What 1999?
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I’ve spoken to neighbouring units about this over the years. The SCC can offer boats. The ACF have shooting and Fieldcraft though we’ve had more joy with the former.
They were hoping we could get their cadets gliding…
The areas we should be strong in are under resourced. We don’t have proper STEM kits, activity guides or instructors. If we had similar resources to the RAF youth engagement teams it’s something we could share (and use for recruitment).
If the aviation PTS gets updated and we can do Blue PTT on Sqns, there is support to sort out the hardware, and the training is accessible for staff, not requiring a 1000 flying hours in a Tonka or being a training captain on an A380 to run it, then that would be something we could offer.
We can’t really do Comms as the Army procedures are too different (and they have better kit than us anyway). We might be able to offer Cyber but is that a fair trade for a day’s shooting? I’ve not had that conversation with them, and I think they are tied in to the CyberFirst system anyway.
Not wanting to sound negative but this is why I’ve found it hard, even though all our local CFAV get on well.
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I’ve been having a similar issue recently.
Bumped into the local ACF detachment commander who offered us weapons training slots and slots on range days but I was completely stumped about what we could offer in return.
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I actually do think the CCF model would work but with integration at a higher level; i.e. one Cadet Forces HQ with branches for sea, land, air. Cut the hierarchy at the top end (yes, even Reg Comdts) but leave the units at the bottom alone. One set of assurance…
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(PS so I would see CCF Contingents and Wings both reporting to the same senior officer)
I can see how that idea could work, but I would go a step further and get rid of the single service WHQ. Make these Merger at County level, so all 3 services at a County level would be under 1 Captain, Lieutenant Colonel or Wing Commander, with joint service SME’s l, you could then go single service below that level so you would still have ATC Sector Commanders.
In that Scenario CCF Contingent Commanders would report in at the County Level and would be treated like a Separate Sector per School.
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I think it’s sectors that are unnecessary… the ACF do without.
But I can see what you are trying to do. Remember counties are geographically smaller than wings. So I think your model works but I’d have sqns reporting directly to county commanders. (Wg Cdr level not Gp Capt - the ACF county comdts are ranked too high and the Army knows it!)
They are smaller, but if you took most ATC Wings that have multiple Counties included you are still looking at around 15 units per county.
If you then throw the ACF & SCC units in the same locality into the mix you probably have around 40 units, that’s a lot to directly report to the County Commander. You wouldn’t need to have as many Sectors as we do now but some form of lower Command Structure is needed. (Maybe just have 1 per Service almost like the CCF heads of Section?)
So each County has a Tri-Service Wing Commander rank in charge with a Tri-Service CCF Contingent Commander (per contingent) ranked at Sqn Ldr, and each service type then has a local Single Service Commander also rank at Sqn Ldr.
All the individual unit Commanders (including CCF Sections) can then be Lt, Captain or Flt Lt as can all of the County SME’s.
ACF and SSC looking more attractive than the RAFAC for new cdts and CFAVs. What is our USP if we don’t really do flying anymore?
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ACF have companies… sectors in another name
We had 4 companies in my county. All the local counties do the same and I would imagine most of the ACF do the same.
The companies do much more joined up training.
4 x company weekends a year
Annual camp is with your company
Depending on how switched on your Major was, most out of det training was done with your company.
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Interesting, considering the large number of RAFAC CFAVs who work in STEM fields in the day jobs. Is it just a case that HQAC personnel can’t be arsed to make it happen? What sets RAFAC STEM apart from the competition?
Seriously thinking of jumping ship to one or the other.
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That’s the big question.
Further the risk is that if we move AT and greens to the other CFs, quite a few of our volunteers would either need to move over or would be isolated. The risk then is our skillset in those areas would wane.
We can’t all retrain as QFIs
I was ATC cadet and Staff, left for a few years and went to the ACF for just shy of 4 years.
Now back in the ATC (for the moment, but that’s another story).
The grass isn’t always greener on the other side though. The ACF has its own issues which when you break it down aren’t much different to ours.
I enjoyed my time and wouldn’t say no to going there again.
Depends on your Squadron/Wing as much as anything else. We are very dependant on what our local staff choose to deliver, not a surprise as our individual Squadrons have always been far more independent than the ACF detachments.
As a Squadron Commander DofE was always one of my biggest selling points when I was out recruiting.