RAFA Pay a Flying Visit to Wharfedale

On Monday 16th January Darrell Slater-Smith, Area Director Royal Air Force Association along with Mr Harry Dowson of the Skipton RAFA Branch visited Squadron to provide cadets with an up to date report on how RAFA supports both retired and current memebers of the Royal Air Force.  

It was great to hear that RAFA now provide all personnel serving in Afghanistan with £20's worth of extra calls per month so they could ring home. The cadets liked the story book, where staff record a story or a special message on a CD so their children can listen to them any time whilst they are away on duty.  

 Cpl Callum Parker - The highest individual collector of 2011 with Mr Dowson and Mr Slater-Smith

The next day the letter arrived to announce Cadets and Staff at 1224 (Wharfedale) Sqn were  again the winners of the Sir Douglas Bader 'Wings Appeal' Trophy 2011 with a per captia average of £187.97.  The total collected £8,834.43 was the highest single amount collected by any Squadron during the year.

Cross Country Success for 1224

In early January 2012, a group of Cadets from 1224 (Wharfedale) Squadron attended the annual Central and East Yorkshire Wing Inter-Squadron Cross Country competition.

Hoping to build on last years results the Squadron entered teams in the Under 15 and Under 17 boys categories as well as the Junior Women's'.

The Squadron did in fact build on last years results and won the Under 15 boys whilst placing 2nd in the Under 17 boys.

There were individual third places for Cadets Danny Stainton (U17 Boys), Nina Wingate (Jnr Women) and Alex Atraszkiewicz (U15 Boys), all of whom qualify, along with Sgt Chris Cavaliere (4th in U17 Boys), to represent the Squadron and the Wing at the inter-Wing Cross country later in the year.

Also present from 1224 were WO Wood and CWO White - the latter who being too old to compete marshalled during the day - a decision which he later regretted after wearing too few layers to deal with the cold winter morning.

The 1224 Cross Country Team 2012