UAS/RPAS (‘Drones’) on squadron

I need to rewatch that now

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I’m currently on holiday so can’t read much into this other than what you’ve posted. With that said;

What a bloody joke.

RAFAC really emphasising the “unmanned” portion of UAV right there.

Or maybe we have our own internal definition of “unused aerial vehicle”?

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We say ‘uncrewed’ these days.

There should be a way of getting cadets ‘hands on’ with a drone at lower levels though?

It’s not actually a bad idea to progress through synthetic training IMO, most units have a flight sim that could be adapted to deliver that.

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this :point_up_2: :100:

the first experience of “flying” is as a passenger in a Tutor or Viking.
while drones are by their nature passenger free…it is a shame that the Cadets cannot get to grips with handling the controls at an early stage.

most will take control of a Viking or Tutor on first flight, certainly by the second, so why not offer a taster at the introductory stage of drone flight too?

oh 100%, the use of drone simulators is a good idea, but it really shouldn’t be the only thing the cadets do.
I’d rather see the bronze course be phase 1 on the sim, then phase 2 with real drones.

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Or at least have a bolt on for using a real system, but allow the badge to be awarded for synthetic only cover units that can’t have or don’t have drones

Agree, even if it is just safety checks and basic flight manoeuvres so as when they have to sign that they can do them for their A2 they have had more chance to do that.

Looks like the USAF have only reached bronze level. Not allowed to fly their drones on the parade.

This is precisely what I predicted months back - we have a syllabus which isn’t based on squadrons using drones at all, but is making it an elite course.

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Cadets who want to fly drones may just go and join clubs, that then takes them away from the RAFAC.

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or just do it in their garden, local park, beach or anywhere else without all the faff that the RAFAC will inevitably create

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There’s actually not that many places you can fly now, our local parks have banned drones and I’ve seen signs on beaches etc saying it’s not allowed too (I think they were National Trust though).

Land owners don’t really own the air above them, and most of the time these signs aren’t worth the material they’re written on.

I can put a sign at the end of my drive saying no drones, but I can’t do anything else to stop someone flying over my house…

(And yes there may be bylaws etc, but generally it’s just a polite request)

Has anyone had any success at using small drones at their Squadron, indoors, perhaps behind a net?

Need to risk assess the size of the holes in the net, cadets could see that as a challenge to meddle with, and get stuck in. Its simply because of the cadets we cannot do fun things. Have we thought about removing the cadets from the…oh…yeah…ignore that :grimacing:

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In the past I had some small helicopters. We used to set up obstacles courses, give the cadets some practice time in teams then select the best one to race against other teams through the course. BUT I think that would now required the Gold +++ course and an 87 page risk assessment, hard hats, glasses, gloves, face shields…

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You might jest but you should see the risk assessment I’ve had to produce for synthetic training!

12guage? With buckshot?

Yes, yes, that’d do it.

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