One of the many activities you get to do as a cadet is go on annual camp, and this year I was lucky enough to go to RAF Lyneham in Gloucestershire from 20th July to 27th July 2002.

RAF Lyneham is transport base, it holds C130k and C130j Hercules heavy transport planes.

At 9:00am on Saturday 20th July myself, Cpl Holland, Cdt Johnson, Cdt Hammond, Cdt Barber and Cdt Hackett arrived at the squadron to wait for the coach to pick us up, from there we set off on a 2 hour journey we picked up some other cadets from 1289, 2030 and 29(F) squadrons. When we arrived and got off the coach we found our way to the billets and went straight to the mess for dinner, after dinner we looked around the base and unpacked.

During our time at RAF Lyneham we got the opportunity to visit the different sections of the base like the RAF Regiment, aircraft maintenance hanger, medevac (Medical Evacuation), control tower and some of us got to go to the flight simulator and see what its like to take control of a C130, and the fire section was very memorable. We also got to do such activities as shooting, flying, night exercise and we were very privileged to go to RIAT (Royal International Air Tattoo) the airshow that almost all of the air forces of the world attend and show off their greatest aircraft to the public.

At the end of the week we got our photo's back and got everyone to sign the back of them, said goodbye to each other and set off for another 2 hour dive back to Nuneaton as we said goodbye to everyone else and got of the coach and went home (probably for a sleep). I recommend any annual camps to anybody because you get to make new friends that you will probably see at Wing Training Day and it is great fun. All the cadets that attended Lyneham 02 will tell you that it was worth while.

Article Submitted by:-
Cdt Dore - 121 (Nuneaton) Squadron
27 Jul 02

RAF Lyneham is the RAF's major tactical transport Station. The airfield is home to the Hercules C1/C3 aircraft operated by Nos 24, 30, 47 and 70 Squadrons. The Hercules Operational Conversion Unit, No 57 (Reserve) Squadron operates 5 Hercules C1/C3s at Lyneham, which is also home to No 4626 (County of Wiltshire) Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron, RAuxAF, and the UK Mobile Air Movements Squadron, responsible for establishing handling facilities at temporary bases. The original Hercules' are now being replaced by the second-generation C-130J in RAF service. This comes in two versions, the stretched Hercules C4 and the standard C5 version.