Day Seven - Friday 23rd April 2004

Well, after almost a week in country with days of non-stop things to do, it was time for a lazy day. So we all got to have a sleep in today, didn't have to get up till about 07:00. During the day apart from going off base for breakfast and lunch we did nothing major. Catching up on washing and ironing was the main task for the morning. In the afternoon after lunch we spent about 2.5 hrs in the base pool. During that time we ran a competition between the sections (4 CPLs, 4 sections), where the favourite activity would have to be the pool version of "flight" says. Well I'm assuming you have all heard of Simon says, well this is the drill version. Instead of Simon we say flight (we are air after all), so like "flight stand at ease" would be a valid movement but "stand at ease" or "squadron stand at ease" wouldn't. Makes it a bit more interesting being in a pool rather than a parade ground too.

After recharging our batteries it was off to Camden (mentioned earlier) to have a BBQ with 303SQN AAFC. We stayed two nights at Camden the previous trip and on a different type of Australian trip they stayed there too. Even though this time around we didn't stay there the place was still looking different from the previous visit. The buildings we stayed in last time had been pulled down and are being rebuilt.

We started off our visit viewing the aircraft they fly with (which the name of has totally escaped my mind), as well as some others that are stored in their hanger. While the staff then moved up the squadron HQ the cadets under the supervision of some AAFC NCOs put the aircraft away into the hanger. When everyone arrived up to the HQ the AAFC cadets had a parade to raise the RAAF Ensign. Afterwards we had a BBQ where everyone then had the chance to mingle and swap stories and find out the differences between the countries air cadets. It was ended with a final parade where the CO of 303SQN presented the trip with a 303SQN plaque. The cadets then swapped contact details as we prepared to depart. On the trip back to base the cadets compared on what items they were able to score and also of the stories they had heard. I didn't hear much of this as I fell asleep on the way back to base.

Picture 25 - Some of our cadets looking over one of the training aircraft.

Picture 26 - Two of our CPLs in the cockpit.

Picture 27 - Cadets overlooking another aircraft.

Picture 28 - The BBQ.

Picture 29 - I couldn't resist this picture. Crash hadn't seen the outside of the ambulance (just the inside), so I took this for him.

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