Harmelia Air Scouts upgrade their headgear

The picture above shows some of our Scouts wearing the new headgear as designed for our Scout Troop.

The idea / design is based on that worn by the South African Air Force.

Our Troop is now the smartest Air Scout Troop in the country.

What is the common factor is these pictures ?

Well, I am sure you have been able to work it out.

The pictures are of of various "helicopters".

The names of these helicopters are also the "Scouting" names chosen by the Adult Leaders of our Scout Troop.

Can you work out who is who ?

2014 Perseid meteor shower and "SuperMoon"

Picture above : The perigee moon, or supermoon, rising over Mount Eden in Auckland, New Zealand, on Sunday morning. Photograph: Simon Runting/REX

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From the "Guardian Newspaper"

A dramatic supermoon is set to accompany this year's Perseid meteor shower, one of the most anticipated events on the skywatcher's calendar.

Given a dark, clear sky in a normal year, it is common to see more than 100 of the meteors an hour during the second week in August. But this year the Perseids have a bright shining rival. On Sunday, two days before the meteor shower reaches its peak, the moon will become full.

Coincidentally, it will also have reached the point in its orbit that is closest to the Earth, known as perigee. The supermoon will be up to 14% bigger and 30% brighter than other full moons during the year.

On one level, this is bad news, according to Dr Bill Cooke from Nasa's meteoroid environment office. "Lunar glare wipes out the black, velvety backdrop required to see faint meteors, and sharply reduces counts."

But all is not lost. The debris stream left by comet Swift-Tuttle, which produces the Perseids, is wide, so the shooting stars could make an appearance well before the moon becomes full. Cooke added that the Perseids were also "rich in fireballs as bright as Jupiter or Venus" that would remain visible despite the moon's glare.

Source of detail above : http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/aug/10/supermoon-perseids-meteor-shower-star-perigee-comet

Location in the sky

Perseids meteor shower for Johannesburg (Night between 11 Aug and 12 Aug)
Time	Azimuth/ Direction	Altitude
Tue 04:00	14°	3.0°
Tue 05:00	6°	5.3°
Tue 06:00	358°	5.9°

Direction to see the Perseids in the sky:

• Azimuth is the direction, based on true north, a compass might show a slightly different value.
• Altitude is height in degrees over horizon.

http://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/meteor-shower/perseid.html

 

Young Scout given opportunity to fly a Piper

One of our junior Scouts and his brother went for a flip out to the Vaal dam area during the school holidays.

 

The pilot allowed him to fly the aircraft (a Piper) under supervision for about 30 minutes! Needless to say the Scout was super “chuffed”

 

The above photos taken on the day showing a pre-flight inspection check and the other whilst flying.

 

Well done to our Scout and thanks to the pilot for providing the opportunity.

 

Detail submitted by the grand-father of the Scout.  Thanks from Scouters : HGASG

Scout Scarf Day

Hathi was unable to wear his Scarf on "World Scout Scarf Day" however he did make a collage of all the scarves that he collected as a Scouter.

 

His collection included Scarves given to him by contingent leaders of Scouts from Kenya and Scouts from Mauritius as thanks for the local hospitality given to them whilst they were visiting South Africa to attend a South African Scout Jamboree.

 

He has called his collection "Memories" as each Scarf has an association to a Scouting event.

 

 

A Scouts Honour - working with the community

Detail received in an e-mail sent to our Scout Group

To whom it may concern, 

We would like to bring to your attention that we created a post on our blog about the work your Scout Group did at Oliver’s Village. Please check out http://olivershouse.co.za/scouts-honour/. We trust that the contents of the post are to your satisfaction. Also, we thank your organisation for your kind endeavours and hope we will see more of you.

Yours sincerely, 

David Sellar

 

An extract from Oliver's Village blog page

Oliver’s House was privileged to have the Harmelia Gardens Air Scout Group nominateOliver’s Village as the project at which many of their Cubs and Scouts carried out voluntary community service. Oliver’s Village is our flagship project. It is situated on the border of Daveyton and Benoni on eleven acres of property. Oliver’s Village is still under development and in its completed state will be home to a wide variety of social services – including a HIV AIDS clinic, pre-school, educational learning centre and a five acre self-sustaining food forest and vegetable farm.

These young Scouts were led by Greg who is currently in the process of earning the highest award a young Scout can achieve – the Springbok Award. In order to achieve this Greg has to perform 40 hours of community service and perform one exceptional task. Greg and his fellow Scouts spent two weekends at Oliver’s Village performing various farming tasks from re-composting soil to general farm clean-up. As his exceptional task Greg chose to clean our hydroponic tunnel – no easy task considering that we are in the process of redesigning it to produce stronger vegetable yields. Please visit the blog page above to see all the photos.

Well done to the Cubs and Scouts that assisted with the project, Hathi.

Senior Scout Adventure 2014

The Adventure programme provides unforgettable adventure and fun in the famous backpacking country of the Cederberg Wilderness Area along rugged, rocky trails. Programme features combine the best of advanced Scouting to provide you with fun and a real challenge - water activities, rock climbing, the ultimate challenge game, underwater diving, sailing, and many more! This is an unbeatable recipe for fast-moving enjoyment and action. If you are a senior Scout, 15 years or older, and you are looking for high adventure and an outdoor challenge in a famous mountain wilderness, then the SENIOR SCOUT ADVENTURE in December has been designed for you!

Come and experience the feeling of adventure and achievement backpacking and climbing in a vast unspoilt wilderness well known for its unique features like the Wolfberg Cracks, the Wolfberg Arch, and the Maltese Cross. Enjoy the soaring peaks like the Tafelberg, Groot Krakadouw and the Sneeuberg with their cliffs, pinnacles, ravines and valleys. When hiking along the high trails, thrill to the eye-stretching sweep of the peaks marching into the blue haze of distance. 

For more information visit http://www.scouting.org.za/adventure/

Save-a-Place entries for hiking participants to attend this adventure close at the end of this month on 31 July 2014.

Scout Patrols comprise a maximum of 9 Scouts between the age of 15 and 18 and one adult Mountain Ranger.

Your questions may be answered by looking at www.scouting.org.za/adventure/Downloads/InformationBooklet2014.pdf.