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11th March 2006

Up, Up and Away.

On Saturday the 11th of March, five cadets from 134 (Bedford) Sqn stepped in to fill some last minute places by attending 616 Volunteer Gliding School at RAF Henlow for a day of air experience flying in the skies of Bedfordshire.

Cadets Airton, Larter, O’Keefe and Nash along with Corporal Bubbins departed the Sqn headquarters at 1000 hours for 616 VGS HQ where, on arrival they where given a detailed safety brief by a squadron officer. Soon after this the cadets were given a parachute test to be certain that they would be able to pull the rip cord of their parachute in the unlikely event that they should have to bail out. All five cadets successfully passed and proceeded to be fitted out with coveralls and taken to the aircraft operating area ready to be strapped in and head for the skies.

The weather was varied with both warm and cold fronts in the vicinity offering cold winds one minute and bright warm sunshine the next. The bubble canopy of the Vigilant T1 motor glider provided some excellent views for the cadets and, for four of them it was their first time in this aircraft type. After experiencing a 30 minute sortie the cadets headed back down to earth with fresh memories under their wings.

Flt Lt Robinson commented “getting five cadets flying at Henlow was brilliant, despite the unit taking part in other activities at the time the ability to redeploy these cadets at short notice demonstrates the adaptability of the squadron, and from what I hear from the cadets its worth the extra effort”. 

Cpl Ryan Bubbins