SPORTS
MY EXPERIENCE ...
HARRY ‘ LUCKY ’ GOPALAKRISHNAN , SPONSORED STUDENT , LONDON UAS
‘ Compared with a normal student , our days can be out of this world ! You can wake up early in the morning , fly an aircraft , play a bit of football and then head back to London for a town night . I know people who were very quiet when they arrived here ; now they ’ re so much more confident .
‘ I ’ m a big advocate of doing sport in the UAS , because you get to know people on the Squadron and around the country as well . There are lots of tournaments ; we ’ ve got the inter-UAS football tournament coming up and a cricket tournament with other UASs in Wales later in the summer .
‘ We ’ re not treated like students . Last year I did a survival course at RAF St Mawgan in Cornwall , run by the same instructors who teach the SAS . They taught us about fieldcraft , surviving in the field and even enemy evasion . It was like : “ Here ’ s a forest , build your shelter ; here ’ s some survival food , see how you get on ”. It was great . It gives you motivation . It makes you feel good about yourself .’
FIRE ! FIRE !
Your HQ is on fire ! The only escape route is through a tyre , but you can ’ t touch the edges . Luckily there are some old planks , a few stakes and a bit of rope around . Can you get yourself and your team to safety in just 20 minutes ?
HELL AND HIGH WATER
A flash flood is just minutes away from your village . All your provisions are stored in a handy barrel ( which looks suspiciously like the radioactive ones from earlier !); you just need to get them and yourselves a metre above ground … using two trees and a rope .
BLOCK PARTY
You ’ ve got 20 minutes to get your team across a series of cement blocks . You can ’ t touch the floor , but you ’ ve got a very long ladder . Easy , right ? Except that there are six of you and only two people are allowed on a block at a time .
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