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Royal Canadian Air Cadets

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Royal Canadian Air Cadets Crest
Royal Canadian Air Cadets Crest

The Royal Canadian Air Cadets is a national youth organization of close to 24,500 young men and women from 12 through 19 years of age. There are 448 air cadet squadrons located across every province and territory in Canada. The Royal Canadian Air Cadets form one of the three parts of Cadets Canada, which also includes Royal Canadian Army Cadets and Royal Canadian Sea Cadets. This organization is made possible through a partnership between the Air Cadet League of Canada and the Canadian Forces. This is noted in Section 49 of the National Defence Act.

Contents

Origins and history

When the Air Cadet League of Canada was chartered on April 9, 1941, the original mandate of the Royal Canadian Air Cadets was to supply a pre-trained pool of airmen to aid Canada's efforts in World War II. The Air Cadet system now serves to teach citizenship and leadership to Canadian youth. It is a co-educational organization, supervised and facilitated at the local and regional level by specially trained members of the Canadian Forces that belong to the Cadet Instructors Cadre, as well as civilian instructors. Air cadets are not members of the Canadian Forces, and are under no obligation to join or serve.

Present aims and activity

The aims of the Royal Canadian Air Cadets are as follows:
  1. To develop, in youth, the attributes of good citizenship and leadership;
  2. To promote physical fitness and a healthy lifestyle and;
  3. To stimulate an interest in the air element of the Canadian Forces.
The motto of the RCAC is:
To Learn, To Serve, To Advance
Weekly cadet activity consists primarily of "parade nights", which are held during the regular school year (September through June) with occasional weekend training. During the summer, many cadets attend summer camps, where they train in a variety of subjects, but especially those relating to technology and/or aviation. In senior years, Air Cadets have the opportunity to earn glider and/or powered aircraft licences. Some summer training locations are at former Royal Canadian Air Force bases such as Gimli, Manitoba or Penhold, Alberta. Other summer training takes place at active military bases such as CFB Borden, CFB Trenton, CFB Cold Lake and CFB Greenwood.

Ranking structure

A new person joining the Air Cadet program holds the rank of "Cadet", abbreviated "AC". As a cadet is promoted, following training, experience and demonstration of aptitude, more and more responsibilities are given to them. A senior cadet often teaches more junior cadets while also learning from senior officers.

Often, more senior members are labelled non-commissioned members, as in the Canadian Forces. Minor responsibilities are given to cadets upon reaching the rank of Corporal, the first non-commissioned member rank, which is now automatic at some squadrons after one or two years of training, or still merit-based at others. Sergeant is the first of the senior ranks, and these members of the squadron are responsible for most day-to-day activities. Flight Sergeants work to administrate the Sergeants, while in some cases taking over from them and using them as aids. They are also in charge of disciplining the flights on the whole. The Warrant Officers mainly deal with administrative tasks that are in close conjunction with the Commanding Officer and his/her staff. A list of ranks is given below along with a description of the associated badge. There is also a chart describing the vacancies of ranks vs. squadron quotas.

Rank information 



Air Cadet rank
Insignia
More Information






Senior non-commissioned officers





Warrant Officer, 1st Class (WO1)
Coat of Arms of Canada
Warrant Officer 1st Class (WO1) (Royal Canadian Air Cadets)




Warrant Officer, 2nd Class (WO2)
Crown within laurel wreath
Warrant Officer 2nd Class (WO2) (Royal Canadian Air Cadets)




Flight Sergeant (FSgt)
Crown above three chevrons, point down
Flight Sergeant (F/Sgt) (Royal Canadian Air Cadets)




Sergeant (Sgt)
Three chevrons, point down
Sergeant (Sgt) (Royal Canadian Air Cadets)




Junior non-commissioned officers




Corporal (Cpl)
Two chevrons, point down
-




Junior members




Leading Air Cadet (LAC)
A propeller
-




Air Cadet (AC)
None
-





Quota vs. vacancies




# of Cadets
WO1
WO2
F/Sgt
Sgt
Cpl
LAC




29 or less
Note 1
Note 1
1
2-3
-
-




30 - 59
1
1
2-3
4-6
-
-




60 - 89
1
1-2
2-4
6-9
-
-




90 - 119
1
1-3
3-6
8-12
-
-




120 - 149
1
2-3
4-7
10-15
-
-




150 - 179
1
2-4
4-8
12-18
-
-




180 - 209
1
2-5
5-10
14-21
-
-




Note 1: Squadron with a quota of 29 and less are
authorized one WO2 or one
WO1.



