Survival Course with the Air Force Cadets

[Iceman77]

Hey all,

I have recently begun to design a Fieldcraft and Survival Course for the Australian Air force Cadets. The course is for teenagers 13 to 19 that already have some experience in navigation, fieldcraft and some (very) basic survival (Basically hiking/camping type skills). Problem being that 90% of the cadets come from the city and have only had occasional trips into the bush.

If all goes well I am planning on continuing and building this course into a state wide activity for all cadets to improve there knowledge in bushcraft and survival. I have run this type of activity before, but would really like to open it up to other people that have loads of experience in the area and try to get some fresh ideas.

So it would be extremely helpful If you have any ideas about:
-Types of activities that are fun and really work well
-Schedules for the weekend (when to do what)
-Things that got you interested in bushcraft and survival that I can use to get the nest generation interested in the outdoors.
-Any helpful comment.

 

[wilekayote]

How about you give them some survival training, minimal equipment then send them on a navigational exercise involving an overnight camp and tell them they are being hunted. Not only does it make it more exciting for them but it means you can keep an eye on them.

Obviously you'd have to set up some rules to ensure they can evade so well that they get lost!

 

[Fredcompanybushcraft]

U could give them a lot of kit, then when theyre asleep at night take the non-essential stuff away.
Or u could put them into teams and make it a race to a destination, with activities along the way

 

[rancid badger]

It might be an idea to introduce yourself
cheers
R.B.

 

[Iceman77]

It might be an idea to introduce yourself
cheers
R.B.

Your quite right R.B,

Hi guys, I 've been a long time reader but this is the first time that I have made a post. I live in Sydney Australia. I am still studying at uni but part time I have been involved in teaching Australian AIr Force cadets in Sydney for almost ten years now with a Squadron, which I guess would be the equivalent to a troop of Scouts (a unit). Take them each week for an hour of theory Fieldcraft and Survival, then twice a year we do a weekend long bush activity.

I have been getting more and more involved in what you guys call "bushcraft", an outdoor lifestyle that from what I have seen does not really exist in Australia. I have made a couple of knives in the last couple of months (pics soon) and am starting work on a Cedar/Canvas Canoe.

Only recently I have been asked to provide up to two week long activities for around thirty cadets.

 

[rancid badger]

Right then

Well, if you have to do the whole lot yourself, you're in fir a right old time

Are you expected to organise a full 2 week course or just something that might be repeated over the 2 weeks?

cheers
Steve ( A.C.F. Rtd. )

 

[wingstoo]

I think it is two one week courses rather than one two week one, still a fair bit of planning.

How many hours a day are you planning for?, most training sessions are 45 minutes each for the lecture/teaching aspect then the practical side can go on for several hours.

So two activities per day for the first three days, then repeat for the next three days to improve the skills. After that a whole day for a debrief session.

Or

three sessions per day for two days, then repeat, then a two day observed activity where they get to "Go it alone" with the leaders in the back ground.

Activities.

Well, what are the goals of Bush craft/survival?

Shelter from the elements, water sources and purification, food collection/identification, cooking and preparing food in the field, heating/cooling the body, navigation by various methods (Compass, Solar etc)

Hope that helps a bit

 

[Man of Tanith]

first of all i would make them carry thier own kit it was a trick i got caught with when i was a scout as it made me rethink what i was carrying and why i was carrying it.
the following is the basic weekend backwoods weekend camp i did in the late 90's for my backwoodsmans badge in scouts.
the basic scenario once we had got to the campsite was that we had survived a helicopter crash and had to survive for certain amount of time before rescue services(our parents) could get to us.
we had to navigate to the area we were camping in which made sure our navigation skills were adequate, then once there we had to establish a campsite ourselves using a combiination of what we had and what we could find(mainly tarpaulins,local vegetation and the obligatory orange suvival bag)
when we had done that we had to light a fire and make sure we had gathered enough wood to keep it going overnight.
the next day we walked from the campsite to a local farm where there was some food awaiting us in a cooler box which we then had to construct a method of carrying with us back to the campsite i think we made a stretcher and carried it between us all.
we were then shown how to prepare a chicken for cooking over an open fire which the leader did
we then did a night hike having been transported whilst blindfolded by assorted parents to an unknown place and given a sketch map and basic directions to get back to the campsite.

i am pretty sure there was more but its ten years ago and i cant remember it.
maybe you could pick a few bits out of that to help?
i know i will be doing something similar when i get the time to organise it for the scout troop
cheers
Sam

 

[sargey]

i'd suggest you check out a couple of fantastic resources in our download section here at bcuk.
http://www.bushcraftuk.com/index.php/File-Downloads/File-Downloads.html

the first being a candian cadet bushcraft handbook.

the other being the western australian police survival/expedition planning handbook

they're both really excellent publications.

cheers, and.

