Abingdonian 2020

33 www.abingdon.org.uk Lent Term Open days at Abingdon have shown me the amazing facilities and opportunities the school has to offer. Even after joining in the first year, I would attend so that I could look at all the sports, clubs, and trips that I could be a part of. However, I always found myself wrapped up in the CCF, listening to their stories of spending 48 hours in the forest with only a rifle and their friends for company, or those in the RAF section explaining how they had circled the area from above. The moment I saw my chance, I took it. The learning process as a cadet is constant and has taught me differing things through the years. The first few years were spent learning about the military: how it operates, what exactly each branch does, even down to the practical element in the field. In under eight months, I was a part of a fully functioning team able to carry out an organised attack on an enemy. After Easter camp, I chose to be in the RAF section and went on to study various parts of an aircraft and the RAF like physics and history. Within a month, I was sitting in a Grob Tutor (the primary training aircraft for the RAF) next to an experienced pilot. He gave me 10 minutes to get to grips with the controls and their effects before he told me I was able to learn some aerobatics. Before I knew it, I was taking the plane through loop-the-loops and barrel-rolls. It was then that I had my heart set on becoming an RAF pilot myself. At the beginning of that same summer, I went on an RAF camp. This helped me gain further knowledge about what a career in the forces would be like. Our time was spent looking around the different stations such as the nuclear bunkers housing (the now decommissioned) Tornado GR-4’s, the underground bomb and missile silo, as well as the ever so important go-kart track at the end of the runway. As the end of my time at Abingdon started edging closer, I grasped more of the opportunities presented to me. After a challenging GCSE exam period, I met up with another 40 cadets from around the UK and we headed to Cyprus for ten days. Between our time scuba diving, rock climbing, and zip-lining through the trees, we found time to relax at a local waterpark and take a boat around the coast to swim with different sea life. The trip allowed me to experience things I never thought I would, like the amazing views from the peak of Mt. Olympus or the taste of a homegrown lemon cheesecake mountainside. Moving into the sixth form, I decided to take on some official leadership training through a week at RAF College Cranwell with another 60 cadets from around the nation. This course involved three stages of leadership activities within our flights (groups of 9 or 10 people) including two nights sleeping in a wooded area on base. It was here that the inter-flight competitions started to pick up including group orienteering and a timed log run. These events allowed us to all get to know each other more and function better not only as a team but as friends. By the end of the week, I had passed the course with merit, was a member of the best flight, and even had an unofficial title from the staff as the cadet with the highest standards. A memory that I will never forget is when I got the opportunity to parade in front of College Hall Officers’ Mess; one of only two courses in the world that allows you to do this. My final year at the school has gone quickly, after applying to senior roles the year before, I had gained the position of 2IC RAF before being promoted to 2IC of the Contingent where I worked closely with the staff and all of the cadets. This year has arguably been one of my most successful as I began my application to the RAF (gaining promising scores in my tests), I was awarded a two week- long flying scholarship in Dundee where I will get the opportunity to fly a plane solo this coming September, and, after sadly not quite making it to the final stage of the Sir John Thomson Memorial Sword, I have still been recognised for my achievements and am now one of thirteen senior cadets who are helping the RAF review how all cadets operate post-covid-19. There have been an extraordinary amount of opportunities put before me through the CCF and I have only been able to accept so many. I have been to exciting places, learnt new skills, and made more friends through each and every experience. The CCF has shaped me into the man I am today. Charles Engwell, 7OTL