Air Experience Flight

Royal Air Force

Components

Royal Air Force Royal Auxiliary Air Force RAF Regiment RAF Volunteer Reserve RAF Police

History

History · Timeline

Aircraft

List of RAF aircraft

Structure

Air Command No. 1 Group No. 2 Group Joint Force Air Component Headquarters (JFACHQ) No. 22 Group Stations

Personnel

Officer ranks Other ranks

An Air Experience Flight (AEF) is a training unit of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (Training Branch) whose main purpose is to give introductory flying experience to Air Cadets or the RAF section of the Combined Cadet Force. As of 2010, twelve AEFs are active.

History

The AEFs, numbered from 1 to 13, were formed across the United Kingdom in 1958, all but two forming on the same day, 8 September. All were equipped with the Chipmunk T.10 trainer. An exception was No. 5 AEF, which also operated a single Beagle Husky (XW635) from 1969 to 1989.

In the mid-1990s they were merged with co-located University Air Squadrons (UASs), the Chipmunks being replaced by the existing UAS Scottish Aviation Bulldog T.1s. No. 13 AEF at RAF Aldergrove was disbanded in 1996. In 1999, the Grob Tutor T.1 began to replace the Bulldog.

February 2009 air collision incident

Main article: Porthcawl Mid-Air Collision

At approximately 11:00 am on 11 February 2009 two Tutors from 1 AEF, RAF St. Athan, collided in mid air over Kenfig Nature Reserve, Porthcawl killing both crews. The two ATC Cadet passengers were cousins and were named as Katie Jo Davies, 14, and Nikitta Walters, 13, and the RAF pilots were named as Flying Officer Hylton Price and Flight Lieutenant Andrew Marsh.

June 2009 air collision incident

At approximately 2:30 pm on 14 June 2009, an RAF Grob Tutor and a civilian Standard Cirrus glider collided above Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire.

A Combined Cadet Force cadet, 15 year old Nicholas Rice, and the 62 year old Flight Lieutenant Michael Blee, died after their plane, the Grob Tutor, crashed. Nicholas Rice was a student of the Elvian School in Reading, and was from Calcot, Reading, Berkshire, Berkshire. Flight Lieutenant Blee was a retired Wing Commander with 38 years' service in the RAF before becoming a Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve Officer at 6 Air Experience Flight in 2005, where he assumed the rank of Flight Lieutenant. The two-seater Grob Tutor, took off from RAF Benson in Oxfordshire.

The pilot of the glider, Henry Freeborn, from Lee-on-the-Solent in Hampshire, parachuted to safety and survived. The glider was registered to Mark Holden, who lives in Locks Heath, Southampton. However, he was not involved in the incident.

Aircraft operated

• Grob Tutor (current aircraft)
• Scottish Aviation Bulldog
• Beagle Husky
• de Havilland Canada Chipmunk

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  Chipmunk T.10 in RAF colours

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  Bulldog T.1 in RAF colours

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  10 AEF Grob Tutor and hangar at RAF Woodvale.

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  Grob Tutor in flight

Current AEFs

• No. 1 Air Experience Flight RAF - RAF St Athan

• No. 2 Air Experience Flight RAF - RAF Boscombe Down

• No. 3 Air Experience Flight RAF - RAF Colerne

• No. 4 Air Experience Flight RAF - Glasgow Airport

• No. 5 Air Experience Flight RAF - RAF Wyton

• No. 6 Air Experience Flight RAF - RAF Benson

• No. 7 Air Experience Flight RAF - RAF Cranwell

• No. 8 Air Experience Flight RAF - DCAE Cosford

• No. 9 Air Experience Flight RAF - RAF Church Fenton

• No. 10 Air Experience Flight RAF - RAF Woodvale

• No. 11 Air Experience Flight RAF - RAF Leeming

• No. 12 Air Experience Flight RAF - RAF Leuchars