 

[Iceman77]

Are you expected to organise a full 2 week course or just something that might be repeated over the 2 weeks?
)

Sorry, I probably didn't make much sense. I can make it as long as I want with a maximum of two weeks. As this will be the first course I am planning a weekend long activity (Friday night to sunday afternoon). I do have helpers to run the course but not really to plan it.

 

[Sainty]

Hi Iceman. I've been on a couple of survival weekends with Smarty who used to be with 'Footsteps of Discovery'. And I'm actually off on one tonight with my daughter.

The basic format of their courses is to arrive on Friday night, pitch camp either in tents, hammocks, bashas or what have you. This ensures that you don't get a great night's sleep and you are suitably tired on Saturday morning where you get lessons on, amonst others, fire lighting, signalling, trapping, water collection and filtration, animal preparation and shelter building.

Saturday afternoon is spent putting the lessons learned into practice ready for a night out in your natural shelter. Basically, if you can't get a decent shelter built and a fire going by night fall, you are going to be wet, cold and hungry by the next morning. Not only that, but the ridicule you will face from the other teams who have managed to do better than you is not nice (here speaks the voice of experience).

Sunday morning, the teams congregate back at base for breakfast and then tour all of the shelters to 'score' or comment on how well they met the original brief.

I can say that this is a great weekend for kids of any age and I'm in my 40's!!!

Martin

 

[wncranger]

You might also try and get in touch with Les Hiddins, aka the Bush Tucker Man. He's a great fella and would help loads!

 

[sargey]

right, i've got a bit more time today. if you refernce my other post. the canandian cadet handbook has a load of info in it specifically for scouts/cadets in a strutured and graded manner. it's really well worth a look for a basis of a course.

i run a bushcraft course for scouts every year the basic format is...

so starting from the very basics.

how to camp:
have a demo campsite set up, hootchie or tarp or what ever they're issued with. a well designated fireplace. a food prep area, kit storage area & woodpile. camp tidyness and hygiene is of paramount importance. keep the gangways in and out of their camp clear. that way there's less likely to be tripping over guylines and impaling on pegs and broken branches going on. earlier on this year we had one scout go base over apex and land facedown on a rock, the ensuing shiner was only moderately impressive, but it could so easily have been worse.

the first base is usually a long chat about hygeine, and how to pooh in the woods. it's not about being anal, (no pun intended) on expedition you can't afford illness or to lose or step on irreplaceable kit.

we have rocks and sucks evaluations. they get points for the coolest camp, the untidy unhygienic camps get extra chores.

divide the little urchins up into pairs, absolutely no more than threes. you will always find a aprty central where the kids do more mucking about than working. send them off to get set up. chase round behind them, make sure they don't go camping too close together. make sure they stay off of game trails and away from mossie infested puddles and water courses.

once they're set up get 'em back in to start on individual skills. i use a long white rope to delineate the demo area. keep your kids spread out one man deep so they can all see the demo and you can see everything of what they're doing. that way you don't give the flirty ones a crowd to hide behind whilst they pick nits off of each other like grooming monkeys.

for the first part of the course these skills will include the most basic and mundane chores. how to light a fire, how to manage a fire, how to brew up, how to cook noodles. how to treat a simple cut, the most basic knife skills, how to prep a trout, small game, what ever you fancy really.

there are some photo's of an award winning campsite here

i normally issue them with all their dried foods for the course at the beginning. they always have the option of eating their little boxes of raisins as a midnight snack, as part of their roadkill stew, or sticking them in their morning porridge. it's all part of giving them resposibility for their own camp. meat and stuff we keep in a central cooler and issue it out as and when.

once you've got these city kids accustomed to sleeping outdoors and running a campsite you can start on more of the actual survival skills stuff. simples.

i don't think i've ever finished the leaders handbooks for our course, but i could send what i do have. assuming your mailbox will take the attachments.

cheers, and.