Since early January an Ely air cadet has been absent every Monday night from his squadron as he has been attending his local scout group in order to complete the volunteering section of his Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.

Acting as a visiting instructor, Sergeant Luca Chadwick set himself the aim of helping all the scouts at the Mildenhall scout unit achieve their air researcher badge. Luca also produced a number of learning resources for the group to use in the future to pursue other aviation related badges.

Being away from his normal role leading the new recruit flight for Ely air cadets provided a set of new challenges for him as a leader, with some of the group being significantly younger than the junior cadets that he was used to teaching.

However, Sergeant Chadwick quickly got to know all his young charges and was then able to develop a rapport that made interacting with the young scouts far easier than he expected.

This wasn’t the first time though that Luca had been immersed in the scouting world as he is an ex Mildenhall scout himself and he was already familiar with the local scout leadership team.

The scout badge ‘air researcher’ encompasses a variety of aviation skills, including aircraft recognition (a personal favourite of Sergeant Chadwick’s) as well as teaching the youngsters the phonetic alphabet.

Teaching complex aeronautical principles to such a young group can be a challenge at times but the good sergeant rose to the challenge teaching the scouts in an interactive and fun way which proved very popular with his young audience.

Spokesman John Donoghue said: “From reports from the scout staff we believe that the Scouts at Mildenhall really benefited from the time and enthusiasm Luca devoted to their pursuit of aviation studies and we hope it has fired within them an interest in flying and other aerospace subjects.”

Ely air cadets are recruiting, if you are aged between 12 to 17 then all you have to do is come along with a parent or your guardian at 7:30pm on any Thursday night to The Air Cadet Centre, Heaton Drive CB7.

The minimum age to join the RAF air cadets is 12 years old but in year 8.