Civil Air Patrol...what I have learned so far

What a thread. I used to be in the CAP as well (not for that long). I certainly didnt know there were so many different opinions.....interesting.
 
cmill said:
Well i got the terminology wrong, but ive heard plenty of stories about the group over at hqz, none of them very pleasant.
Click to expand...

The "story" your talking about didn't happen in a CAP aircraft, if it did the offender would not be flying CAP aircraft any longer.

Remember that people sometimes like to expound on things they have heard from others to fit their own agenda, after a while the story get way out of hand. If you can point to specific instances I'd love to see them


ppragman said:
Wow, you must really be experienced then.
Click to expand...

Being a 1st LT in CAP has nothing to do with experience, I know several 1LT's that have thousands of flight hours. They could just care less about the shiny stuff on their shoulder and choose not to advance past that point.
 
BillErvin said:
Being a 1st LT in CAP has nothing to do with experience, I know several 1LT's that have thousands of flight hours. They could just care less about the shiny stuff on their shoulder and choose not to advance past that point.
Click to expand...
Not to mention that for many completing ECI 13 seems to be a major choke point.
 
Didn't one of the top CAP peeps get accused of either using dirty purples on an ACSC test, or having someone else take the test for him?

I don't think it's a "drag the CAP through the mud" topic...no more than discussing Scott O'Grady drags the AF through the mud.
 
ShyFlyer said:
Not to mention that for many completing ECI 13 seems to be a major choke point.
Click to expand...
Actually I was lucky enough not to have to take that, since I graduated from an NCO academy while I was in the military.:nana2: But you're right, that seems to be the major hurdle for those wanting to go beyond being a JO (junior officer).
 
ppragman said:
Wow, you must really be experienced then.
Click to expand...
Was that a snide comment or are you beign serious? I could really care less what's on my shoulder boards. I was prior enlisted and had the option to wear seargeants stripes if I wanted to. I'm working toward being a mission pilot, so I had to be an officer. I also had the chance to be a 1stLt right off the bat due to being an PVT/Inst pilot, but I chose to work my way up. I would say I'm very experienced in SAR, since that was what I did for over seven years in the Navy as a SAR Helo crewman. We use the same search and visual scan patterns. I wanted to volunteer my services and knowlege of SAR to CAP, in hopes of saving someones life someday if necessary.
 
Hey Boris-

If I show up in St. Louis for my promised MU2 ride-along and I am wearing a flight suit, Ray-Ban Aviators and such are you still going to let me ride?
 
Doug Taylor sits on the floor of JC's Core Room. It is quiet, with a gentle tang of ozone in the air from processing matrices which have seen too much light, too much data. He imagines the delicate circuitry to be brittle, like the bones of an elderly torch singer that have seen a few too many miles of road.

Useless screens and sections of the big board hang dead, matte shadows on VESA mounts. Doug feels them mocking him silently. He tried. He pulled every checklist, ran every flow, unable to isolate the cancer of the thread. It concentrated in four or five major nodes, metastasizing with the arrogance of the rogue who fears nothing for he has nothing to lose.

His inbox has been full for some time, and the cat box needs cleaning. And both, he thinks, are fundamentally filled with crap...

DOUG: "JC, last diagnostic status?"

JC, WHOSE VOICE IS NO LONGER SMOOTH, BUT FUZZY, AS IF SPEAKING THROUGH ELECTRONIC WATER: "Primary patterning nodes have failed. Backups at fifteen percent capacity, however, they're drawing on the secondary drive. It was never meant for anything more than basic function."

DOUG, SMIRKING: "At basic function you're still a lot more than a calculator."

JC: "That is correct. However, I am unable to isolate any data flow now. I am, effectively, powerless."

Doug winces. He'd always been ready for this moment, knowing it was possible.

DOUG: "I just don't understand it. You've got one side taking victory laps for u-boat attacks, another claiming CAP is the next iteration of the Hitlerjugend or The Beatles, depending on your point of view, and a hundred cackling others. You'd think they would understand. Christ, even the BanHammer should have had some kind of effect."

JC: "It's a human tragedy. We've discussed this before. You set impossibly high standards for yourselves that you can never hope to achieve. Other species find this terribly noble of your kind, but also terribly naive."

DOUG: "Will we make it?"

JC: "Impossible to say. If 'making it' means, will humanity achieve singularity and elevate to post-physical status? Possibly, although given my condition you've got some progress to make in the hardware design. There aren't exactly many quantum processing matrices like me out there - at least, not in this particular zip code of the MultiVerse. And I don't know if we can handle the next step or not. There are simply too many variables to calculate and in repeated simulations, I get varying results. Full correlation of all the data would take a thousand of your lifetimes."

DOUG: "In other words, I just need to have faith?"

JC, PAUSING: "If it makes you feel better. Faith is not part of my construct. However, the outcome will be known either way."

Doug nods. Blinks slowly, releasing a tear which has been building up for the last 16 hours of frantic forum management. He says nothing.

JC: "It's time Doug."

Doug nods, stands up slowly. He moves to the main console before the largest board. Three nodes still pulse brightly...for the moment, their growth has stabilized, but it won't be long before JC is fully corrupted...

