Congratulations to newly promoted Flight Sergeant Charlie Minchin, Corporal Polly Nickless and Corporal James Munday from 1094 Ely Squadron Air Cadets who have all just completed their first Solo Parachute jumps.
This week all three cadets were meant to be attending the prestigious ACLC, Air Cadet Leadership Course, a week long intensive leadership course held at the Home of the RAF Officer Training College RAF Cranwell.
FS Minchin had even deferred his well deserved promotion from Sergeant to Flight Sergeant just so he could attend ACLC. Unfortunately due to Covid restrictions this National Course had to be cancelled.
To soften the blow, the parents of all three Ely Squadron Cadets paid for them to attend the Static Line Parachute course at MOD Netheravon and drove their children to the jump school. Netheravon is The Joint Services Parachute Training Centre on Salisbury Plain and the home of the Red Devils Army Parachute Display Team.
The Ely trio may have missed out on attaining their Gold Leadership Badges but all three have now earned an even rarer badge, The Air Cadet Parachute Badge which they can proudly wear in uniform as Netheravon is one of only two parachute training centres that a cadet can qualify for their Parachute Badge.
Well done Charlie, Polly and James, jumping out of a perfectly serviceable aircraft is normally not what we do as Air Cadets but you have all shown exceptional personal leadership and bravery taking such a leap with a very different form of “flying”.
Static line parachute jumps still entail an element of “freefall” from 3,500 feet before the Parachute deploys and then the parachutists have to be able to fly a complete circuit and land safely just like our cadets are trained to do when flying gliders.
It takes guts, determination, dedication and bravery to complete such a challenging course but these three smiles say it all.
Across the UK, The Royal Air Force Air Cadets are recruiting right now for adult volunteers to join their already thriving staff team.
Please click on the link below to find out more. If you are a young person aged between 12 and 17 and you want to find out more about what being an Air Cadet can do for you then you too can click on this link and a member of your local Squadron will contact you: https://www.raf.mod.uk/aircadets/want-to-join/
From 1094 Ely Squadron Royal Air Force Air Cadets
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