RAF Section Enter Royal Air Squadron Trophy

For the first time, the Shrewsbury School CCF (RAF) Section attended the West area Royal Air Squadron Trophy competition, which is held at RAF Cosford annually.

With 15 teams competing, of which only one other was a newcomer, the team did fantastically well to place in the top half, seventh overall.

The highlight at the end of the day was our second place in the Aircraft Recognition stand, in which five of the team had to identify thirty aircrafts from a prescribed list of fifty foreign, current RAF and historical British planes and helicopters. This sub-team had worked very hard to perfect their recognitions skills at speed over the few weeks before the competition, with Eugene A (Rt, LVI) our top individual scorer (29/30). Dason T (Rt, V), Eugene U (I, V), Luke W (SH, UVI) and Sastra Q (Ch, LVI) also competed in this stand.

Despite our lack of previous competition experience, the team worked hard and acquitted themselves very well in all areas, most importantly supporting one another throughout the day and having a lot of fun as a result. The First Aid stand was undertaken by Puntharee S (MSH, LVI), Frank J (O, LVI), Takehito K (Rt, V) and Toby M (I, UVI), who also captained the team on the day and throughout our training. Jan V (Rt, LVI), Maggie C (M, LVI), Sei I (Rt, LVI) and Amelia B (MSH, V) competed in Air Rifle target shooting.

The other aspects of the competition involved the team as a whole: Drill (authoritatively commanded by Toby), Uniform inspection, RAF General Knowledge and a Leadership and Teamwork exercise. Having been awarded Best Cadet on the national Air Cadet Leadership Course last August, Luke took the lead in this task. Indeed the day was a nice opportunity for Luke, Toby and Maggie to catch up with cadets from other schools with whom they had made friends on summer courses.

The competition was a fantastic experience and a fitting way for certain members of the team to bow out of the RAF Section as they move onto other things, such as academic exams and future career-focused work experience on Thursday afternoons.

It is certainly something we aim to enter again as a Section, hopefully continuing to make ground on the regular high-scoring schools as we learn from each experience. The day also enabled some staff networking and the consolidation of some inter-school collaboration, such as a joint Field Day exercise planned with Wrekin College RAF Section in March.

Very well done to all who trained hard for this event!

Flt Lt D Wray