Cadets – Page 4 – Fooyah

February 7 2017

HUAW

Just had quite a jam-packed weekend. Spent a little time at three establishments while the cadet team succeeded in their competition. Here are a few photos of the sights.

This place was built for the First World War transition of troops across the channel. Don’t be impressed by the aluminium cladding, just inside are wooden framed original buildings that smell and creak with history.

The above is an unheated literal brick out-house that has three urinals and three proper toilets. There are a few toilets in heated buildings but too many people for them!

I love a nice Gate Guardian. This one is very pretty. It guards the helicopters at this base.

This room is part of the SNCO Annex. It’s about 10ft by 8ft with a small en-suite. Can’t grumble, it was dry and warm. The wi-fi helped make it more like home.

That door is an illusion, it’s a thin door to make the rest of the room look bigger!

I would to have a go in this and drive it around. It would be great fun!

Next time I’m out and about I’ll take some more photos. Sometimes I can give information about it all and sometimes I can’t, it’s just not sensible to do that.

December 12 2016December 12 2016

SMP

Recently had a good weekend at SMP near Folkestone. It was a training weekend giving skills to the CCF so they are ready to get on and enjoy some of the activities we do. On the first full day the weather was pretty poor and although warm [ish] it was overcast and drizzly. The second day was much better with brilliant sunshine and a glorious sun rise. There now follows a gallery of some of the best shots I took.

One night at SMP I had to accompany someone to hospital. Arriving at 23:00 we finally left the minor injuries section at 03:15. Given that reveille was at 06:00 this was harsh, got into bed at 03:45. The following day was quite hard although I did manage a kip in the drone training room.

August 25 2016October 17 2017

Aerial

A short while ago my proper aerial turned up for the ADS-B system I have running in the loft. See this communication and this one also. This new aerial means I should have a better receiver based in the loft. It is currently picking up 47 aircraft flying within range and the Virtual Radar Server gives the following as a webpage output:

VRS3

There is a sidebar which connects to the web and gives me information about the selected aircraft and the others flying within range. This does not show all aircraft, only those with an ADS-B transponder. I also supply my data to a MLAT service for 360Radar.

The above photo shows the system in the loft. The white stick is a surround for the aerial. This connects to a dongle which connects to a Raspberry Pi3 and this, in turn, connects wirelessly to my home network.

I know you really want to know about the splat so here they are. Firstly one from before the new aerial.

Here’s the latest, all altitudes are in one colour.

splat4

The range is a bit better with two very odd pips into central France. The following is a colour one for you mammals out there.

splat5

The next thing is to try installing a purpose made ADS-B USB stick. After that I think I will stop. It appears to be one of those “who can get the best splat” things online and I’m not interested in taking part.

July 3 2016October 16 2017

CCF Camp WITT

I recently spent a lovely week at RAF Wittering [EGXT] with the MGS CCF RAF Section. We were there with cadets and staff from Malvern College who all turned out to be great people. In fact, their Officer Commanding had been on my OIC course.

Here’s a list of activities we got up to followed by a small photograph gallery which could have been bigger but sometimes there are restrictions on what we can photograph.

High ropes course and power fan
Archery
Air Experience Flying with No 5 AEF
WHST
Shooting with the L98A2
Drill and drill competition
Command Tasks
Visit to Marshalls Aerospace Company
Visit to the American Cemetery near Cambridge
5131 BD Sqn visit
Fire Section visit [I might have been sprayed by a branch]
Harrier Heritage Centre visit
I did two runs
Ten pin bowling
Meal out in Stamford
Outreach team
Party minibus

This was a very enjoyable camp. Great fun. Some of the pictures below aren’t really level with the horizon, but I am not going to edit them. It’d take time I don’t really have.

My last photo is of a lovely elliptical bridge I saw in Leicester. Very pretty:

April 29 2016

EGSU

I was meant to be visiting EGXT today but it was called off so I detoured to EGSU. If you want more details of EGSU then you can, of course, JFGI, I have a map here.

I don’t have a great deal to say about the day, I will just leave you with a gallery of “different” photos rather than the usual full on full frontal.

July 22 2015

Mildenhall

Had a day trip with the CCF to RAF Mildenhall which is actually a USAF base in Suffolk. It’s home to the 100th ARW or to the rest of us the 100th Air Refuelling Wing. They are the only USAF refuelling group in Europe supporting operations over a vast area. Here’s a selection of photos including a couple of me in the Boom “seat” of a KC-135 and also the co-pilot’s seat.

The 100th are the only USAF group allowed to wear their insignia from WW2 on the tailplanes. Hence the “Square D” you’ll see.

