Courses

[Jen]

Hey there, okay this forum is where we can have a jolly ole chat about courses...
*you have been on
*you're going on
*you'd like to go on
*you'd reccomend...and why?
(and so on so-forth)

[Jen]

Okay then if no ones going to start us off I will.
I've only been on one course, being my JNRs obviously and I have to say it was pretty good all things considered and I certainly wouldnt mind going back to spend endless weeks there lol I'm not so sure if any of you have been on your JNRs yet?? Douglas or Angelica? (those are the names you guys prefer right?) but if you haven't and want some questions answered I'd love to help out...(so Douglas the more questions you ask me the more our ranks may go up yeah? ya with me?? lol)

[atcassidy_30hobby]

Go on national gliding course..my mates highly recommend it!! Who wouldn't enjoy eating at the mess and going out to the movies..alongside gliding..absolute heaven or so I've been told.

[dpdouglas]

Yes who wouldn't and the only reason he got to do that was because he turned up very early and had nothing else planned.

[dpdouglas]

E.G He turned up the night before it was supposed to start.

[Jen]

lol yeah i applied last year but had to pull out at the last minute; i was told on my jnrs that it stuffs you up for power-flying though bacause when your steering its not as subtle and so you need to get into differant habits

[xr6turbo]

Its been a few years since I left but I did the following.
JNCO/SNCO.
RNZAF Flying Scholarship (Solo in Airtrainer).
National Flying Camp Omaka. (Solo)
National Flying Camp Woodbourne (Solo)
Gliding Camp. (Solo)
Nav Course
Live and Work 42 Sqn (flew in Andovers, C130s and P3)
Live and Work 3 Sqn (Flew in UH1H, Sioux, and Wasp)
Live and Work 104 flt (Flew in Cessna Golden Eagle,Airtourer)
Live and Work GSTS
Bushcraft Course.

My Favourite, no question the RNZAF Scholarship, pity that course isnt run anymore

[xr6turbo1]

hardmore22 said:

lol yeah i applied last year but had to pull out at the last minute; i was told on my jnrs that it stuffs you up for power-flying though bacause when your steering its not as subtle and so you need to get into differant habits

Not so sure about that, I have done both forms of flying and found that gliding helped my power flying as I got a greater respect for flying in general as glider flying is different and having no engine means your procedures and judgement have to be good in order to make it back to the airfield.
the silence in gliders does take a bit of getting used to though.
Hope you give the course a crack at some stage ;D

[dpdouglas]

If Anybody knows some way that i can get a hold of the requirements for all courses please tell me because i keep forgeting to look at it at my squadron HQ.

[tpgun9]

yea ive been on many courses

gliding
juniors
bushcraft
navigation

[Dave Homewood]

Welcome to the forum tpgun9

[skyhawkdon]

Is was in No 12 Sqn (Invercargill) from early 1979 until I joined the RNZAF in Jan 1984. I did the JNCO and SNCO courses and the Avionics Appreciation Course (all at Wigram). The Avionics course must have left an impression because I subsequently spent 18 years in the RNZAF as an Avionics Technician! I also won a flying scholarship with the Southland Aero Club in 1983 and flew solo, gaining my ATC wings (a very proud moment).

However the highlite of my 5 years in the ATC was a trip to Singapore in 1983 on the then new RNZAF Boeing 727. There were just 3 of us from the ATC (2 SNCO cadets and an officer), so I was extremely lucky to be chosen. While in Singapore we were treated very well by the local 3 Sqn Detachment, including a one hour flight around Singapore in an Iroquois. 40 Sqn also looked after us very well - we shared the cockpit jump seat between the 3 of us most of the way there and back. We had refueling stops at Sydney and Darwin. At Darwin there were rows of F-111's, Mirages and B-52's on the tarmac - I thought I had died and gone to heaven!

I also had several flights in the NAATS Friendships and 1 Sqn Andover's during my time in the ATC. We used to see both in Invercargill quite regularly doing fisheries patrols (they would often overnight).

I didn't make it to No 12 Sqn's 50th anniversary reunion in 1991 as I had just been posted to Nowra, Australia with No 2 Sqn and the Skyhawks.

When I left the RNZAF in 2001 (I was made redundant along with the Skyhawks) I presented No 12 Sqn with a framed photo of a Skyhawk - I felt that was the least I could do for them after everything the Squadron had done for me many years before.

I trust No 12 Sqn is still going strong?

[dpdouglas]

Yay im so flippin happy I have now successfully got onto Cadet Outdoor Leaders down at dipflat near woodbourne in the south island Hoorah. so anyone down at RNZAF base woodbourne you may see me down there.

[Dave Homewood]

Well done Darren. When are you going? That place can be pretty cold - I did a week there during my RNZAF basic training in late February and it was freezing at night despite being summer. The river crossings were like ice on the legs and nether regions. You couldn't even look forward to a warming shower at the end of the day as they were scary showers (one room, several nozzles, all in together!) and we only had something like 3 minutes of water for all 60 or more of us!

[dpdouglas]

Wow thats interesting I'm going down between the 9th and 19th of January so yea it should be good hopefully the showers aren't too communal aye. But any way I'll be down there with other cadets and probably more Non- Commisioned officers from the Air Training Corps.

