These activities included squad handling, lesson planning and outdoor leadership – all aimed at making us more capable and confident cadets, and ultimately JNCO’s.

From the course I have learnt some valuable skills and plan to utilise them in the future.  Some of these skills are useful in different aspects, for example voice projection (from squad handling) will be useful for addressing large crowds/classes, and presenting skills (lesson planning and delivery) for teaching people and possibly getting a job in the future.

All in all it was a great course and the skills I have picked up are very useful and effective.

Overall No. 41 Squadron managed to field 3 teams in the shooting competition and their respective placing against the other ATC Units nationally are:-

A team – 5th with 430pts
B team – 13th with 369pts
C team – 8th with 400pts

Finally these cadets attained their Marksmanship standard during the competition:-

Prior to the beginning of the course I was slightly apprehensive about what to expect at this course, not forgetting astonishment at selection in the first place, as this is a highly sought after course for both Cadets themselves and Units trying their Cadets through the system. But soon after arrival I found that everyone was really friendly and accepting, with bonds developing between us as Cadets.

The course itself comprised of three ‘terminals’ (tests) which covered: Drill Instruction, Oral Presentations, and most importantly, Leadership. The week was well structured with plenty of time for practices for the terminals.

The first terminal we did was Drill Instruction. This comprises of teaching Cadets simple drill movements, which are vital for performing a basic parade within their Unit. By breaking down the sub-movements, it is easier to learn, for the basic Cadet with no prior drill experience. The time did drag on as we had to keep acting as students so the others could have their turn at instructing.

The next two days were filled with preparing, practicing, and then presenting our Oral Presentations. The topics for these were completely chosen by us. The first of which (the practice), was to be of 5 minutes duration, and the second (the terminal) was to be 10 minutes. The problem here ended up being trying to keep within the time limit, rather than trying to gather enough material to fill the time, because if it lasted more than 20% longer than the stated time, we would fail. I ended up cutting out material as I was presenting, because the just wasn’t enough time. We were given plenty of rest and break time during these presentations, which ensured that everyone had the full attention of their audience.

The last and most important of these terminals, leadership, took up the next two days. This is the most important of the three, because as Junior NCOs, we are expected to step up and become leaders within our Units, so it was critical we got a big tick for this one. Everyone in the syndicate was given a small task, in which they lead the group to achieve a goal. Whether it be load a trailer, re-dress a classroom, remove a tent peg from a circle we could not enter, or build a raft. These tasks brought out a true sense of comradery and teamwork within the group, with everyone chipping in and doing their fair share of work. Again, we had plenty of practice for this, so we knew exactly what we needed to improve on for the terminal.

The last day was comparatively relaxed, with a parade practice, the final parade itself, presentation of course certificates, and cleaning of the barracks, followed by a film in the evening.

So, to summarise. The JNCO course is really good fun. Everything is very well planned, which led to the successful and smooth running of the week. You meet a lot of new friends to stay in touch with, and hopefully attend more courses with in the future. Even the food was really good, although the portion sizes aren’t what they are at home.

So even though we lost a few people along the way, I really enjoyed the course and recommend to anybody considering it apply!

When we first arrived I was pleasantly surprised that we got individual rooms, unlike on the Juniors course!  While Juniors was all about teamwork, Seniors was all about being independent, so we were pretty much just expected to do everything ourselves.

We had to be up at 6am and at breakfast at the mess at 6.45am.  There was no alarm call and were expected to get ourselves up on time and get to places throughout the day without support/help.

During the week we were taught about instructional technique, leadership and drill which we were then tested on at different days during the week.

I felt that during the course I learnt a lot of useful skills that I can now take back to my Squadron.  I am really happy that I went on the course, I had a lot of fun and met some really cool people – it was a great experience.

Once they were in the air the rest of us walked back to the flight school and played pool and darts.  I was last to go for a flight, and since I was last I had seen the other cadets attempts at hovering at the end of their flight, which made me a little nervous because of how much they had wobbled around.

Once in the air we flew out along a river where we practised some turns, than we headed out over the town to look around with some 360 turns.  Finally we headed back to the airfield and I attempted to hover, which is a lot harder than it looks!

