Page 43 - Cadet Review Summer 2019

Mirfield Air Cadets
experience their
first weekend camp
Over the last weekend of April three cadets from 96 (Dewsbury) Squadron joined with others from 868 (Mirfield) Squadron for their first experience of camping, and some more experienced cadets were also on hand to help them through a busy weekend of activities, at the Mirfield Squadron’s Basic Training Camp.
Based at Fan Wood Activity Centre in Gomersall, the camp included some important practical elements of camping, camp craft, map reading and practical navigation together with a variety
of other activities: indoor caving, a low ropes course, night-line (a blindfold obstacle course), and archery. Saturday evening saw the cadets put the map reading knowledge they had learnt at their Squadron into practice, planning a route for a navigation practice the following day, and learning about knots and rope work. There was even time during the day to celebrate a birthday: Cadet Laila Robinson was 14 on the day!
On the Sunday, after an early morning run and a hearty breakfast, the cadets set off on their planned routes which took them through the grounds of Oakwell Hall before returning to Fan Wood for a lunch break. They then were faced with some team building and initiative tasks, which called on their problem solving and collective working to achieve.
Cadet Emelia Drake gave this description of
her weekend: “Basic Training Camp was my first camp with cadets. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I
am looking forward to other camps. I made new friends within this camp and I really enjoyed the activities we did. My favourite was the low ropes course as it was fun and challenging. I liked the groups that we were put in as I was with some people that I already knew and also with some that I didn’t know that well. I did not like the morning run as I am not used to doing a lot of exercise that early in the morning, but I did enjoy the football and softball games we played. I enjoyed the walk we went on and although the route planning
was quite hard on the actual walk, I enjoyed the navigation.”
Overall, everybody had a very active and dynamic weekend. Mirfield Squadron Commander Flight Lieutenant Peter Doubell said, “We set
this camp up as a good training opportunity for our newer cadets, in a safe environment and
quite close to home, and everyone seems to have enjoyed the various activities. It forms a foundation for them to build on to experience other types of camps and to progress to some more challenging activities when we take them for an Outdoor Activity camp in the Yorkshire Dales in July.”
CADET REVIEW SUMMER 2019 43
Abbey Jacobsen-Jones, Tom Jagger,
Miles Gilroy, Matthew Smith and Lauren Cargill
Squadron Commander Flight Lieutenant Peter Doubell said “to have five recipients from one local squadron at the same award ceremony is very special. I am absolutely delighted with their success, it’s such a great achievement. It’s a pity that another three who were invited to the same presentation couldn’t make it on the day, due to their exam timetables for A levels and the fact that another now works in Scotland!”