Cadets from 198 (Hinckley) Squadron saw their latest project come to fruition when the control line aircraft they built flew for the very first time.

Over the past 12 months Cdt Cpl’s Pickering and Whitmore together with Cdt’s Draper and Timson have spent literally hours of work during cadet nights constructing their very own model control line aircraft based on the Hawker Typhoon, which was flown by 198 Squadron RAF in World War 2.

The model was made out of balsa wood and fabric covering and was constructed over the winter of 2009, it had a small fuelled engine.

Before the cadets where allowed to fly the model they had made, they where given elementary control line flying lessons on a model loaned by the instructors Mike Perkins and Norman Hall who had overseen the project. Once the staff had taught the cadets how to fly an aircraft on the line and felt they where competent and ready, a night was organised for the cadets to fly their creation.

The first flight of the cadets model was completed successfully on the 16th June and the smiles on the cadets faces when they got back to the Squadron said that they had had a successful sortie, many more flights have taken place since each cadet member of the team flew the model successfully and I am happy to report that it is still in one piece.