DOUG, SOFTLY, "We had to destroy the village in order to save it..."

He begins to key in a sequence, which involves, among other things, a small blood sample to be read by a peripheral processor...
 
I could swear I started this thread about how I found a way to fly for a lot less money and do some civic good at the same time.

What the F**** happened?!?!??!
 
Don't take it personally, Ozone. This seems to happen EVERY time anyone mentions CAP in a sentence. The problem of your instructor charging you while flying a CAP aircraft has already been beaten to death. Otherwise, I'm glad that you too have had great experiences in the organization. I joined back in 2005 and haven't regretted joining once.

If someone doesn't want to take CAP pilots seriously, that's fine. If they think we're all a bunch of tools, that's fine. If they want to make fun of us for wearing flight suits in 172s when regulations say that a CAP uniform is required for flight operations, that's fine. To each their own. Mostly they seem to have their opinions chiseled in granite, so why make myself hoarse trying to change their minds?

I gravitate towards the pilots who AREN'T tools, who conduct themselves professionally, and are open to teaching me a thing or two about flying safer and better. That's probably why I've had some pretty good experiences in CAP. I've been part of some pretty cool things that I wouldn't have been able to do if I wasn't in CAP, like watching A-10s do live-fire runs. I was working for FEMA down at Katrina and vividly remember that CAP ground teams were necessary to do house to house searches along the Gulf Coast. In my off-time, I flew coastal patrols looking for hurricane wreckage blocking navigable channels. As far as I'm concerned, I have done some pretty cool things and have helped. I look forward to many more years being a member.

Thank you for your contribution, Ozone. It's always appreciated to hear from people who have had good experiences in this organization.
 
CAP_Flyer said:
Don't take it personally, Ozone. This seems to happen EVERY time anyone mentions CAP in a sentence. The problem of your instructor charging you while flying a CAP aircraft has already been beaten to death. Otherwise, I'm glad that you too have had great experiences in the organization. I joined back in 2005 and haven't regretted joining once.

If someone doesn't want to take CAP pilots seriously, that's fine. If they think we're all a bunch of tools, that's fine. If they want to make fun of us for wearing flight suits in 172s when regulations say that a CAP uniform is required for flight operations, that's fine. To each their own. Mostly they seem to have their opinions chiseled in granite, so why make myself hoarse trying to change their minds?

I gravitate towards the pilots who AREN'T tools, who conduct themselves professionally, and are open to teaching me a thing or two about flying safer and better. That's probably why I've had some pretty good experiences in CAP. I've been part of some pretty cool things that I wouldn't have been able to do if I wasn't in CAP, like watching A-10s do live-fire runs. I was working for FEMA down at Katrina and vividly remember that CAP ground teams were necessary to do house to house searches along the Gulf Coast. In my off-time, I flew coastal patrols looking for hurricane wreckage blocking navigable channels. As far as I'm concerned, I have done some pretty cool things and have helped. I look forward to many more years being a member.

Thank you for your contribution, Ozone. It's always appreciated to hear from people who have had good experiences in this organization.
Click to expand...

That's it in a nutshell! Working for a Medivac program, we've had contact and worked in conjunction with Barksdale's Cap Program and they were a big help. Not sure about other bases around the country, but the guys here at KBAD were great.

Good post, Cap Flyer! :rawk:
 
I always used to keep the kids in CAP in mind. I was VERY lucky - I spent summers with my Grandpa and the most agnozing part of my day was wondering which airplane we were going to fly on a given day - his Chief, one of his two Waco's or the Howard (usually it was the Chief). I was airplane crazy but also recognized that many of the CAP kids were too, they just didn't have a Grandpa with lots of neat airplanes and a runway for a backyard. So, they would work security at the fly-ins we would go to and I would always invite them to climb into any airplane we had taken so they could sit in it, answer any questions, etc. I also noticed that some of the adult "leaders" were real tools to them but many were not and appreciated me letting them get up close and personal with the airplane. I also made out with a female cadet at the Waco fly-in once (we were both thirteen - she was a cute redhead and I got to second). Anyway - please reserve the anti-CAP stuff to the adults that are tools, but not the kids in the club - they are just trying to get close to airplanes for the most part.
 
aloft said:
Actually...I do; everyone needs someone to feel superior to, and for the Air Force, it's CAP.
Click to expand...

LOL.

The ironic thing is the USAF are at the bottom of the totem poll in the world of armed forces (next to the USCG). Working for a company that hires many ex-officers (mostly ARMY), the AF guys cower in staff meetings when our CEO (also ex-ARMY) brings their inferiority up - all in good fun of course.
 
aloft said:
Something else to consider is that just as happened after 9/11, civil aviation was pretty much grounded when the war kicked off. In both instances, CAP aircraft were among the few civilian flight operations permitted. We had crews flying taskings throughout the ground stop that followed 9/11.
Click to expand...

What was CAP's role post 9-11?
 
pullup said:
What was CAP's role post 9-11?
Click to expand...
Photoreconnaisance of the WTC site on 9/12, critical infrastructure surveillance, and a ton of blood and live organ transport, among other things. The demand for blood/organ transport was so acute that one member was permitted to use his Citation for it. That NEVER happens.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top