Air Cadet Pilot Scheme
The Air Cadet Pilot Scheme with Tayside Aviation in Dundee.
The Air Cadet Pilot Scheme is a much sought after course available to Air Cadets accross the country. Those luck enough to be given a place on the scheme are awarded 12 hours of flying training culminating in a solo flight! The hours also count towards gaining a Private Pilots License. The course is provided by Tayside Aviation in Dundee. Flying out of Dundee airport, on the banks of the river Tay provides an ideal location to train prospective pilots.
In June this year CWO Scott Gralko was successfull enough to be awarded a place on the scheme and he loved every minute of it, see below for a report by CWO Gralko and view some of his pictures and videos.
When I received my letter comfirming I had been awarded a place I was very excited. I had given up hope after waiting for quite a while. I was to begin training on June 2nd meaning, hopefully, the weather would be nice. (although, it is Scotland remember...). Fortunatley the weather was great throughout, only one rainy day! I was on a course with three others, Graeme MacAlister from Bournmouth, Heeral Poria from Leicster and Sacha Leopold from 
London. So I was the only Scot!
My primary instructor was Marjan Beldowski, one of the senior instructors at Tayside Aviation, with over 10,000 hours of exerience, and it showed; he was a great instructor and a good laugh! Thanks "Jam-jar"! I also flew with an instructor called Barry, he was also very good.
The aircraft I learned to fly in was a Cessna C152, as shown on the right. At first I was a bit apprehensive as I had not flown in an aircraft of this type before, however, my initial nerves were soon shattered and in heinsight I am glad I got to fly in the C152 as it was different from the Tutor. The other aircraft flown on the school is a Grob 115D Heron, very simialr to the Tutor flown by AEF's.
The course itself is fairly intense, it involves lots of studying and practical flying. You very quickly begin to get into 'Pilot' mode and things begin to happen automatically without you even realising it. All your pre-flight, top of climb and approach checks are drilled into you from the very beginning. For the first few flights you learn about the climb attitude, cruise attitude and the approach attitude. Then we moved onto look at stalling, various signs of an approaching stall and how to deal with them to prevent a stall and going into a spin. I, as is tradition in my cadet career, was sick in my first flight. After completing stalling and spins I moved into training in the circuit. This would be the foundation of our solo flights, we learned how and when to turn, the maximum heights, the approach attitude and crucialy, how to land safely. In amongst all of that we were learning the raido procedures, carrying out vital checks and studying for the First Solo exam which I passed only getting one question wrong!
So Tuesday morning came, and I was flying first thing, this was it, the final solo check before being allowed to fly on my own. We flew 4 circuits, each time my instructor challenged my ability with different emergency situations including engine failures and the runway being blocked.
Finally
we landed, and began taxying back towards Tayside Aviation; at first I thought I hadn't done enough to warrant going solo, but I was soon proven wrong, Marjan stopped the aircraft, informed Air Traffic Control that I was about to go on my first solo and left me to it! Thinking back now it's all a blur but I enjoyed every minute of my first solo circuit. 
The next day I was again due to fly first thing, we went up, done a few last minute checks, the wind was quite strong and it took some getting used to, once I had mastered the conditions, I was again sent solo, this time for 40 minutes! I completed 4 circuits with touch and go's then landed after my fith one!
It was fantastic, I had a great time during my ACPS and would like to thank everyone at Tayside Aviation and the Airlie House Hotel!
For those younger cadets reading this, I would highly recommend you apply for the ACPS, it's well worth it!