Bumper end of month with 4 cadets getting to go to mid-week Gliding for first time on super hot Monday. All looking very super cool. These slots were to replace some that were cancelled in last quarter. Not many clouds, hence less thermals, but they got to pull plenty of G on takeoff.  Many thanks to Volunteer Gliding School staff for keeping slots alive to give air cadets the experience of flying for real.

Well done to the staff and cadets that helped support this year's AFD. It's the 2nd consecutive year we've done this and it has been a catalyst for building good relations with the local Army and Sea Cadet units, who's energy and enthusiasm is acknowledged. This year we beat them at Drill though, a useful habit (Sea Cadets won Drill last year, would you believe it?). Did I mention  there is a Wing Competition Day is coming up in Sept? Anyway, a hot day, by all accounts, leading to cadet challenge race being cancelled but the flypast by the Lancaster was a nice addition.  Many thanks to staff and cadets for their efforts and achievement in presenting the youth of today and the RAF Air Cadet organisation in such a positive light.

Confidence, composure and excellent radio confidence stood out on recent IET. Only a year in and Cdt C has already got two Wing Blues for competing in region competitions in Sports. top tier 97% attendance over last 6 months. Well done!

Last weekend saw 1368 cadets attend a Sqn "end of summer" social at Vue Cinema to watch the F1 movie with Brad Pit. Sqn has lots of F1 fans and nice to see attendance from across the age ranges and return of some post GCSE faces.  Squadron has lots of cadets mad on F1 both the driver aspect but also the engineering aspect that ties in with STEM and Astra initiatives for the future RAF with science and technology at the fore. Great plot, somewhat mirroring the OC's return to the karting circuit last year.

Amazing thing happened when the OC is on holiday it seems, Sqn got a call on Monday parade that there were scratch places for flying the next day (we are on the list of unfulfilled allocations due to cancellations). Staff team managed to arrange transport to Cosford, get paperwork sorted, turn up and we had 5 cadets fly, 4 for first time. Many thanks to staff team for their superhero efforts (*legends*). In combination with doing the Part Task Trainer (PTT) flight simulation test and ground-based training, attending an AEF or VGS and flying for real, enables cadets to earn their blue aviation wings.

Last weekend saw 18 cadets undertake more Initial Expedition Training (IET) with camping, cooking and map reading. Aim was to get them ready so that stuff like providing forms, passing on JIs, kit checks and food shops are 2nd hat for unescorted Bronze DofE's in Aug or Sept (we will start enrolling current year 8's on Bronze on Aug 1st, when they technically go into year 9).  Adventure Training and DofE is one of the pillars of 1368 Sqn with our desire that every cadet completes their Bronze DofE and gets the opportunity to progress to Silver and Gold expeditions. The Initial Expedition Training that we do contributes to the Pre-DofE Blue Badge that was introduced by the progressive training syllabus to support pre-DofE aged cadets in year 8. IET provides a pathway for their safe introduction into cooking and campcraft and we like to do it for real.