On Wednesday 12th March, four intrepid 3rd Formers made their way to RAF Benson for their first dual flight experience as Kingham Hill cadets!
Upon arrival, the group were welcomed by Babcock Engineers, who provided a thorough safety briefing, before demonstrating how to enter and exit the plane with training equipment. With the opportunity to have a go themselves, the cadets each role played how to abandon the aircraft and safely land with their parachute. The cadets then received their helmets and individual briefings before waiting to be greeted by their pilot.
To begin the morning, the weather on the ground was overcast and the skies dark, but by mid-afternoon the sun made a welcome appearance.
First to fly, Molly appeared unphased as she made her way to the Grob G 115. She joked “I’ve only crashed once on the sim, so I’m fairly confident that I could land this plane!” Back at base, on the Hill, the cadets will continue to develop their theory and practical knowledge on the school’s flight simulators.
Following Molly, Lucas, Chloe and Josh all took to the skies. Tracked eagerly from the ground on Flightradar24, each impressed with the altitudes they reached!
“I did a loop the loop!” exclaimed Lucas as he returned. “I would give the day an 8/10 only because I wanted to stay up there even longer and the g-force is weird!” He continued.
It was certainly a day to remember and we look forward to seeing how this year’s 3rd Form cadets continue on their flying journeys.
At Kingham Hill, in the 3rd Form, the Combined Cadet Force (CCF) is compulsory to allow every pupil to experience combined training. From here, pupils have the opportunity to join the Army or RAF Section in the second and third term.
It was at this time that now Lower Sixth pupil, Conor, first discovered his love for flying. Just three years later, he has obtained his private pilot's license!
Conor commented, “I was very nervous about my final skills exam, even after around 100 hours of practical training in the air. The exam was postponed several times at the last minute due to poor weather. So, when I finally completed the exam and passed, it took a while for it to sink in.”
He continued, “I'm taking both Maths and Physics at A Level and there's quite an overlap with navigation, flight planning and particularly with the general principles of flight.”
"In the CCF, cadets have the opportunity to train on one of our two in house flight simulators for some experience of what to expect when they don the flight suit and enter the cockpit for real." commented Major Terry. "Generally there are two main opportunities for flight, one is in the Viking glider operating out of RAF Little Rissington plus the Grob Tutor which operates out of RAF Benson. On occasion we are also able to take cadets up in the air in a Chinook helicopter, from RAF Odiham, or even to fly over the North Sea in an RAF Voyager refuelling aircraft on a refuelling sortie, watching a mixture of Typhoon and Lighting (F-35) take on jet fuel from the Voyager."
Major Terry continued, "A pupil should become an RAF cadet if they have any interest in flight or engineering. Through RAFAC (Royal Air Force Air Cadets) they are able to take advantage of all of what is on offer plus a huge range of other activities and experiences, most of which you simply cannot do outside of the Cadet Force. They are quite literally once in a lifetime experiences."