[dpdouglas]

Well it is currently the 24th December, 2006 and well i am building up the happiness for my course it will be so good to finally accomlish a course that is in cadets. and the best thing is we dont have to take down a Weeks worth of food. Lol

[dpdouglas]

well I have just completed and qualified Junior Outdoor Leaders Dip Flat 01/07 it was a fun experience with the assessment being a piece of Cheese.......Cake.
I cant really tell you more apart from that the RNZAF confidence course is alot of fun and im sure glad to be home away from the wasps, bumble bees and damned sandflies that are in the wairau valley and the most memorable moment would be when one member of Bravo syndicate fell asleep in a lesson. Other than that it was alot of fun and the experience and knowledge I gained from the course will prove useful in future camps and activities.I have to shout out to all those in Alpha Syndicate as it was my group here are the people in it:
Team Leder - Captain Rodgers
-CDT CSM Crystal
-CDT F/SGT E. Seager
-CDT S/SGT B. Duncan
-CDT CPL A. Hunn
-CDT CPL N. Aymes
-CDT CPL K. Markham
-CDT LCPL J. Davies
-CDT D. Douglas (me)

We had a great time and I am looking forward to senior outdoor leaders next year and will see you all again.

[flyjoe180]

Good on you, congratulations on passing and enjoying, your course. How did they get you home? SATS fell over, I was lucky enough to escape Woodbourne courtesy of Eagle Air direct to Auckland. Don't tell me they put the Dip Flat and Aviation people all on a bus?

[Dave Homewood]

Congratulations Darren.

Dip Flat is a great place but spoiled by those blasted wasps. On the confidence course do they still have the really long, steep flying fox? That was neat, only I didn't realise I should have had my arms straight rather than bent at the elbow as when i got to the bottom one ofthe tyres for slowling the fox smacked me in the head. Despite the impact, the adrenaline covered any pain that should have been there.

Another feature I recall was a wooden structure that was quite high that you climbed, it was a bit like an 'adventure playground' thing at a park, but at the top you had to step off into nothingness and hope to catch the fireman's pole as you were falling. Did you do that one? It may be gone now, that thing would have been a health and safety nightmare.

If you refused to do it by the way, you were out of the RNZAF. I recall some grown girls crying with fear and backing out. One was in line right in front of me- she refused, cried, and turned around to go down. I wasn't too confident myself but I did it without thinking too hard, the only way. They eventually coaxed (with a fair bit of shouting) to get all the refusees to do it.

[Dave Homewood]

Hey Darren, you lot are famous!

From www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/marlboroughexpress/3932611a6563.html

Teens get tested at camp
The Marlborough Express | Thursday, 18 January 2007

Two days into the Outdoor Leader Course held annually at the RNZAF's Dip Flat camp and Blenheim teenager Logan Culley is feeling a little bit sore after taking on the camp's confidence course.

"I'm hurting pretty much everywhere. But I suspected it was going to be this tough, so I'm not complaining about anything."

Logan is one of 150 teenagers who have been taking part in the camp over the last week, learning survival skills in the rugged bush in the mountains surrounding St Arnaud.

The teenagers are all in the cadet forces and are made up of members of the NZ Cadet Corp (army), Sea Cadet Corp (navy) and Air Training Corp (air force), and they have come to Marlborough from all over the country to do the camp.

They arrived in the district last Wednesday, with the course running through to late this week, climaxing with a night out in the bush where the teenagers will get to put the skills they have been taught to the test.

A corporal in the local Air Training Corp (ATC) branch, Logan said he was looking forward to the overnight trek into the bush the most.

"I don't know much about it or even how far into the bush we go, but it should be an experience.

"It's something different from the usual holiday activities."

Fellow ATC member Ben Snalam, who came to the camp in his fifth year as a cadet, said the tramp would be a challenge, but it could not be much worse than the confidence course, which left him sore, tired and covered in stinking mud.

"I had the vertigo thing going on a few of the obstacles. The hardest was the last one where you've got to get across a wire while holding onto a rope, everybody ended up in the swamp on that one."

Although the camp is run to military standards, Ben said he was a little surprised to find it more laid-back than he expected.

"They actually let you get a bit of sleep here and the tents even have lights and power, which is a bit more modern than I thought it would be."

He said there was always a bit of rivalry between the different cadet corps, but it was all "good, clean fun".

For Lieutenant-Commander Lana Knaapen, assistant commandant for the NZ cadet forces, this year's camp was her first as detachment commander, but with each teenager having spent years as a cadet, they were well disciplined.

"We have 74 different courses around the country every year, so they're in this type of environment all the time as well as the usual things they do in their own home towns.

"They're all pretty excited and a bit nervous when they first arrive because it is a big group of people, but after a couple of nights sleeping together in tents, they learn to work as a group, form new friendships and their confidence levels go through the roof."

Lt Cdr Knaapen said this year's camp also had an international flavour, with four cadets and one officer from Hong Kong joining in as part of an exchange programme.

"This is something that is just so different for them, it's like nothing they've seen before. It's something we've done for the first time this year, but we want to encourage it and give our own cadets even more chances to go overseas and see the world for themselves."