Forty-three Air Cadets from five different Squadrons of Trent Wing were treated to a rare tour into RAF Air Combat Power Visit (ACPV) at RAF Coningsby on Saturday 10th October.
The ACPV is the RAF’s opportunity to broaden understanding of Air Power roles, the RAF’s expeditionary capability and how Air Power assets are deployed, commanded and controlled. Whilst the ACPV is normally only open to specially invited guests included Ministers, Members of Parliament, the media, VVIPs, Air Attaches and Defence Industry personnel, this is the first time in five years that any cadets have been allowed to visit this annual event, which other than 2014 has previously been held at RAF Waddington.
The Cadets were treated to a very special tour of the event, where they got see first-hand; The Typhoon, E-3D Sentry AEW1, Tornado GR4, Hercules C130-J, CH-47 Boeing Chinook amongst others. What was of special interest was Atlas A400M as they were the first cadets to see this new aircraft in Lincolnshire as it was only delivered to the RAF under a year ago.
In charge of the tour was Squadron Leader Andy Robson, supported by Subject Matter Experts in the field of ISTAR and Joint Force Headquarters Support.
After the tour was complete, Andy did an informal Question and Answer session with all the cadets. They were asked to give him five questions, before the tour was concluded, which certainly helped start the flow of questions. The questions ranged from, Where he had served, to, if he still enjoyed being in the RAF? Andy answered all the questions in an informative yet causal way.
Sqn Ldr Ro
bson said “It was great to see you all here today. I was once sat where you are sat today and through my time in the Air Training Corps I developed my own interest in aviation”
Feedback from the staff from the other squadron’s across the Wing was all positive with special thanks going to Squadron Leader Robson for hosting us and Flight Sergeant Paul Fido for coordinating the event for the Air Cadet squadrons to attend.
Editor Yvonne Masters