page_title: Air Training Corps
section_title: Annual camps
hierarchical_section_title: Air Training Corps / Activities / Annual camps
caption_attribution_description: English: Air Cadets stall at the 2009 Southport Air Show, Merseyside, England.
context_page_description: The Air Training Corps is a British volunteer-military youth organisation. They are sponsored by the Ministry of Defence and the Royal Air Force. The majority of staff are volunteers, and some are paid for full-time work – including Commandant Air Cadets, a Full Term Reserve Service RAF officer, at the rank of Air Commodore. Although many ATC cadets go on to join the RAF or other services, the ATC is not a recruiting organisation for its parent service.
  Activities include sport, adventurous training, ceremonial drill, rifle shooting, fieldcraft, powered aircraft and glider flying, and other outdoor activities, as well as classification training leading up to a BTEC in Aviation Studies. Week-long trips to RAF stations, or camps offering adventure training or music, allow the opportunity for cadets to gain a taste of military life and often to gain some flying experience in RAF gliders and RAF training aircraft such as the Grob Tutor.
  Cadet membership can begin from the start of School Year 8, or equivalent in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
context_section_description: The ATC runs numerous annual camps each year, run on RAF stations so that cadets may get a taste of service life. Annual camps are organised at wing level with place for all squadrons, so that every cadet who wishes to and who has achieved at least the First Class qualification may take part. Cadets usually stay in RAF barrack blocks and eat in the station's mess facilities. The itinerary is always packed with typical ATC activities such as air experience flying, shooting, adventure training and, of course, drill. Cadets also have the opportunity to visit various sections of the station and meet the people who work there.
  Cadets may also have the opportunity to attend other sorts of annual camp, such as a locally (i.e. wing- or squadron-) organised camp based around adventure training or fieldcraft, or as guests on a camp run by one of the other cadet forces such as the Army Cadet Force or the Sea Cadet Corps. There are also Music camps for band members.
  
  The largest camp of all is the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) camp held annually in July at RAF Fairford. Each year more than 1,500 cadets and their staff spend between 1 and 3 weeks doing essential work in the preparation and the taking-down of the infrastructure of RIAT. On display days cadets have jobs to do and after the show weekend they are able to meet the crews and see the aeroplanes at close range.
caption: Air Cadets stall at the 2009 Southport Air Show, Merseyside, England
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