Issue 87 - NWRFCA - Northwest Reserve Forces & Cadets Association

atc
THE ITALIAN JOB
by PO Chris Brown
WITHIN 7F (1st City of Liverpool)
Air Cadet Squadron, we have a
recent history of having cadets
from various corners of Europe.
Polish, French and more recently
Italian teenagers have joined us
as cadets and on occasion family
have joined the essential Civilian
Committee.
Our Italian contingent
mentioned that they had a
relative who worked for the
Aeronautica Militare (Italian Air
Force). This is often common on
squadrons where cadets have
relatives in the forces so for us
as a squadron it was a normal
occurrence. Imagine our shock
when we received an email one
parade night from Colonel Marco
Lant, commander of the Frecce
Tricolori (Italian display team)
who was inviting us to the Royal
International Air Tattoo at RAF
Fairford as guests of the Frecce
Tricolori.
Our squadron attended RIAT
last year and thoroughly enjoyed
the experience, but to arrange it
and raise the funds to pull this
off this year was going to be a
race against time. To attend RIAT
as guests of a squadron was a
great honour but imagine our
surprise when another email
popped through from the Frecce
Tricolori’s operations staff who
were looking forward to meeting
us and introducing us to their
crew, pilots, staff and aircraft.
Not only where we invited to
watch the flying display but we
had an invitation to visit them
on the flight line. This kind of
opportunity does not come along
often to 7F Squadron Air Cadet
Squadron and was too good to
miss.
Our staff contacted the RIAT
team to explain the situation
and the fact that we had received
such an unusual invitation. Time
ticked by and we were unsure
if we would be able to make the
trip and although our PIPES and
risk assessment had all been
agreed RIAT had not confirmed
that we could visit the Italians on
the airside of the airfield. As the
big day was nearly upon us RIAT
emailed the squadron to confirm
that all our security checks and
access requests had been granted.
The Frecce Tricolori’s staff had
called to confirm arrangements
and asked us one request. To bring
the sunshine!
So at 4am on Saturday 16th July
7F Squadron headed south to RAF
Fairford to attend RIAT. A minibus
and car full of enthusiastic if tired
cadets and staff whizzed down
the M6 and M5 armed with our
instructions. To our delight we
had car parking on base and as
the rain was torrential we made
use of these to keep dry. The mood
darkened as the rain intensified
and the prospect of flying
diminished.
44 the volunteer www.nwrfca.org.uk