4 ms·

CCF, what a fever dream that was. Give a bunch of teenagers guns once or twice and they will march in formation every Tuesday after school for reasons unclear e

CCF, what a fever dream that was. Give a bunch of teenagers guns once or twice and they will march in formation every Tuesday after school for reasons unclear even to the teacher-organizers. I chose RAF over Army or Navy, thinking I'd get to fly at some point. Nope, just a co-flight in a glider once a year. Lame. The army kids got to go to action camps, do paintballing, and regularly go to firing ranges. Again, all kids (~14yrs old) in the UK, in the middle of a London offshoot town with the rifles locked behind a rickety door.

zerkten 3y ago
My cousin chose RAF and got some single-engine flight training. This was early-90s. I don't recall exactly how much of his private licence it helped with, but it was a fair bit.
KineticLensman 3y ago
My school had the option of the Duke of Edinburgh's scheme instead. I chose this because I didn't want to wear itchy uniforms once a week and be shouted out by teachers who seemed to have fond memories of National Service. I eventually got to meet Prince Phillip, who asked me whose heavenly bodies I looked at using the telescope I'd made on a D of E project.
- tetris11 3y ago
  We had DofE too! Did my Gold in the Black Mountains. Didn't bother to meet Prince Philip as I was/am staunchly antimonarchist, much to the dismay of my mother.
- mewse-hn 3y ago
  Classic Prince Phillip.
joncrocks 3y ago
I think this must have been dependent on the school/location as I was also in an RAF section and we flew in (small) planes maybe once a term. For maybe 30 minutes, and lots of waiting around, but was fun. Got to do a fair bit of aerobatics as well. Obviously we weren't flying solo (although there were a handful that did a course that culminated in a solo flight) Also went gliding once.
rolph 3y ago
i had my days like that too, every 2weeks the big boys would arrive in a couple deuces full of thier own toys, so they would go on maneuvers and we had more to polish and clean up.

zerkten 3y ago

My cousin chose RAF and got some single-engine flight training. This was early-90s. I don't recall exactly how much of his private licence it helped with, but it was a fair bit.

KineticLensman 3y ago

My school had the option of the Duke of Edinburgh's scheme instead. I chose this because I didn't want to wear itchy uniforms once a week and be shouted out by teachers who seemed to have fond memories of National Service. I eventually got to meet Prince Phillip, who asked me whose heavenly bodies I looked at using the telescope I'd made on a D of E project.

tetris11 3y ago
We had DofE too! Did my Gold in the Black Mountains. Didn't bother to meet Prince Philip as I was/am staunchly antimonarchist, much to the dismay of my mother.
mewse-hn 3y ago
Classic Prince Phillip.

joncrocks 3y ago

I think this must have been dependent on the school/location as I was also in an RAF section and we flew in (small) planes maybe once a term. For maybe 30 minutes, and lots of waiting around, but was fun. Got to do a fair bit of aerobatics as well. Obviously we weren't flying solo (although there were a handful that did a course that culminated in a solo flight) Also went gliding once.

rolph 3y ago

i had my days like that too, every 2weeks the big boys would arrive in a couple deuces full of thier own toys, so they would go on maneuvers and we had more to polish and clean up.