NEWS

RAF Summer Camp, RAF Coningsby, August 2010

RAF Coningsby was an ideal, and very interesting, venue for this year’s RAF Summer camp, where Dollar Academy teamed up with the Royal Wolverhampton school for a very successful week.  RAF Coningsby operates the state-of-the-art Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft, the newest and most advance jet plane currently in service with the RAF and pupils were shown round repair hangars and the various aircraft as they were maintained and made “flight ready”.

In contrast to all the advanced modern technology,  one of the highlights of the week was a visit to the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight museum.  This is home to a number of airworthy Second World War aircraft including Spitfires and Hurricanes. During the tour, the pupils were entrusted to push a 70 year old spitfire out of the hangar onto the tarmac. When asked “do we have any volunteers to help?”, every hand, unsurprisingly, shot up!

Other on-site visits included the fire section and the control tower, and the Physical Education Flight organised some assault course based challenges which proved to be very competitive. A number of command task activities were also set up. Whilst one group of pupils developed leadership skills, the other visited the range to fire the A2 under the supervision of the TEST Sergeant and range qualified officers.

Off site activities including swimming, a night exercise in a nearby forest, and a visit to the “Kinema in the Woods”, an old fashioned style cinema near the base.

Pupils from Dollar and the Royal Wolverhampton school were frequently commended for their enthusiasm, manners and excellent behaviour and this all helped to ensure the success of the week.

Mr Cochrane

September 2010