After we had landed I helped to put the helicopter back in the hangar then we walked back to the building where we put all our details in our logbooks.  After saying our goodbyes we jumped back into our cars and went to Carl’s Jnr’s for lunch, before we headed home.

The aim of this course was to teach us skills to become a SNCO, throughout the course we had to complete 3 terminals which consisted of teaching, leadership and drill. For teaching we needed to do 2 lessons, one a practical and the other a theory. My practical was on knot tying while the other was on map reading.

My next terminal was leadership, we needed to show that we understood the GSMEAC acronym (Ground – Scenario – Mission – Execution – Admin & Logistics – Command & Signals).  Unfortunately it rained all day which made it hard to complete the tasks, but leadership is always fun because everyone works better as a team and the tasks are always fun to attempt.

The final terminal was Drill, we needed to take on the “flight sergeant roll” and take the flight during a parade. The drill was fun but it was difficult to stand through everyone else’s for that long.

After all that we had a ceremony parade which concluded the week, We got told who got top of course and syndicates and we also got to read through our course reports which mine surprisingly wasn’t even that bad.  I also got to go to number 3 squadron and see the NH90 helicopters, we got a tour from one of the pilots and he explained how he got into the RNZAF this showed us the opportunity we all could have.

Seniors not only taught me skills that I can use at cadets but skills and knowledge that I can use in my everyday life, I made many new friends and got taught things I would have never learnt if I never applied for SNCO. I would definitely recommend anyone that has gone on JNCO to apply because it is great fun.

This course is a difficult opportunity to attain, as our Squadron is often only given one, and at its best two, spaces to send our selected Cadets. Its clear why, administration wants to regulate the number of leaders that we have in the Squadrons, to ensure that the chain of command remains valid. Because this course, unlike others, is built around building leaders and training the next Junior NCOs (Non Commissioned Officers) of the Squadrons.

On this course we had forty Cadets and aspiring leaders meet at RNZAF Base Ohakea for an entire week, to learn the leadership skills that we would require for our promotion.

Our training on the JNCO Course consisted of four terminals; squad handling, public speaking, teaching drill and most importantly leadership.

The concept of squad handling is simple, it’s leading a group of Cadets in drill, commanding their movements, keeping everyone strictly in line while simultaneously watching for, and helping any Cadets that are having trouble with the movements.  It’s a difficult balance to find, but I enjoy it very much.

Our next aspect of training was public speaking, where we all had to write two presentations and deliver them to our peers, one five minutes long and the other ten.  While I normally enjoy public speaking, I found that remarkably I had no nerves during this particular deliverance.  This is because of the friendly and supportive atmosphere that was fostered amongst our group, meaning that none of us were worried in the slightest about the impression that we gave off, because we all knew that the opinions that our new friends had of us wouldn’t waver based on our performance.

Our next test was on our ability to instruct drill, and while it was very monotonous to constantly act as a student so that my peers could take their turn to instruct, we all managed to enjoy ourselves thoroughly.

Finally, and most importantly, we were tested on our leadership skills.  Each member of our syndicate was given a turn to lead us in the completion of a small task, whether it was the cleaning of a room, the moving of a cotton wheel from one field to another or the removal of a tent peg from a circle that we weren’t allowed to enter. This was an incredibly enjoyable set of activities because it provided diversity, organisation and an odd sense of comradeship that I have not encountered anywhere else.

While all of these activities were tremendous fun the fact is that the best part of this experience was the people.  I have met so many interesting new friends on JNCO course that I am still, and will continue to be, in touch with. There’s just something about meeting such a diverse group of people from all around the country, and doing so under such a well organised and controlled environment that I really enjoyed, as did everyone of us.

The SNCO course is the leadership course that is attended after the JNCO course (which I had attended last year) at Royal NZ Air Force Base Ohakea near Bulls. The courses aim was to provide selected NZCF Cadets the knowledge and skills to the standard of Senior NCO duties within an NZCF Unit.

