All posts by Mark Gray

Burghfield by Royal Appointment

Burghfield Air Cadet and Cadet 150 Ambassador, Flight Sergeant Ryan Franks has helped launch Cadet 150 at Buckingham Palace in the presence of HM The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.

18 year old Flight Sergeant Franks who has been a member of the 2402 (Burghfield) Squadron ATC for just over 4 years spent the preceding evening at a local army barracks meeting other Air Cadet Ambassadors as well as his Army and Sea Cadet counterparts and receiving a briefing on royal protocol from a member of Palace staff. Continue reading →

Air Cadets Enjoy Airforce Life

Cadets from 2120 (Witney) Squadron, Air Training Corps enjoyed an action packed weekend at RAF Lyneham in Wilshire as part of their introduction to life in the modern Royal Air Force.

The weekend which was organised by the Commanding Officer of 2120 Squadron, Flight Lieutenant Bridgette Magill also allowed the cadets to meet their counterparts on 2491 (Lyneham) Squadron which is where Flight Lieutenant Magill previously served. Continue reading →

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Air Cadets Conquer Henley

Almost 70 Cadets have marched through the streets with pride to mark the 69th Anniversary of the Air Training Corps.

The parade literally brought the town to a halt as the cadets and staff marched with banners flying through the streets of the town headed up by Parade Commander Flt Lt Fiona Wright. On reaching the town centre a salute was taken by the Mayor of Henley, Councillor Mrs Elizabeth Hodgkin and Officer Commanding Thames Valley Wing, Wg Cdr Chris Fisher. Continue reading →

Aldermaston cadet flies high

How do you reward a cadet for their excellent performance and turnout over a period of seven years? Simple, you give them a commercial aircraft to fly.

Actually this isn’t quite as risky as it sounds as the aircraft never left the ground even though it flew a series of approaches into New York’s John F Kennedy International Airport. It was the multi million pound Boeing 777 simulator located at the British Airways training centre at Heathrow Airport and was made available courtesy of the son of one of Aldermaston’s CIs who is a First Officer on that aircraft type. Continue reading →

Kidlington Sisters Solo Success

Air Cadet Sisters Flight Sergeant Gemma and Corporal Nicola Beardsley have achieved a rare double in obtaining their gliding wings.

Gemma, aged 17 and Nicola, 16, who are both members of 1315 (Kidlington) Squadron completed a solo flight at Dalton Barracks, near Abingdon, in the hands of 612 Volunteer Gliding Squadron flying the Vigilant powered glider in a course of instruction over several weekends and with around 10 hours in the air. Continue reading →

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Website Wins National Award

This website wins a national award!

This website has won a prestigious award in the Air Cadet Media and Communication Awards – the MACA’s. The judges said that the website stood out from the crowd not only for it’s creative, corporate look and feel but also for the innovative graphic tools and use of an active news area together with first-class navigation. Continue reading →

Thames Valley’s Record Haul

Over 35 Thames Valley Wing cadets, staff and Civilian Committee members have been honoured at a glittering ceremony organized by Thames Valley Wing.

The awards were held at Edward Brooks Barracks with Air-Vice Marshall Jon Lamonte who is currently serving as Chief of Staff Strategy, Policy and Plans at Air Command at RAF High Wycombe presenting the national awards. Continue reading →

Banbury Squadron march to success

1460 (Banbury) Squadron’s marching band has just taken part in the National Corps Band Championships which was held at RAF Halton and have proven themselves to be of an outstanding quality.

The band performed under the direction of Flt Lt Karl Kisley; Officer Commanding 1460 (Banbury) Squadron and not only flew the flag for Thames Valley Wing but also represented South West Region in the full band category. Continue reading →

Cadets learn self defence skills

Cadets from 2477 (Britwell) and 2211 (Bracknell) Squadrons have joined forces for a Self Defence course.

This was organised by Flight Sergeant Seb Miller from 1996 (Earley) Squadron who is a qualified Instructor with the Self Defence Federation and assisted by Flight Sergeant Dom Powditch of 1861 (Wantage) Squadron a fellow martial arts expert. Together they demonstrated and taught techniques to the cadets which were extremely simple, effective and easy for them to pick up. Continue reading →

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Thames Valley Stalwart Receives MBE

Sqn Ldr Stephen New, Deputy Wing Commander for Thames Valley Wing Air Training Corps, has been presented with an MBE by HRH Prince of Wales at Buckingham Palace. Sqn Ldr New’s state award was promulgated in the Queens Birthdays Honours List.

Although he has served the Corps for some 34 years he is still incredibly active managing 6 Squadrons in the West of Thames Valley Wing and has also voluntarily undertaken a number of other key initiatives in support of the Wing. Continue reading →