Cadets under Canvas

How Beccles Air Cadets have spent their summer

            Cadets from Beccles Squadron have recently returned from a series of camps at home and abroad.  Summer camp was held at RAF Coningsby, Lincolnshire, a front line fighter base.  Ten Cadets and two staff enjoyed a busy week of activities, including simulator flying, night exercises, drill, shooting, ten-pin bowling, visits to local air museums and the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, based at Coningsby.  During the camp, Sergeant Trevor Thurston won the Best NCO award, with Sgt Johnny Firth-Clark a close second.  Cadet James Organ was judged Best Cadet, and Cadet Laurie Reynolds, Best Newcomer.  The camp is designed to show Cadets what life on a working RAF station is like, and to give them the chance to try new and exiting activities.  Cadet James Organ commented that it was “a fun-filled week, packed with many exiting activities.”

            Five Cadets spent a week at an adventure training camp in a Dorset Army base, where they went power-boating, scuba diving, karting, mountain biking, and visited a water park.  They tackled an assault course, took part in field-craft exercises, and undertook swimming tests, where all five passed their Intermediate Swimming Award.

            Sergeants Chloe Bridge and Louise Vincent spent a hectic eight days at Rheindahlen airbase in Germany, visiting sections of the base and the historic local area.  For Chloe, 17, of Beccles, it was her second visit to Germany this summer with the Air Cadets, having taken part in a pilot camp at the huge American airbase at Ramstein a few weeks earlier.  She said of her latest visit, “the camp was really fun and I enjoyed visiting Cologne and sampling German culture.”

Last updated 26th October 2007 

©759 (Beccles) Squadron Air Training Corps, The Drill Hall, Peddars Lane, Beccles NR34 9UE