Joining the Air Cadets opens up lots of opportunities, including the chance to fly! This is definately not everything, grab an information pack to find out more!

 

Get your head in the clouds

 

There are plenty of opportunities for cadets to get in the air. Air Experience Flights could even see you take to the skies in a Grob Tutor light aircraft.

 

Stand out from the crowd and you could be put forward for an overseas flight on a Hercules, VC10 or Tri-star. If you’re really lucky you could even join a pilot in one of our fast-jet aircraft or experience the unbeatable exhilaration of a Red Arrows flight!

 

Fieldcraft Training

 

Of course, the cadets don't spend all their time in there working blue uniforms. Sometime they get "down and dirty" in our DPM combat gear for fieldcraft training. Fieldcraft plays a large part in cadet life. We will run weekend and week-long camps to various places to perform training exercises in many different activities.

 

Fieldcraft is an important military skill and is quite a large part of cadet life. It focuses on a number of different areas such as shelter building, patrolling, sentry duties, target indication and a number of other basic military skills.

 

Target Shooting

 

Aside from being and important military skill, target shooting requires skill, patience and the application of some very in-depth training. The range is ALWAYS an extremely disciplined environment. We are lucky enough not to have to go elsewhere for our shooting, as we have use of an indoor range which we share with the TA and ACF, meaning we can practice more than some of the other less fortunate units.

 

Obviously, you can't just pick up a rifle and shoot! You have to undergo dry training (using DRILL ammunition) and pass a weapons handling test. This qualification lasts six months, but the training can be done over a weekend. Once this is out of the way, you can go on the range with one of our qualified range conducting officers and fire REAL ammunition using our Lee Enfield No.8 / 0.22 rifle.

 

216 Squadron also has regular visits to larger outdoor ranges where after being qualified on the No. 8 can shoot the more modern L98A2 rifle, part of the SA-80 family currently in service with the British Armed Forces. This can only be fired by cadets who have already fired the No. 8 /0.22 rifle, passed the 1st class exam and are over 14 years of age.

 

Camps and Visits

 

216 Squadron ATC takes part in camps at RAF bases through out the year. There are many different camps for cadets to go on in the ATC. All squadrons are allocated paces for their cadets to attend and annual camp on a Royal Air Force station, so there's usually a mix of units attending. 216 Squadron also gives cadets the opportunity to visit overseas camps at RAF stations in Germany and Cyprus, or international air cadet exchanges anywhere from India to the USA. These are a lot of fun, and last a week or two.