Surrey Air Cadets Musical Hit at the RAF’s Jubilee Concert

Surrey Wing Band made its first public performance

Cadets from Surrey Wing Air Training Corps helped to entertain the crowds at the recent Royal Air Force musical salute to the Queen’s Jubilee.

The event at Loseley Park near Guildford was the first public performance of the recently formed Surrey Wing Band.  The band opened the concert with a host of recognisable tunes, impressing the crowd despite their lack of experience as Sergeant Kirsty Witchell, the Wing Bandmaster explained, “Some had only been learning for two or three months.  With one rehearsal a month, some of them have only played the drum two or three times, so they did brilliantly.” She added, “For a first performance I was really impressed, they were very nervous but they pulled it off.”

323 Sqn Top the League at Wing 5-a-side

323 Sqn's team captain collecting the Senior Boys Trophy

323 (Epsom & Ewell) Squadron topped the leagues to take away the Trophy at Surrey Wing's Inter-Squadron five-a-side football competition on Sunday.  This was a clear victory after winning both the junior and senior boys competitions.

Kingston Cadets Win Poppy Awards

Air cadets from Kingston upon Thames have been rewarded for their fundraising by the Lord Lieutenant of Surrey, Dame Sarah Goad DCVO JP.  For the first time since its inception in 2001 an Air Cadet unit has won the Duke of Connaught Cadet Cup for raising the most money for the Poppy Appeal in Surrey during 2011.  Between them the cadets from 328 (Kingston upon Thames) Squadron of the Air Training Corps collected an amazing £13,079.78p towards the Poppy Appeal total in Surrey of just over one million pounds.

Surrey Air Cadets help launch YOU Matter scheme

Air Cadets from 285 (Coulsdon & Purley) and 43F (Merton & Morden) Squadron’s joined other uniformed youth organisations for the launch of London Mayor Boris Johnson’s YOU Matter (Youth Organisations in Uniform) programme, held at the Merton Sea Cadet centre in Mitcham.

261 lengths for 261

Cadet Mason swam 261 lengths of 25metre swimming pool between the 23rd and the 24th of August 2011 whilst on holiday in Italy to raise funds for the Squadron Annual Christmas Dinner as he was not able to make the official squadron swimathon. This is the diary of his achievement.

A week in the life of... Update

Due to the busy programme of the camp and power outages the last few updates of the Summer Camp blog will be delayed a few days.  Come back soon to hear about flying and parading in front of College Hall with the Commandant Air Cadets!

A Week in the life of... DAY 5 – Visit to 45 Squadron

A cadet is guided through the approach to landing in the Simulator

The halfway point of the camp has now past and the cadets and staff are now into the routine.  All the cadets have gelled and new friendships have formed.  After the usual drill session and uniform inspections, the cadets visited their first flying squadron of the camp – 45(R) Squadron.  45 (R) Squadron fly the Beechcraft King Air twin propeller aircraft and train all multi-engine pilots, ie pilots who will later fly aircraft such as the Hercules, C-17 or Sentry (AWACS).  The cadets got a tour of the aircraft on the ground, followed by a chance to fly it – albeit in the simulator.  Each cadet got to fly a circuit at RAF Cranwell on the simulator, which for many was the highlight of the camp so far.