5 Cadets and 1 member of Staff went to help out at the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) on Wednesday 13th July.

CI Dan Reeves took Cdts Laura Beard, Sam Beard, Josh Holmes, Simon West and Macauley Poole to RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire for a week of aircraft spotting, fun and hard work (not necessarily in that order!).

On arrival on Wednesday all were signed in, given caps and tee shirts and sent off to their sleeping accomodation for the duration of the camp.

This was the last time that CI reeves saw the Cadets from our Sqn. They were all mixed up in different flights. This gave them the oppertunity to meet Cadets from other Regions that they wouldnt normally get the chance to do!

Fortunately the weather stayed bright, sunny and hot, except for early Saturday morning when a river was spotted running right through the middle of some of the tents!

The show days went off without a hitch and the Cadets were kept busy carrying out their duties, such as helping out in enclosures, manning the drop zone station, handing out leaflets and selling programmes, meet and greet VIPs (Cdt Poole met the secretary of Defence!) and manning the crowd line.

This years show saw the first public display outing of the RAFs biggest and newest aircraft. The Voyager KC1 was given its official name during the show.

Some of the highlights of the show included The Red Arrows, The Vulcan, the BBMF, The C-27 Spartan from the Italian Air Force and the Frecce Tricolori display team, Several F-16 displays, the Ukranians SU-27 Flanker and Il-76 Candid. 

There was also a special fly past celebrating 70 years of The ACO showing the aircraft the Air Cadets have flown in over the years.

On Monday there was a massive clean up and in the evening a party for all.

Syston Cadets returned home on Tuesday, very tired but very happy.

Cdt Laura Beard said "We had such a good time, we all want to go back again next year!".