December 18 2014December 18 2014

Lisa

Lisa was a friend of mine. We spent about six years going to air cadets together. And then, when I was at university she died.

Eventually I hope that some of the communications in this site are about people who influenced me. People I am proud to have known. People I remember.

Lisa and I lived in the same village. I think she was a year older than me. We didn’t socialise in the village. We met when we ended up at the same air cadet squadron. In those days the Sqn put on a minibus to collect kids from the “villages” so we could get to parade nights. Eventually, once we were older, we ended up giving each other lifts into town so we could attend cadets. We would chat a lot and discuss the latest episode of “Happy Days”. Lisa was also a campanologist. I have no idea if she was religious or not, but on Sunday’s that was her thing. Once for my birthday she bought me “Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols” on tape. Quality.

One day when I was at university I met my dad for lunch and he told me that Lisa had died. She was playing football and collapsed. They didn’t find out what happened. I was slightly shocked at first but I accepted it. I was sad. Of course I was. The pain I felt was at the thought of losing the person I had spent quite a bit of time with. But I knew it would get better.

Lisa’s funeral was in the village. There was quite a large contingent from cadets there and the church was packed. People were sitting in the aisles. After the service her coffin was lowered into the ground outside the church. I didn’t go and look. For some reason I had a “Home And Away” quote in my head: remember them as they were, not as they are. I have no idea where it really came from but I did watch Aussie soaps at that time. That evening our group went out in Sawbridgeworth and celebrated the life of Lisa in the traditional fashion.

I have occasionally been to speak to Lisa. Once I went after the tenth anniversary meal of the cadet squadron. Rich and I left our dates at my parents house and ran down to the graveyard to speak to Lisa. I was quite drunk. I haven’t been to the grave for a long time. Life has been busy and got in the way really. I intend to visit over the Xmas period while I’m in the village. Hence this the other day:

Just had an incredible urge to go and talk to Lisa. Let her know everything that has happened since I last spoke to her.

— Ian Parish (@iparish) December 16, 2014

I can’t encapsulate years of friendship in this communication. But I can at least write a little. I still think of her. All of my readers needn’t worry. I don’t go to speak to her or her “soul”. Once you are dead, that’s it. The end. Nothing more. It’s a nice idea that we live on but one that reduces our real life to a time of fear. Embrace life and accept the truth. I go to speak to Lisa (I do very little actual speaking), to remember and keep her alive in my heart.

Lisa sent me the coolest Christmas card I ever got. She used to work in the printers workshop in the village. On the front was a snowman I think with a red scarf. Inside the card read:

Wishing you a piss poor Christmas and a fucking horrible new year.

November 22 2014November 22 2014

Conversions

Part of the plan of this collection of communications is to be a memory bank. A written form of my consciousness and what makes me work. Some who know me will probably agree that the world isn’t ready for a completely exposed view of Ian Parish yet and so, obviously this is an edited version of me. Unlike many people on the interwebbything I am acutely aware that this is a public forum. Most of my contentious points will be backed up with arguments, whether valid or not, to give some sense of how I reached my conclusions. I try to back up statements of fact with evidence and, my opinion is just that.

I’m quite happy to say that praying to a zombie-god-son-ghost thing is crazy, but at the same time I understand why people do it. I also think that following the Chinese-whispered depraved musings of a seventh century paedophile-war-lord is nuts. But then, I’ve looked at the evidence. My rule in life is the same as the rule in my classroom:

Be nice to people

If you think I’ve not been nice to people in the previous paragraph then please be aware I have just mentioned their beliefs and not the individual. you are welcome to believe in unicorns but I will calmly explain that unicorns don’t exist. If you get angry when I question your beliefs then you should possibly examine those beliefs. Also, if little ol’ me questioning you makes your faith waver then your faith is misplaced.

These pages are clearly like buses. Wait long enough and Parish will rant about religion or stupidity or anti-science or crazy people within a communication about a quiz question [yep, that’s what this is about]. There should be a Godwin’s Law thing for me.

In the early 90s I was closely involved with two main Air Cadet squadrons. There was the good one, 309, and our neighbour, 1096 Sqn based in Bishop’s Stortford. I once attended a quiz evening at 1096 Squadron. I’ve a feeling I was probably 19 or so. I’m not sure if I had started university or was working for Cossor Electronics at that time. I am going to moan about the quiz master getting an answer wrong.

So, we nearly at the point I promise. Also, it’s not worth reading any further, but if you’ve made it this far I am impressed.

What is the speed of sound?

I answered quite quickly with the answer 330 m/s [at standard temperature and pressure]. When the answers for that round were passed around for marking the official answer was 700mph give or take 50 mph. When we got our answers back I noticed that question was marked wrong. I took our answer sheet to the quiz master and explained that 330 m/s was near-enough the same as 700mph, I even demonstrated a conversion using those odd things that are called numbers and that strange thing called mathematics.

