Chineham Cubs & Scouts Visit RAF Odiham

25 April 2024

1st Chineham’s Cubs and Scouts descended on RAF Odiham on a lovely Wednesday evening. A small force of 104 Cubs and Scouts from 2 Cub packs and 1 Scout troop, 3 Young Leaders, and 18 Leaders gathered (we’ll skip over the chaos brought to the quiet estate during drop-off and pick-up) for an organized visit to the base where we’d get to learn about various roles within the RAF, but in the amazing backdrop of 27 Squadron’s hangar surrounded by their mighty Chinooks (Wokka Wokkas to those in the forces).

The team at Odiham had arranged for us to split into 6 groups and for each group to take their turn at the 6 bases set up around the hangar. The bases were:

– Engineering & Aerodynamics – how to maintain the beasts of the skies and the principles of how a helicopter works. They also got us making paper airplanes.

– Talk about the Chinook with a helicopter pilot – learning about the team who fly the amazing Chinook and not just the pilots.

– Crew safety – those who ensure that when needed, the crew and those in the helicopter can return safely back to their family and loved ones. We got to sit in a life raft and if you were feeling strong enough, you could attempt to lift the body armor the crew has to wear sometimes.

– ATC (Air Traffic Control) – how they ensure the skies are safe and maintain safety, not only for the helicopter crews, but for everyone else flying.

– RAF Fire Service – what they use and how they use it in times of emergency.

– Armorers – when called upon, they ensure our brave forces can defend themselves by maintaining the arsenal of weapons used.

Each base was an opportunity for the attendees to learn about the roles, how they contribute to the team, and the importance of what they do. We even found out that you can go to the toilet in a Chinook, but we’ll leave that for another day.

The bases were run by volunteers who’d given up their free time to support the evening and for that, we are truly grateful. We learned that it takes an often-hidden team of people working 24/7 across multiple disciplines to make it work. The Cubs and Scouts fired question after question, our hosts engaging them back; some of the young people even got to activate the sirens on the fire engine, which often led to jumpy leaders and young people throughout the evening.

We could have stayed there all day; I doubt we’d have gotten through all the questions we all had.

We’re lucky enough in Chineham to regularly see the Chinooks fly over us, so visiting RAF Odiham really brought home what it takes and how professional our armed forces are, and the range of skills needed to ‘just make it work’.

Hopefully, this won’t be our last visit to RAF Odiham, but it’s only fair we give the organizers a break as it’s not easy making all the pieces fit for such visits.

I could go on for hours/pages about the visit, but I’ll save your eyes with this summation. I doubt many of us would have had the opportunity to visit a place like RAF Odiham, had it not been for Scouting. The parents and guardians of those young people who entrust us week in and week out sometimes open doors and opportunities otherwise closed to many.

 

Andy Clarke

Assistant Section Leader

1st Chineham

 

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