RAF Cadet BA Experience
RAF Cadet Year 11’s Henry, recently travelled to visit British Airways at Heathrow for an immersive day in the life of a pilot and cabin crew. Chosen from three thousand applications, as one of only eight others invited, our report from Year 11’s Henry holds details about the day as well as his offer for work experience with British Airways.
Year 11’s Henry
On Saturday 27 January, British Airways invited me and seven other cadets to Heathrow Airport for an immersive day in the life of a pilot and cabin crew. I’d seen their career stand at the RAF Aerospace camp, was asked a few questions and told to put my name down on a list to be considered for this experience. Out of three thousand cadets that applied, only three hundred got in and out of that the best eight were picked and were invited for a day at Heathrow.
The morning started with a quick brief and meeting the captains we would have for the day. We then went into the simulator building and were assigned groups. First activity of the day for my group was a presentation on careers and a website called Speedbird Z which is the British Airways website that teaches you about the careers and other aspects of flying; flying the full sized motion simulators following shortly after.
We were then given a private tour of the newest A350 of their fleet, and the afternoon was filled with air steward training including, evacuation from a mock-up cabin, sliding down the evacuation slide and firefighting training.
The absolute best part of the day was the tour around the A350 with it being so very interesting to see how the aircraft works and what it looks like when it is parked with nobody on.
I also had some great news from BA; just over a week later I they contacted me to say I had been offered work experience with them; and of course I gladly accepted!
My whole mindset is to become a pilot as it is something I have wanted to do for a long time. I would definitely recommend becoming an Air Cadet and trying to apply for the camp as even if you don’t get invited to an external event it’s still worth it. It’s the best camp I have been on!