Was the quiz master convinced? No. I wasn’t allowed to have 330 m/s the answer. Why is this still in my memory? Possibly because of mathematical ignorance but really I don’t know but it’s there with other “key” events or interactions that surface now and then.

Another question was

How many wheels does Concorde have?

Look it up.

November 15 2014November 15 2014

Remembrance Day 2014

First Remembrance Day Parade for me last Sunday. I received my No.1 uniform the Wednesday previous and had some minor adjustments to make on the belt. After that I needed to find braces (not allowed to wear a belt – no loops). Essentially, I ended up marching through Maidstone town centre at around 10:30 heading to the war memorial.

Amusingly the vicar taking half of the service, it was shared, was called Ian Parrish. It is something that will make me giggle for a few years yet! It turns out he used to be in the Army. I’m not sure I quite understand how those two jobs can lead into each other but he’s not the first ex-military vicar I have met.

I chose not to sing during the national anthem along with not taking part in any of the prayers or hymns. You might not have realised but I’m quite not-religious and also struggle with identifying with a country or even the hereditable head of state. See some musings here.

Here’s the important part, photos, I’m the one in the middle, in blue. Please don’t confuse me with the Navy officers next to me!

And another, but not a full facial!

October 9 2014October 9 2014

Other Activities

And, finally, we come to the last section of my immortalisation of my 3822. The Air Training Corps Record of Service. This page does not list everything that should be listed in the “Other Activities” section of the blue book. All I have now is what is recorded on this page. The detail follow. Should you wish to see more of these communications then please search this site.

This list does not include the band engagements that I played. There were probably about an average of 10 a year of those. I have, also, not attempted to adjust the list at all. What you see is how it is recorded in the 3822. Because of this some of the dates are in the wrong order and there’s a vague reference to an airshow in June 89. I doubt this was a month long airshow but the details are now lost in time.

I doubt this is the last communication on my Air Cadet journey and there are probably going to be more of my CCF journey. Enjoy!

October 7 2014

Glider Flying Log

It’s been a while, but you could catch up on all these in a single session by searching Fooyah.net for a list of 3822 communications! What follows is a list of the gliding experiences I had as an Air Cadet a long time ago. These were my formative years and this community influenced me a lot, enough to still get involved.

As a Squadron we would go to RAF Wethersfield in Essex and go gliding with 614 VGS a squadron of volunteer pilots.

Here follows my log:

As you can see the 21 July 1990 was a bumper day for gliding. Most flights tended to be a short hop as the glider is winched up to about 1000ft and then does a single circuit as it returns to land. On the 21st it was a sunny day and there were plenty of thermals. I can remember parts of my 35 minute flight, I almost got bored, which is a terrible thing to say about flying!! I could see the other gliders in the air at the time and had a great view of Wethersfield.

I also remember that Lisa was having a flight and coming around to land when her glider traded altitude for velocity and sped up greatly while heading towards the ground, from my view the glider even dropped below the tree line and I was slightly worried but a couple of seconds later the glider popped up from below the tree line and landed successfully.

I always felt that gliding was a poor cousin to powered flying but I think I would appreciate its beauty a little more now. Don’t get me wrong, any chance to go flying and experience these things was great, but given the choice, I’d go powered flying first.

October 4 2014

Location, Location and a Camera

I spent the day at RAF Wyton in Cambridgeshire and while there an RAF Tornado flew past at high speed. I was fortunate enough to take a few photographs, of which the following is the best. I haven’t cropped it or anything. [the other 5 photos were ok-ish].

My favourite thing about this shot is that you can see the Navigator/Weapons Officer looking at the ground as they fly by.

August 7 2014August 7 2014

CCF Camp LOO

I spent a week recently on CCF Annual Camp at RAF Linton-On-Ouse. It was a busy week, travelling early one Saturday and returning late the following Saturday.

Here’s a rundown of the activities:

Invasion planning activity
Flight simulator activity
Ten pin bowling
Visit to RAF Fylingdales
Visit to Whitby
Obstacle Course
High Ropes
Elvington Aircraft Museum
Linton-On-Ouse Memorial Room
Sport
Section visits to:
- Air Traffic Control
- Flight Safety Equipment
- 72R Squadron
- Flight Planning
- Depth Engineering
Drill competition with the SWO
Dishforth Army Air Corps base
- Armoury
- Lynx Squadrons
- Survival Equipment

Some things of note:

One evening we saw two V22 Ospreys fly over the base.

