Skip to main content

The sky’s the limit

Time to take off to a local airfield, as we see flying machines in the fresh air and learn more about how they work.

Back to Activities

You’ll need

  • A4 paper
  • Pens or pencils
  • Sticky tack
  • Tables
  • Chairs
  • Map of the local area
  • Device to access the internet

Before you begin

  • Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Take a look at our guidance to help you carry out your risk assessment, including examples. 
  • Make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
  • Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help. 

Planning and setting up this activity

  • For anyone working towards their Air Activities Staged Activity Badge, this activity fulfils requirements for stage three and five. If no-one is working towards their badge, you could leave out any parts of the activity that aren’t required.

Plan your airfield visit

  1. Do some research into local airfields to get an idea of what there is to see and whether it’s worth visiting. For instance, you could find out if the airfield can make provision for your group to be taken on a short flight. If so, read our rules and guidance for air activities. 
  2. Select an airfield that’s suitable and then contact them. Talk with staff at the airfield about why you’re visiting, what you’d like to see and learn about, how to get there, what you should bring, and whether the site is accessible for everyone. Give them plenty of notice of your visit and agree on a date and time suitable for everyone involved.
  3. Arrange for consent from parents/carers for everyone to go and read our guidance about visiting airfields with your group.

Prepare some questions

  1. Explain to everyone that they’ll need to prepare some questions to ask and things to find out while they’re at the airfield. Here are some to get you started:
  • What is the reason for civilian airport security?
  • What are the main threats in airport security, and how are they dealt with?
  • What are the different types of air traffic control services used at airfields and airports?
  • How are air control services different at a small local airfield than at a large international airport?

 

  1. Split into small groups and have each group think about a topic. Those working towards their Air Activities Staged Activity Badge should include security, safety, and air traffic control in their thinking. Everyone could also think about how aircraft are stored, cleaned and maintained, how pilots and their credentials are checked, and how aircraft controls are monitored and tested. Groups should come up with two or three ideas for questions or facts to check for their topic and note these down.
  2. Groups should pass their topic and ideas to the next group along, then think about the new topic they’ve just received. Add any new ideas to the topic and pass it along again.
  3. Continue until all of the groups have seen all of the topics.
  4. With sticky tack, stick up the topics for everyone to see. Discuss whether any changes need to be made to any questions, or whether questions fit a different topic better. With an adult leader’s support, review everyone’s work and come up with a list of questions everyone is happy with. When reviewing questions make sure these questions are covered to meet each badge requirement. Also, remind everyone that the subject of security at an airport or airfield is sensitive. Consider what questions to ask, who will ask them and be prepared that some questions might not be answered.

Run your trip

  1. Meet at the agreed upon time at the agreed upon place. At the airfield, split into small groups. Each will need writing materials and everything specified on the kit list you made earlier.
  2. Each group should have a selection of questions to ask or things to find out during the trip. Encourage everyone to scribble down the information they pick up as you’re shown around the airfield.
  3. When your tour of the site has been completed, gather together somewhere appropriate for everyone to feed back what they’ve learned to the rest of the group.

Reflection

After the visit, possibly at the next session, take some time to share individual experiences from the airfield visit. Standing or sitting in two equal lines facing each other, set a timer for four minutes and answer a couple of the questions below, or come up with similar ones. When the four minutes are up, one of the lines moves one place to the right, so they're facing a new person and are ready for another four minutes to share their experiences. Repeat this several times, so everyone has the chance to share with different people.

Here are some questions to consider, but feel free to use your own:

  • What was your highlight from the visit?
  • How much did you learn from the visit?
  • What would you do differently if you visited another airfield?
  • What fun fact did you learn from the visit?

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

You must run your activities in line with the Safeguarding Code of Conduct for Adults (Yellow Card) and report any concerns to the UK HQ Safeguarding Team.

Adventure

This activity has specific rules and systems to make sure it’s managed safely. Take a look at adventure activities for more guidance. 

Online safety

Supervise young people when they’re online and give them advice about staying safe. Take a look at our online safety or bullying guidance. The NSPCC offers more advice and guidance, too. If you want to know more about specific social networks and games, Childnet has information and safety tips for apps. You can also report anything that’s worried you online to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command. As always, if you’ve got concerns about a young person’s welfare, including their online experiences, follow the Yellow Card to make a report.

  • Make sure that any site you visit is accessible for everyone in your group, and make the staff aware of any accessibility needs you have.
  • Groups can share ideas for questions about topics with each other freely, rather than owning them, if this is how your group prefers to investigate topics.

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.

Air Activities Stage 3
Air Activities Stage 5

Using the new knowledge acquired from the airfield visit, create a mini airfield in the meeting place to share with a younger group to give them an idea of what it was like.

Before arranging anything, discuss with the group what kind of airfield they’d like to visit, or if they know of any airfields nearby that you could contact.