746 Lightning Hawk Air Cadets

Thursday nights at Langley Regional Airport, the light is on in Hangar 5. Inside, around 140 teenagers are learning to march, fly, shoot, play in a band, survive a night in the woods and stand up in front of a room and speak. That’s 746 Lightning Hawk, Langley’s Royal Canadian Air Cadet squadron.

What cadets do here

Every cadet gets to fly. The squadron goes gliding two to four times a year and up in powered aircraft two to five times a year, and the strongest senior cadets can earn scholarships for a glider or private pilot licence through the Air Cadet League. Ground school runs alongside.

The rest of the week-to-week program is broad: a marching band, a drill team, survival training, a photography club, effective speaking, and a marksmanship team. Cadets can also earn high school credit. BC recognises cadet training for up to four credits each in Grades 10, 11 and 12.

The squadron is run by about eight officers of the Cadet Instructors Cadre, part of the Canadian Forces reserve, with a parents’ Sponsoring Committee behind them. Cadets are not members of the military, and nobody expects them to join.

A squadron that moved a lot

746 was formed on January 9, 1964, as 746 Cloverdale Squadron, sponsored by the Royal Canadian Legion branch in Cloverdale. For a while it was 746 Optimist Squadron, sponsored by the Optimist Club in North Delta, before going back to the Cloverdale name in 1980.

Then came the bad night. On September 4, 1995, the Panorama Ridge Community Centre in Surrey, the squadron’s home at the time, burned down in a suspected arson, and the squadron lost about $40,000 in supplies and equipment. It moved to Shannon Hall in Cloverdale, then to the Canadian Forces detachment in Aldergrove, until that site was taken over for security during the 2010 Olympics. After stints at the Canadian Museum of Flight and an office building, it settled at Langley Regional Airport. Somewhere along the way, having left Cloverdale behind, it became 746 Lightning Hawk.

The squadron says its former cadets have gone on to fly with the Snowbirds and the airlines, advise politicians and run companies. It counts the Township, the City, the airport, the Canadian Museum of Flight and the Langley and Cloverdale Legions among its friends. The museum, at the same airport, describes the squadron’s motto as “To Learn, To Serve, To Advance.”

Remembrance

The Battle of Britain parade and Remembrance Day in November are mandatory for 746 cadets. This year the squadron is helping Royal Canadian Legion Branch 265 with its poppy campaign on October 31 and November 1, outside Save-On-Foods in Walnut Grove and IGA in Murrayville. On November 11 you’ll find them at a cenotaph; see our Remembrance Day page.

How to get in

Demand outstrips space, so 746 uses a lottery rather than a waitlist. You put the cadet’s name on the lottery list, the draw happens in July, and names don’t carry over to the next year. This year’s intake is full, and the lottery list reopens in January. You’ll need the cadet’s BC Services Card (or Care Card) and proof of citizenship or permanent residence.

If you’d rather not wait, the Cadets in Langley page lists Sea, Army and Navy League units in Aldergrove and air squadrons a short drive away.

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