In early September with the sun still shining from the summer, over 500 RAF Air Cadets and adult volunteers from Surrey Wing gathered at the historic Brooklands Museum for a day of competition and activities.
The annual “Field Day” is the flagship event for Surrey Wing each year, with cadet competing in competitions from archery to music, banner drill to aircraft recognition. In addition to the more traditional cadet competition, the day included more recent additions to the RAF Air Cadet offer such as STEM, cyber and eSports.
261 (Guildford) Squadron retained the honour of winning the Brooklands Trophy for top overall squadron at the Field Day. This was after winning the first aid competition and placing in the top three of several others.
219 (Sutton & Cheam) Squadron won the banner drill competition for the first time, a great achievement for the squadron to take the top spot of a competition that has been dominated by three units over the past ten years. They also won the photographic competition.
1408 (Dorking) Squadron had a good showing winning the Aeromodelling and archery competitions; as did 350 (Carshalton & Wallington) winning the escape room and cyber competitions. 285 (Coulsdon & Purley) Squadron won the aircraft recognition competition, 39F (Barnes & Richmond) Squadron won the tug of war competition, 328 (Kingston upon Thames) Squadron the esports competition, 1268 (Haslemere) Sqn won the STEM competition and 1924 (Shirley) Squadron the Orienteering.
Last but not least 1075 (Camberley) Squadron won the overall music competition with a fantastic display by their full band, ensemble and fanfare section.
While the fun of the field day was taking part, a more sombre moment took place to remember the 88 lives lost 85 years prior when the Luftwaffe bombed the Vickers Aircraft Factory. The factory was located on the site of what is now the museum, and new memorial and bomb shelter experience has recently opened to reflect on these losses and the resilience of the Vickers workforce who continued to contribute to the war effort producing Hurricane fighters and Wellington bomber aircraft for the RAF and our allies.
At the end of the event Wing Commander Machin, Officer Commanding Surrey Wing said, “I congratulate the cadets on their efforts in the competitions today. This has been out largest Wing event in terms of cadet numbers and the standard of competition between squadrons was extremely high. We could not do this without the support of Brookland Museum, allowing us to host the Field Day. Thank you to them, all of the cadets and supporting adult volunteers.”