Wing Review
The new Commandant of the Air Cadets, Air Commodore David Harrison carried out his first Wing Review, reviewing Glasgow & West Scotland Wing. Hundreds of cadets took part in the review held at RN Faslane over the weekend of the 26th to 28th of August 2005. The weekend was filled with a wide range of activities split between Faslane and the adjacent Garelochhead Army Training Camp.
The camp started on the Friday night with a fire and safety briefing from Flying Officer Cairns, the Wing Health & Safety Officer. This was followed by a security briefing from Warrant Officer Leonard the Wing Warrant Officer. The cadets were then allocated into their flights and billets for the weekend. Lights out was at midnight.
Saturday morning started at 07:30 with a good hot breakfast. The flights were assembled and the program got underway. Each flight had a different program to follow during the day as there were too many activities for each flight to take part in them all over the weekend.
One of the activities was Clay Pigeon Shooting. This was the first time many of the cadets had handled an shotgun. The activity was well supervised. Flight Lieutenant Hawthorne and Flying Officer Smith ran the event. Other staff provided a safety supervisor for each cadet. Some of the cadets were surprised at how powerful a kick was from the shotgun. It was a very different experience from firing the L98 and all said it was a lot of fun and they hoped to do this again. The Commandant had a go at the clay pigeon shooting and enjoyed it every bit as much as the cadets.
There was very low flying in hovercraft provided by 449 (Lanark) squadron under the supervision of Warrant Officer Bert Lucas and Flight Lieutenant Dougie MacMillan. A local playing field provided the grounds for the flying. This is a very popular activity with all the cadets any time they get the chance. Some of the cadets at Lanark have undergone training and qualified as hovercraft pilots. The cadets were joined by the Air Commodore who was given the same briefing as the cadets before he took control of one of the two hovercraft. The hovercraft are lightweight and highly manouravable, as well as being fast. His reaction was the same as the cadets. It was absolutely amazing.
Warrant Officer Leonard of 2175 (Rolls-Royce) squadron took some of the flights for a period of drill. As the flights were made up of cadets from several squadrons this was a chance for everyone to get up to speed for the review on Sunday. Drill is not always seen as a lot of fun but under Warrant Officer Leonards expert instruction it was enjoyed by the cadets. Most of whom had not had drill with Wing Warrant Officer before.
One of the more unusual events that the cadets had the chance to take part in was Land Yachting. This was carried out outside the fire station on Faslane. This was not because it was dangerous, it was because there was a large tarmaced area to sail the yachts on. Sailing the yachts was very tricky for most of the cadets. They all enjoyed sailng, but very few of them smiled while actually doing it as it took a lot of concentration to sail them without crashing.
While breakfast and dinner was provided for the cadets at the combined mess as Garelochhead the lunches for the two days were supplied at RN Faslane. Several cadets commented that Faslane was a nice change from the food at Garelochhead.
Campcraft was organised at the tank farm to the north of the camp. The cadets got a chance to ”cam up” under instruction from the staff. Then they were given the chance to camouflage a Land Rover using some netting. The cadets weren’t as successful at camoflaging the vehicle the vehicle as they were themselves, often you could still tell there was a vehicle under the nets. The personnel camouflage continued with an exercise of some hiding while others tried to locate them. This was a lot of fun as sometimes the cadets searching the area came within a few feet of those hiding without finding them.
The hovercraft was not the only flying for the cadets during the weekend. The Army Air Corps pitched in, providing both Puma and Lynx helicopters for the cadets to fly in. For many of the cadets the low level fights around the local area were the high point of the weekend. They were amazed at the abilities 
demonstrated by the pilots. Every cadet would have taken another fight if they had the chance. The Navy got in on the flying as well with an Air Sea Rescue Sea King from RN Gannett at Prestwick flying cadets. As the Sea King was on active duty it could have been called away at any time to answer an emergency call. Thankfully that didn’t happen so all the cadets who were scheduled to fly in it got the chance.
Flight Lieutenant Brain Wilson of 1371 (Girvan) squadron ran archery during the weekend. It is another type of shooting, even more different for the cadets than clay pigeon shooting. The cadets got the chance to fire a number of different styles of bow depending on their size and strength. This was one of the activities held in Faslane. One of the sheds provided a good range to shoot on. The bows are powerful enough to do severe damage to the aluminium sheeting of the shed, shoot an arrow through it. To make the range safe a large catch net was hung behind the targets. There is a definite technique to archery, some cadets mastered it very quickly and hit the targets with their first shots while others made great use of the netting behind the targets.
The Royal Navy Marines helped out with the Wing Review by taking flights of cadets out in their “ribs”. These are the lightweight boats, with fibreglass hulls and inflated sides used by the marines to carry out waterborne assaults. Somehow the Marines didn’t manage to keep the cadets dry while carrying out their high speed manouvres on the Gare Loch. The cadets thoroughly enjoyed the trips on the ribs, all coming back very wet.
RN Faslane has a police dog flight. Some of the cadets were treated to a demonstration of the abilities of the dogs. The cadets were amazed by the abilities of the dogs to find items hidden by the police instructors. None of the cadets volunteered to try and hide, they would have been far too easy for the digs to find. Another job the police dogs do is to apprehend suspects. To demonstrate how good the dogs are one of the instructors pretended to be a suspect and tried to escape capture. One of the dogs was released to catch him and did so in a few seconds.
Before dinner on the Saturday night the best drill cadets were selected for the guard of honour on Sunday. We were inspected by the Warrant Officer Leonard to make sure everything was in order. That night we were busy making sure that our uniforms were immaculate for the parade the next day. There was a disco organised in the mess hall on the Saturday night. A lot of cadets didn’t go as they were having a lot of fun in their billets. Lights out were at midnight again.
On Saturday night a formal dinner was held in the Rothsay House Hotel. This was the formal dining in of the new Commandant Air Commodore David Harrison and new Regional Commandant Group Captain Morag Urquart to the Wing. The dinner was a success with both the meal and speeches being enjoyed by all present.
Sunday morning started the same as Saturday with breakfast at 07:30. There was only one activity planned for Sunday. The activity for the day was the Wing Review Parade. The preparation for the inspection had started for the guard of honour the night before. Everyone else got ready first thing.
The Commandant inspected the assembled wing under the command of its Wing Commander George Campbell. After the inspection the Commandant was invited to make a number of presentations to various staff and cadets 
including Rev Colin Brockie the Wing Padre, Mr Peter Smith, former Wing Chairman, Flying Officer Mark Lowery and CWO Bobby Hastie.
All the cadets who took part in the weekend had a great time that was characterised by two phases, “amazing” and “when is then next one?”. The cadets wanted to thank the staff of Glasgow & West Scotland Wing, RAF, Army, Navy and Marines did an excellent job of organising and running the weekend.
Article complied from entries by Sgt Kayani, Cpl Finnie and Cdt Kayani from 2175 (Rolls-Royce) squadron.