Two of our cadets recently completed a Gliding Scholarship sponsored by the The Honourable Company of Air Pilots.
Here Bethany Robbins tells her story….
Atherton and I have successfully completed our Gliding Scholarship! We had Six days of flying in perfect gliding conditions, however on Friday the rain meant that we had to stand down from flying. Neither of us were able to fly solo but my instructor told me that if we had flown Friday as well and id had two more flights I would have gone solo 😞
Luckily, my glider instructor was also one of the six aerobatic instructors in the country. This meant that both Atherton and I were able to be towed to 4000ft and experience a full aerobatic performance over the sea. Only us and one other girl were able to do this!
My other instructor was also very experienced and I was able to have another 4000ft launch to practice spinning the aircraft. Again this happened right over the sea and I was the only person who was able to experience both spinning and aerobatics.
Aside from gliding, the four HCAP scholarship students (there were 8 other Fleet air arm association students also on the course) were able to experience two flights in a tiger moth. Although we were flown by different pilots on different days, both flights consisted of aerobatics and we were even given control of the aircraft.
We stayed at HMS SULTAN and travelled to the airfield each day. It was very interesting staying at a naval base and we had a duty officer in charge of looking after us who gave us lots of information about the Navy.
On Friday, due to the bad weather we went to visit an aircraft which had landed in order to perform at Bournemouth air show. The aircraft was a B25 and was piloted by various Dutch pilots. We were allowed to explore the plane and took lots of photos.
Bethany Robbins
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Gliding Scholarship
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Gliding Scholarship
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Gliding Scholarship
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Gliding Scholarship
Glider training
On a pretty packed Cadet weekend, some of us were lucky enough to attend the ‘Part Task Training’ at RAF Kenley. The course allowed us to fly on a very expensive flying simulator which included a landing (or crash) at the end!
Netball
Well done to all our cadets today. We won the Netball for the 7th year in a row and we were the runners up in both the boys and girls 5-a-side football competitions.
Inter Squadron Athletics
Well done to all the cadets that took part in the inter squadron athletics today, we won the overall trophy!
Wing overall champions again
Eight years in a row – Wing overall champions again. We also picked up under 17 men, junior women and junior men team trophies. Well done to the whole team.
Remembrance Parade
A few photos from remembrance parade on Sunday (taken by Courier photographer, Sean Aiden).
129 Squadron annual dinner
3rd September 2016 · Taken at Salomons Estate
Kent Wing swimming championships
A decade undefeated at the the Kent Wing swimming championships, six years undefeated as overall wing sports champions and Van der Zanden top female sports cadet for 2015-16! Absolute and total domination.
Battle of Britain Service 2016
Gliding Scholarship Success!
Two of our cadets recently completed a Gliding Scholarship sponsored by the The Honourable Company of Air Pilots.
Here Bethany Robbins tells her story….
Atherton and I have successfully completed our Gliding Scholarship! We had Six days of flying in perfect gliding conditions, however on Friday the rain meant that we had to stand down from flying. Neither of us were able to fly solo but my instructor told me that if we had flown Friday as well and id had two more flights I would have gone solo 😞
Luckily, my glider instructor was also one of the six aerobatic instructors in the country. This meant that both Atherton and I were able to be towed to 4000ft and experience a full aerobatic performance over the sea. Only us and one other girl were able to do this!
My other instructor was also very experienced and I was able to have another 4000ft launch to practice spinning the aircraft. Again this happened right over the sea and I was the only person who was able to experience both spinning and aerobatics.
Aside from gliding, the four HCAP scholarship students (there were 8 other Fleet air arm association students also on the course) were able to experience two flights in a tiger moth. Although we were flown by different pilots on different days, both flights consisted of aerobatics and we were even given control of the aircraft.
We stayed at HMS SULTAN and travelled to the airfield each day. It was very interesting staying at a naval base and we had a duty officer in charge of looking after us who gave us lots of information about the Navy.
On Friday, due to the bad weather we went to visit an aircraft which had landed in order to perform at Bournemouth air show. The aircraft was a B25 and was piloted by various Dutch pilots. We were allowed to explore the plane and took lots of photos.
Bethany Robbins
Area 2 Decathlon
On the weekend of the 4th of March we participated in the decathlon adventure training competition which comprised of ten events; shooting, archery, multi stage fitness test, first aid, leadership task, navigation exercise, kayaking, drill and a 12×12 tent race. We came first and second with both our main and scratch teams and won the overall trophy, as wells as the multi stage fitness test, navigation exercise, drill, shooting and initiative exercise. Overall it was a really fun weekend and provided us with a lot of new things to do.
By Cadet Wardrop