Silence as the town honours the brave

HAILSHAM fell silent at 11am on Sunday to honour those who gave their lives for their country.

 249 Squadron took part in a short parade from the car park next to the Charles Hunt Centre in Vicarage Field and preceded the annual Remembrance Day service at the war memorial. Local dignitaries, including mayor Ian Haffenden, laid wreaths while the Rev John Brook the Squdron padre and the local Royal British Legion's branch padre, Peter Clark, spoke. The Legion's Hailsham branch chairman Mike Weller said the two-minutes silence was impeccably observed by the almost 400 people who attended.

Halloween……ooooooh

Cadets and Staff had a haunting night at the squadron and join in with the Halloween festivities. The party started off with a competition to see who was dressed in the best and scaryious costume. Later on cadets and staff took part in some very messy and wet games. It was a great night, well done to Cpl Coates for organising a great party.

Beware the Blucks............... what a lot of blood.. ...... ahhhh 

Soaring high

A Hailsham Air Cadet is soaring high after achieving his ambition of flying solo in a glider at Royal Air Force Odiham and receiving his “wings”.

Flight Sergeant Harvey Chandler, a cadet at 249 (Hailsham) Squadron Air Training Corps, travelled to 618 Volunteer Gliding Squadron on five consecutive weekends to reach his goal.

Prior to a 15 minute solo flight in a circuit around the airfield at 800 feet piloting a Vigilant T. Mk1 glider, Flight Sergeant Chandler had to successfully undertaken 10 hours of lessons in the air and passed a theory examination to demonstrate his competence as a potential glider pilot.

Flight Sergeant Chandler, aged 19, was thrilled with his achievement when he said: “It’s fantastic – I can now pilot a £50,000 glider, it’s a great feeling of achievement, knowing that there is no one next to you and you are flying all on your own. I recommend it to anyone who is eligible to apply for a Gliding Scholarship. This is a great opportunity for me, as I hope to be joining the Royal Air Force as a pilot some time next year, and this really gives you a head start in any flying career”.

The Officer Commanding 249(Hailsham) Squadron, Flight Lieutenant Neil Banks RAFVR(T), was quick to praise his Cadet: “Flight Sergeant Chandler thoroughly deserves this success as he has worked very hard and I was proud to be able to present his  wings to him in front of his Squadron colleagues. He is one of our top Cadets on the Squadron and takes full advantage of all of the opportunities available. I foresee a very bright future for him.”

Great Result's Wing Field Weekend 

249 Squadron achieves fantastic result’s in this years Wing Field Weekend.The Wing Field Day is an annual event where all 23 Squadrons of Sussex Wing ATC come together to compete at drill, first aid, banner drill, shooting, aircraft modeling, aircraft recognition and the massive adventure training competition This year the Squadron came away with three trophies, we won the adventure training cup, the first aid cup and the model making cup.

Flt Lt Neil Banks said”This is a fantastic result, I’m really proud of all the effort that the cadets have put in to win these trophies”. “It is no mean feet to compete against 23 other Squadrons and come out on top, in three areas of the competition. The Squadron was especially pleased to win the adventure training cup, as this is the area were the cadets take part on 10 different activities, using there leader ship skills, from raft building to mind games. The Squadron won the AT trophy last year, and were keen to retain it this year. Well done 249.