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RAF Field Days

4th Form Field Trip (March 2009) by Brian Yeh

Personally the day started for me in the early morning, putting on our slightly peculiar but proud uniform and preparing to begin on the first CCF Field Day for the recruits.

As the time approached 9 o'clock in the morning, we all assembled on the South Quad along with the other sections of CCF. A quick registration and brief inspection and we were given the order to fall out setting off on our first activity of the day.

Although First Aid has been shown to us many times in the past, this was perhaps the most enjoyable session I’ve attended and took me one step further in my understanding of this topic. There were only a few things to remember, yet putting this knowledge and instructions into actions was a different experience altogether. As we progress in grasping all the vital steps assisting each other we successfully completed our first task of the day.

Leading on after a short break we assembled back at the South Quad and proceeded to our second task. In order for us to be qualified to fly with the RAF in an extraordinary experience above ground on a ‘Grob Tutor’ aircraft, we must pass a brief test to review our progress and our understanding. We had some revision on the RAF Part One syllabus, some basic information that we need to know as part of the section, and then we went back onto the Quad to learn some more about the foot drills. Although many may find it slightly dull and given as punishments, these trainings inevitably are there to help us. These practices were proven to be very effective at the end of the day when assessments took place.

After lunch we returned and gathered in preparation to start the first of the two activities for the afternoon. The first was a slight taste of commanding for us. We were given instructions and were divided into two groups to complete the task given. One person was appointed the leader of each group and the rest of the team followed. On such an enjoyable occasion as this we actually managed to grasp quite a bit on communication and team work (as well as leadership for the leaders). Overall the teams turned out to have worked really well in completing the task, although not to perfection, yet satisfactory for us as a team. This was commented on by the majority of the recruits as the highlight of the day.

This then led to activity two, viewing the video about the RAF Search & Rescue service. The RAF Search & Rescue service is an essential force that recovers RAF personnel and responds to call outs from civilian incidents over the UK and beyond. This service has proven to be vital as statistics showed that they respond to over 1000 call outs each year; so many owe their rescue to six Search & Rescue teams provided by the RAF.

After a short tea break, at last the foot drill assessment came. This was something new, something different, something we have never done in the past. All of the recruits of different sections assembled on the Quad waiting to be assessed on their foot drills. RAF was called up first. Although we are the smallest group out of the three sections, we were ultimately among one of the best during the assessment. After countless sessions on teaching us about how the foot drills work, and then working with the other people to perfect our performance, we excelled the other sections in the assessment. This brought us a great finish to our first Field Day and we may anticipate for the next when we will be able to visit an airfield and fly in an aircraft.

My overall thought on the day was that it was very enjoyable, although most parts were the teaching of new things we didn’t know, yet they were definitely delightful experiences. It was great to participate in something different, taking on things that we were not used to and grasping new knowledge from our teachings. We were given tasks to complete, we engaged them and we successfully accomplished them.

*****

5th Form Field Trip (March 2009) by Edgar Tse

It was Monday 9th of March when we went on field day to RMB Chivenor in Devon. We had to wake up early in order to reach RMB Chivenor on time. It was sunny that day as we travelled by mini buses. As we got closer to RMB Chivenor we started to get quite excited.

When we reached the base it wasn't long until we headed off to our first activity, a visit to 22 Squadron. Their job is mainly to save peoples lives by using the 'Sea King' helicopter, but before we got to ride in a Sea King, we had to watch a safety brief video. When we were finished, they took us to the helicopter. As we got on to the helicopter, I could feel my heart pumping very fast because of all the excitement. As the helicopter started to fly, everyone was nervous, as we flew on around 3,000 feet, the helicopter suddenly went vertical, then it dropped. I can tell you that was the scariest moment in my life, the drop lasted for 5 seconds. I especially felt sorry for two people because they were sitting opposite an open door.

When the flight finished, we got to see the rest of 22 squadron; they even showed us the £30,000 night vision goggles, and that is some cool stuff. Straight after that we had our packed lunches in the bar. It included an apple, a sandwich, a pack of cookies, a pack of crisps and finally a bottle of water. We finished our lunch, then we carried on our next activity 'skin the rabbit'. Brave men like me have absolutely no problem with it, but ladies… As we skinned the rabbit, it stank like hell. Things were fine until one group cut open the rabbit and tried to get all the organs and tissues out, its stomach was shot by a bullet, and all the acid from the inside had spilled out, and that smell was truly disgusting.

After this horrible activity, we went to our next activity, the ‘assault course’. Everything might look easy, all we needed to do was climb up a 6 foot wall, jumping over a 120 cm wide pool, climb through and underneath a pipe, climb over a monkey bar which had water underneath. We were exhausted, but then came the worst part of all, one of the Royal Marines who took us said it was a tradition for everyone to get wet, even though we didn’t get wet, so each of us jumped into the pool. It was freezing. It was unbelievably cold, when I got out of the water, I could do the robot dance very well. I said to my self 'wow, what a great day it has been'.

We were all wet, so after getting changed, we headed off to see an important person for the base, the base commanding officer. He gave us a short presentation and then a baseball cap to all of us. It is a great hat, but I was disappointed when it says 'made in China' inside of the cap!

It was a great day. As we travelled back to Clifton, it seemed like I would never forget this day.

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