Summer training centres (CSTCs)





Air Cadet summer courses

Over 10 000 Air Cadets take part in summer training. Some of the courses offered:





Summer courses qualification badges



-->AIC_cstc_badge.jpg BASIC_cstc_badge.jpg GLIDER_cstc_badge.jpg INTER_cstc_badge.jpg AERO_cstc_badge.jpg ITAC_cstc_badge.jpg ITI_cstc_badge.jpg LEAD_cstc_badge.jpg PHYS_cstc_badge.jpg RIFLE_cstc_badge.jpg INTROSURVIVE_cstc_badge.jpg SENIOR_cstc_badge.jpg SERVICEBAND_cstc_badge.jpg INSTRUCTSURVIVE_cstc_badge.jpg TECH_cstc_badge.jpg STAFF_cstc_badge.jpg



Air Cadet flying programs




Power wings and glider wings

Power wings and glider wings






Through Air Cadets, 22 000 junior air cadets get to participate in familiarization gliding each year during the spring and fall. In summer, 320 senior cadets earn their glider pilot license through the Air Cadet Gliding Scholarship. An average of 55 000 glider flights are done every year. In Canada, the majority of glider pilots licenses are earned by Royal Canadian Air Cadets. Cadets must be 16 to write the certifying Transport Canada exam.


Each year, 250 air cadets earn their private pilots licence through the Air Cadet’s flying scholarship program. Cadets ages 17 and 18 years who have proven themselves to be high achievers in the cadet program and who have a particular interest and aptitude in the field of aviation have the opportunity to learn how to fly.



Gliding familiarization flights




The Schweizer 2-33A glider

The Schweizer 2-33A glider






Gliding familiarization – better known as glider famil flights - occurs at over 50 locations across Canada. It takes place on weekends from March to June and from September to December. In addition to flying, junior air cadets become part of the glider ground crew. Cadets learn how to position the gliders for take-off and help retrieve them after they land. The cadets also learn signal operations, and help with the set-up and take-down of the airfield. All Air Cadets are given the chance to go up in a glider. 


Familiarization flights are a learning experience. Before getting in the glider, a member of the crew will give cadets a pre-flight briefing. They will explain how a preflight inspection is done and what all the instruments in the glider are for. During the flight, the pilot will show cadets how the controls of the aircraft work and what an aerodrome circuit is.



Funding and military partnership

The program does not actively recruit members for military service. While some youth involved in the Cadet program do go on to join the Canadian Forces, it is not in any way required or forced upon cadets.


Members and strong supporters of the cadet programme have maintained that cadets is not a recruiting program. However, the fact that over $150 million dollars of annual funding is parsed out through the Canadian Department of National Defence, and that a significant minority of cadets end up joining either the Primary Reserve or Regular Forces, shows that it is indeed intended as, if not a recruiting program, then a program to "create interest in the Canadian forces", (in context with the aims of the cadet programme) leading to recruitment.


While several people in Canada, who have in the past supported the downsizing and near removal of the Cadet Movement maintain the above view, members who have finished the system and have worked with it find it gives them incredably useful tools of resourcefullness, planning, and ingenuity. The Cadets program is regarded by some of these graduates as an excellent program that should receive greater funding and expansion from the DND. 


On the charge that it is a militaristic program similar to other organizations in the past, it is in fact one that promotes the nationalism of Canada by bringing together various Canadians of different languages, religions, regions and ethnicities. In fact, several military institutions and traditions which were taken away in the Trudeau years are sorely missed by former cadets who wish they were re-implimented, such as morning calisthenics, cross-country marches and larger inter-unit exercises with real equipment. Such activities were usually supervised by active CF reservists or regular force members.



See also











 Cadets Canada


 Air Air  |  

Army  |  
Sea






External links






 





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