A Royal Airforce Visit at Children 1st @ Acorns Upper Tean

We have been celebrating ‘Our Community and People Who Help Us’ over the last few weeks.

Riley’s Daddy, Ben, is an AS1 (Air Specialist Class 1) Maintenance Engineer in the Royal Air Force. Ben and Riley’s Mummy kindly came to visit us in nursery, bringing with them some of the hats and pieces of equipment that Ben uses for his work.

Ben told us all about his important job. He supports a wide range of aircraft, and he helps to maintain a range of equipment including rotary hydraulic arrestor gear and barriers, which are used to catch aircraft if failures occur.

Ben explained that he has various uniforms which he wears on different occasions. His Number 1 uniform is used when he is on parade, and the uniform that he had for his visit is used for day-to-day activities. He also has his ‘greens’ which he wears during operations and deployment. The children liked looking at the photographs of Ben in his different uniforms, one when he was on parade passing out.

The children enjoyed trying on the various types of headgear and the respirator. They also watched a video of the Hawks T1 planes that were filmed at RAF Leeming. Ben explained to us that these are used to train the pilots of the Red Arrows display team.

Ben recently helped to keep the crowds and other personnel safe at the Queen’s funeral.  Ben also spoke to us about Remembrance Day, telling us that he will be taking part in the remembrance parade on Remembrance Sunday.

We would like to thank Ben and his wife for taking time out of their day to come and visit us and we thank Ben for his service in keeping us safe.