Before I arrived at Ohakea I was really nervous and panicking, even though I had received past comments saying that it was much more relaxing than the Juniors NCO course.

I attended the SNCO Course with 30 other cadets from the three corps (Army cadets, Sea cadets and air cadets).

We headed over to the training centre where we were given an introduction about the course as well as introducing ourselves to the whole course.  After the introduction the course separated into 3 syndicates.  The syndicate I was a part of was named #1hunnet%forREALZ because we all gave 1hunnet% towards each activity we did, and it was very popular on the first day when somebody from my syndicate said it.

Anyway each cadet was given their own individual room, within a barracks and were expected to be self-managing experienced leaders – there was no wakeup call.  However some of us managed to wake up 30 minutes early or an hour before it was time to get up, to wake up everyone else because we didn’t want to be late for breakfast.  Each day we managed to take control of the syndicate whether it be marching or making sure everybody was organised.

The course was broken into 3 terminals, the first was Instructional Technique (“IT”) which is, in a basic sense, classroom lessons.  They’re not too exciting, but they are really informative and useful when it comes to developing plans and presenting or instructing.  Lessons were given by the staff before we were split into three syndicates in which we took our own turns at instructing.  We first started with knot tying as a precursor lesson, before we went onto the proper test which was based on bushcraft. Bushcraft was the second terminal that we had to complete in front of our syndicates again.

Before our final terminal we were visited by Wing Commander Sinclair, who is the highest ranked officer in Cadet Forces.  He talked to use about his history in Cadet Forces and other experiences he’s had while in the Cadet Forces.  People would say his talk really inspired all of us who attended SNCO to gain careers in the Defence Forces. The final terminal was SNCO Drill.  We were broken into each of our Corps and had to meet the standard of a SNCO on parade while taking there Corps specific drill e.g. I had to take all of the Air Training Corps Cadets.

After the final terminal we had to do one more thing which was the final parade which is the parade that concludes our course.  It occurred during the afternoon of Friday straight after our final terminal, congratulating everyone for passing.

We finished a bit early so we stayed in the classroom and watched movies while saying goodbye to everyone and scheduling our next reunion.

In conclusion the SNCO Course was one of the best experiences I have ever had in my whole life.  I’m glad I attended the course because everything was really awesome especially the popcorn LOL, and I definitely would encourage everyone else from my unit to go because it a really good experience and helps you a lot.

Most of the course staff seemed to think that it would take the students a while to break the ice and get to know each other, however most of the cadets on this Senior’s Course had also been on my Juniors, and those who weren’t had been on their Juniors Course with the others on this course, so most knew some friends right from the start of this course.

Unfortunately the weather in the middle of the week was pretty miserable but we weren’t bothered about that because one of the CPL’s from the Taupo unit had brought along a figure of Homer Simpson and we were all taking selfies with him for the selfie competition the course staff had setup on the Facebook page.

Towards the end of the week we had the Terminals (assessments).  There were three of them in three days.  It was nice to get them over and done with in just a few days rather than constantly having to do pre-tests to get the hang of what would be needed.

The highlight of the course for me was on the second to last day when we were paid a visit by Wing Commander Bruce Sinclair, the second highest ranking member of the Cadet Forces, just below the commandant.  He came and talked to us about the new structure of the NZCF, but he also talked to us about how he sometimes has to discipline NZCF Officers.  That really made me think of the responsibilities I will have to take on as a Senior NCO.

Overall I really enjoyed the course and I really hope I can get on an Under Officers course before I get too old.

I went out to the Cessna 152 and hopped into the seat, where I was taken through the controls and what each one does by my pilot/instructor Josh.

After that we taxied down the runway before we turned around and took off into the sky.  It was great!  We went up to and around Kapiti Island and I got to take over some of the controls while I tried to keep the plane level.  It was a rather windy day, so keeping the plane level wasn’t easy.

After we’d circled Kapiti Island we headed back to the airfield and landed.  Once we were back on the ground we went through a debrief of the flight and completed the flight details in my log book.  With “thank you” and “goodbyes” complete we headed home.

Basically I learnt how to fly an aeroplane – a good day overall!