On the evening of Thursday 29th October, the Air Cadets from 17(Coningsby) Squadron had their Annual Formal Inspection Wing Staff Officers for Headquarters, Trent Wing.
With the RAF’s Typhoon aircraft forming a dramatic backdrop Squadron Leader Mike Lewis conducted his inspection of the Air Cadets inside 41 Squadron’s hanger. The Squadron Leader took the opportunity to speak with most of the Twenty-nine cadets on parade before the cadets smartly conducted a March Past.
Squadron Leader Lewis gave a highly praiseworthy speech to all cadets saying how well 17 Squadron had performed over the last year and how good it was to see so many young cadets to take the Squadron forward.
The parade was followed by a presentation by the cadets of all the activities that the Squadron had been involved with over the last 12 months. These included; a 4 day trip to HMS Bristol in Portsmouth to visit military museums, various Duke of Edinburgh expeditions, a weekend ‘greens’ camp at RAF Wittering, Annual Camp at RAF Brize Norton, one cadet who had an overseas camp to RAF Akrotiri. There were also numerous parades for; Battle of Britain, Remembrance and a special parade at Screddington with the Royal British Legion to commemorate the crew of a Lancaster that died on a training sortie near Sleaford in 1943. All this in addition to Wing activities of Sports, Cross Country, Athletics, Wing Field Day, (where the Squadron achieved our highest ranking ever 9th of 31 ATC Squadrons in Trent Wing) and Swimming. There were also trips to; RAF Coningsby visiting; 3 Squadron, Air Traffic Control, Fire Section and the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, the highlight of the year, being a tour of aircraft visiting for the Air Combat Power Visit. Overall it was a very successful evening with the Squadron achieving a high performance grading.
It was also the night that the previous Officer Commanding, Flight Lieutenant Rob Eyre, stood down to be succeeded by Flight Lieutenant Francine Mahmud RAFVR(T). Flight Lieutenant Eyre was presented with an engraved tankard with the 17 Squadron Crest and the largest cake ever seen on the Squadron.