Love a rumour or 2. I wander where?
That delightful 5 star luxury accommodation know as knook camp
I heard about this. I believe Iām washing my hair and my license is temporary suspended for that week.
Saw some great reviews about it.
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Itās an October half-term Campā¦
we are the best region 
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What region are you with?
S&NI 
Cool.
Where are you off to?
Wearing the same outfit twice! How dare she!
āā¦who was Honorary Air Commodore-in-Chief of the squadron for 63 years before Kate took over as Commandant-in-Chief in 2015.ā
Do all Sqns have these? How do we request a visit?
Also, their Sqn has a lot more going on than mine does!
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Problem with vip visits is everything is always made mint and pucker.
They need to see the reality, the squaller, the inefficieny.
Else they just go.home thinking how wonderful everything is.
HMS Bubble is correctā¦
Bubble as in hidden away and protected from the realities.
And again I cant stress enough Iām pro Monarchy.
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When I was a regional compliance beater uper for Tesco I used to never tell anyone my route for the weekā¦ Certainly made it eye wateringly painful at times thoughā¦ But got transparency
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Too true, Aunty Betty has often joked of the smell of fresh paint.
Even if the office of the Royal concerned has asked for low profile / no special treatment, guess what, that often gets ignored. Some events go over the top -= yes, I painted grass green for the Royal Jubilee at RAF Finningley in 1977! 
The scorchio summer had turned all the grass very brown.
There used to be an engineering requirement for any major components to be less than a certain service period for any of the āseniorā Royals to fly in a military aircraft - I wonder if that was applicable for those who served such as Andrew, William & Harry? The then Duke of Kent (Prince Michael - he became one of the supporters for XH558) wanted to fly in a Vulcan, which ended up having a double engine change in order to provide a suitable āin hoursā airframe. The story went that he saw one somewhere (low level or at an airshow), & said words to the effect of "Wow, Iād love to see inside one" - his staff took it a bit furtherā¦
Shame that one of the powered flight control units (PFCUs) malfunctioned in flight - a small internal split pin or washer came off - & jammed one of the PFCU internal hydraulic lines - the PFCU moved to become stuck at full rudder = 2 engines on one side had to be throttled right back, with the other 2 at a very high power setting to avoid crabbing through the sky. This had significant implications for landing.
A chase aircraft was coordinated - the rudder position was confirmed. After a radio conference with the Waddo duty pilot (thank goodness it wasnāt me - I had been the previous day!), the crew switched off the primary rudder PFCU, hoping that the hydraulic pressure would dissipate when electrical pump stopped.
It did eventually - & the standby rudder PFCU worked OK. Phew.
(Historic note for a previous accident for a Duke of Kent.)
The other problem is that everyone jumps on the visit and everything you plan goes out of the window for āthatā media opportunity 
With my previous Royal Parade background, I became the āRoyal expertā at a couple of subsequent bases, goodness knows why - P1 should have been handling all the protocol.
Instructions from the Royal offices were - in case of a visit:
āKeep things very low key please, as if we turned up today for an unexpected cup of coffee, no fan fares / pomp & circumstance.ā
Base commander - seeing a possible career tickā¦ One Admin Order, for a proposed visit (subsequently cancelled) had got to about 50 pages, guard of honour (much to the SWOās delight), the works. Still, several on-base units benefited from a speedy ramp up of all the various work orders / decorating / new furniture that had been on hold due to lack of funding.
This is a big problemā¦
A Sqn gets something amazing doneā¦
Then everyman and their dog wants āināā¦
ā¦ Iāve got 2 words for thatā¦
Generally a visit like this is imposed on the Squadron not arranged by them.
But yeah I can imagine some old duffers who havenāt been seen in years will come out of the woodwork.
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A bit like the gp cpt being right at the front of the East Ham photo and not the squadron staff who are right at the backā¦?
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i have seen a similar photo with the local Mayor, who previously showed no interest with the Cadets Forces when invited to engaged but when the local celebrity was free to drop by was front and centre of the day
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Exactly that!
Iām sure that he feels thatās correct since it was him that was tasked to arrange a visit.
I know a Squadron based on an RAF Station and when they won the Leeās trophy the whole flight of SIās they had got more attention than the Cadets did!
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