From where I am to Fairford, start at between 03:00 and 04:00 to reach the show by 08:30 roadworks and traffic dependent on the M6, M42 to M5 to A417 to join the traffic queues then across county with all the other airshow and holiday traffic. All day at the show and the same back, so if you are back by 24:00 and 01:00 if there are no problems. Is travel hired coach, SOV etc drivers hours in the latter.
This patently has not been thought through.
I would take that to mean not part of the HQAC camp, not that you can’t arrange your own overnight stay as “day visitors” to the airshow.
Do the new restrictions mean changes for the “teams” like radio flight?
I’m assuming the comms flight would fall under the support team so you’d have to be over 16/minimum school leaving age to be on comms. no idea if that’s what will happen though, pure speculation.
Who in their right mind would want to attend an event like this !!
Enough people that there’ll be a decent bunch of returners (assuming they’re over 16).
It is was a good camp, so long as you’re expecting to do some work.
And this, it seems, is the crux of the problem.
Oh I appreciate that, but shouty staff, climatic injury and awful lunches with a lack of attention to food safety doesn’t exactly inspire me ! 
If it’s school, the easy solution is just to take CCF cadets from private schools. We’ve broken up before RIAT!
Good solution!
Oh wait… theres this little issue…
No bat men, so… guess thats out then…
We’ll take a few ATC WSOs with us. Problem solved. 
I have heard there is work at considering increasing the scope for day visits by looking at accommodation near/at Fairford…although i read that as aspirational rather than an actual action that people are looking into.
realistically Brize is the best option as a local accommodation hub but i suspect there are other options locally (within an hour)
how?
because the number of F492s were submitted raised the attention of desks that didn’t care before.
that is a 25% success rate.
I heard via other channels there are 11,000 O16s Cadets and so to reach the ~1000 number the camp neds 10% of those to not only be interested but to attend
it is a good question but yes i suspect it would. the Comms flight hours are the longest of the Cadets given they should be “on air” from the beginning to the end of the day - yes they are split early and late shifts but they are no less exposed to the time demands.
about 2000-3000 member of the RAFAC each year…of which those wanting to attend get allocated into ~1000 people.
There are more than an handful of CFAVs who come back year after year, many into double figures attending, and a number of those having attended as a Cadet themselves.
there are always returning Cadets too, one of the elements I enjoyed was seeing Cadets returning each year but with a new stripe on their shoulder and felt proud and pleased for them seeing them progress even though there were not in the same region as me I saw them make the most of the RAFAC and others saw the potential in them that I saw too
What percentage of that number are over 16? Unless it’s in the region of 50% there might be a problem getting the 1000 required cadets this year.
And out of that number how many are working towards qualifications or working?
it is a very good question and point being raised.
I am told there are 11,000 O16s Cadets, so it would need 10% of those to attend…
The age aspect is going to have broader and more important ramifications for community events in general, which is where we have our greatest exposure to the public
We should go back to the ADDC ages of 16-18, problem solved.
I would suggest those that come back year on year are people who are into airshows, but like many things we do, we all have the things we like and things we won’t go near. Personally there is nothing that could persuade me to go to an airshow any more, or one you pay for.
you’d think that right?
but no.
I have done a few extended camps and although I was due to stay for the full two weeks my Cadets were only there for the build and show. Before the show weekend had started or we’d seen any aircraft in the sky half of my lot approached me asking if they could stay for the second week.
RIAT is more than an airshow, it is about the camp, the team work, meeting and making friends from not just outside of your wing, but region and even country - in some cases internationally when IACE have visited.
The same reason Cadets and Staff keep going back on Annual Camps is the part of the same reason Cadets and Staff keep going back to RIAT - for some the fact there is a massive airshow taking place in the middle of is a bit of a bonus
(i will accept though that i am yet to know someone attend who doesn’t like an airshow)
do the government laws apply to volunteering posts aswell? - it must do and/or something must have changed recently in order for HQ RAFAC to very suddenly enforce these regs
I looked up the regs due to having weird work shifts and I had to declare my volunteering with my employer and agree to not breaking the Working Time Directive. However, I discovered that volunteering hours do not count towards the Working Time Directive - so I can do what I like with cadets. That obviously applies to CFAV as we are volunteers. However, a question I don’t know the answer to is whether Staff Cadets and U18 Cadets would be classed as a volunteers as they are a member of a youth group?
Well they way they have worded it in the IBN makes it seem like they would all be classed as “volunteers”, we arent getting employed for work we are contributing our time to running core parts of the event however cadets and CFAV are necessarily getting paid for it and it isn’t “contracted hours”.
All a bit silly in my opinion