Altitude March 2012 | Page 3

Altitude 2497 COSFORD SQUADRON Cadet of the Month – March Cadett Bentley writes of his first AEF Flight: ‘On Sunday 25th March, I went flying for the first time in a Grob Tutor at RAF Cosford. We went to hanger 1 which is the home University of Birmingham Air Squadron. We had to have a safety brief about what to do if we had to jump out the plane, this was explained in a 12 minute informative video, but the chances of having to do this was extremely unlikely. I was in the first group to fly and I went up at about 10 O’clock. Since I was first to fly, the engine of the plane needed to warm up to 40°C, so we ‘parked’ and revved the engine up to its needed temperature. After take off we went up to about 5000ft and the pilot explained to me the basic controls of the airplane. We flew over Albrighton, Bridgenorth and Wolverhampton and this lasted about 20 minutes. We landed on the grass runaway next to the main runaway and then parked outside the building. Congratulations to Cadet Pagett on achieving Cadet of the Month. He was chosen by the NCO team for showing a constantly positive attitude towards cadets. Throughout all activities, he has demonstrated great enthusiasm and been very committed with uniform and with punctuality. Well done!! And Finally ……. A very big thank you to all Cadets who have paid their half yearly subscriptions already. For those who haven’t yet bought them in, just a quick reminder they are due on 1st April. Many thanks. Altogether, it was an amazing experience and it couldn’t have gone any better. I will be putting my name down for the next AEF and hopefully I will be able to do aerobatics during that session. Thanks ATC’ The Grob 115E, known by the RAF as the Tutor, is used for Elementary Flying Training by the 14 University Air Squadrons and 12 Air Experience Flights throughout the UK. The Tutor is constructed mainly from carbon fibre reinforced plastic, which combines high strength with light weight. The Tutor has side-by-side seating but, unlike the Bulldog, the primary flight instruments are on the righthand side of the cockpit. This allows the student to fly the aircraft from the right-hand seat with a right-hand stick and a left-hand throttle so that future transition to fast-jet aircraft is made easier. Please feel free to give feedback to [email protected] Page 3