There were two fire alarms in the officers’ mess. One was about 0630 and we all left the building in whatever state of dress we were in. The next was later that day as we were all sitting down to dinner. No one moved for quite a while, we were all quite sure that it was not a “big thing”. Eventually someone told us to get out of the building and we wandered out the front door just as the firemen were walking in [they had driven from the other side of the airfield] I don’t think they were too happy with us!

Here are a selection of photos from that camp:

Taken with my iPhone, hence the finger marks — Whitby

Here’s a couple of amusing things, just because there probably isn’t enough humour on this site [it’s mostly me moaning about things].

This was a question that came up on some crappy Tv show I saw when I had a spare ten minutes just before dinner one evening:

Here’s a picture that I tweeted not long after a visit to Dishforth. This is probably the best toilet I’ve ever seen. It’s not glamorous but it does have a magazine rack!

Also, here’s a running route I did. It was a standard PTI route I found when I was in the station gym.

August 4 2014

Ongoing Works

This is a picture of a path at RAF Linton-on-Ouse. Either they ran out of money, expect people with very longs legs to use it or are just plain lazy.

Perhaps, as this base is where they train future fast jet pilots, it’s a lesson in looking forward and being aware. All I know is that I don’t understand how this could be considered logical.

July 22 2014July 22 2014

Official Photo

This is a copy of my official OIC graduation photograph. It shows me receiving my Commission scroll [the actual one unlike my degree ceremony] from the Group Captain.

July 22 2014July 22 2014

Powered Flying Log

I know, I know. This is just another list of stuff!

So very true, but this is the biggie. This is why you join the cadets. If you want to see the other communications in this series then click here.

Just before I enter the list you may or may not be interested to know that aerobatics really messes me up. I positively enjoy the experience of aero but it will make me sick and turns me into a useless lump of cells for a few hours as my body recovers. I will go green and then white, I have headaches and everything spins for ages. After anything up to five hours later I will become very hungry, that signals the start of my recovery. I really enjoy flying and aerobatics but I just have to be aware of the consequences.

My total time is just over 21 hours. That’s not bad even if it includes two flights to Cyprus which I’ve counted because I was flying “on duty”.

I also recently had a flight in a Grob Tutor while on camp at Brize Norton. I got around a 40 minute flight, it was a much better experience than the chipmunk.

July 21 2014July 22 2014

L98A1 Shooting Record

Last communication on shooting for a while. Here continues my internetification of my Form 3822 Record Of Service book.

The L98A1 Cadet rifle was introduced towards the end of the 1980s as a replacement for the SLR after the British military moved to using the SA80 rifle. I passed my training programme on 31 March 1989. My shooting record is as follows:

31 March 1989 – 15 rounds
16 August 1989 – 50 rounds [RAF Marksman achieved]
? December 1989 – ? rounds
17 March 1990 – ? rounds [RAF Marksman achieved]

Just reading the last entry I can vaguely remember being on a coach travelling to wherever the shooting was and celebrating my 18th birthday. I can remember cake and Alan buying me some suspenders. It was sunny. That is pretty much the sum of my memories of that day!

While at RAF Brize Norton camp I had 20 rounds on the L98A2 Cadet Rifle. I managed to get a pretty good grouping, considering I hadn’t shot a live gun in over 20 years.

July 21 2014July 22 2014

7.62 SL Rifle Shooting

We are about half way through my record of service book! There’s some flying and a few band engagements to go! However, this communication concerns my relationship with the SLR.

The SLR felt like a proper gun. It was quite heavy, loud when fired and had a reasonable kick. Unlike the single shot No. 4 .303 rifle [which was bolt action] this one would load the next round automatically, hence: Self Loading Rifle. The cadet version of the weapon system was fixed to be semi-automatic only. Before I could fire this weapon I had to pass a safety test and learn how to strip the weapon down and clean it. I always enjoyed firing this weapon even if the kick still hurt quite a bit.

25 August 1987 – 20 rounds
27 August 1987 – 70 rounds
10 October 1987 – 50 rounds
12 April 1988 – 25 rounds
28 July 1988 – 10 rounds

After this date the SLR was replaced with the L98A1 rifle.

July 21 2014July 22 2014

.303 Rifle Shooting Courses

This communication deals with the times I shot a full bore rifle. I am pretty sure the rifle used was a Lee-Enfield No. 4 rifle with a .303 round size. Before cadets were allowed to fire this weapon they had to be signed off in the 3822 by the CO saying that they were large and strong enough to handle the weapon.

I can remember that I had a couple of goes at firing this beast and I hated it. It was just after my 14th birthday and the recoil hurt, a lot.

22 March 1986 – 32 rounds

For more communications about my record of service, click here.