Six Qualified Aerospace Instructors for South & East Midlands Wing

This month Cadet Warrant Officer Samuel Page, 19, and Flight Sergeant Olivia Brown, 18, from 1279 (Melton Mowbray) Squadron, Cadet Warrant Officer James May from 5F (Northampton) Squadron, Flight Sergeant Foster, from 126 (City of Derby) Squadron, Sergeant Joe Lathan, 18, from 1F (City of Leicester) Squadron and Sergeant Joe Wilson, 17, from 1211 (Swadlincote) Squadron all completed the Qualified Aerospace Instructors Course. This is one of the top courses on offer in the RAF Air Cadets and is ran over a number of weekends from September through to April.

The course itself involved learning about seven different subjects that they developed their knowledge on each month, the subjects included: air power, aerodynamics, air traffic control (including simulation), basic flight training, aviation studies, aerospace activity planning, instructional technique and presentation skills. At the end of every weekend the students would write a reflective log about the weekend and would be set some task to do at home for the following weekend. Flight Sergeant Brown commented on basic flight training being her favourite subject as she “got to handle and teach on a variety of flight simulators while testing [her] skills and teaching techniques”.

During the course the workload can seem demanding at time and you are constantly under assessment whether that be based on your interaction during lessons, through the work you do at home or in practical assessments such as an air power presentation. Though this teaches you essential life skills such as time management and organisation. At the end of the course there is usually a graduation week where the students can celebrate all that was achieved over the many months and be presented with their blue lanyards, sadly that was not possible this year but Sergeant Wilson said he was “looking forward to instructing new aerospace topics and to improve all the cadets in my squadron and wing in my new role as a QAI.”

If you are passionate about aerospace and want to learn more about it and how to instruct a range of different aerospace topics, then consider completing the Qualified Aerospace Instructors Course. Cadet Warrant Officer Page “would wholeheartedly recommend the Course, as it gives you the experience and skills that are associated with the coveted blue lanyard. Having the ability to give back to the organisation that has provided me with so much is a responsibility that I handle with pride.”

Find out more at: http://www.qaic.org/