Civil Air Patrol

[JJ Sinclair]

Hi Gang, Me again.
Just got my copy of Eagle Call, which is the official publication of the
California Wing of the Civil Air Patrol. They participated in the search for
the downed ASW-20 out of Hemet Ryan wit 43 personnel, 4 corprate and 5 private
aircraft.

They flew 217 hours looking for a Cessna 172 that disappeared in the Mendocino
Mountaine (west of Crazy Creek and Williams, Ca) The aircraft hasn't been
found, but the CAP did all it could.

They found the wreckage of a Cessna 182 lost in Modoc Co. (east of Montague,
Ca) I believe the 2 occupants didn't make it, but the CAP found them.

But here's the kicker:
Just after midnight, members of the local CAP were assigned to ground search
for an ELT located in the Palomar Mountains, north of San Diego, Ca. Two
members of the local CAP reported for duty at 01:00 AM and departed with
direction finding equipment at 01:15 AM. They FOUND the cessna 152 at 04:15
AM. Both occupants survived OK.

These guys were STANDING TALL at MIDNIGHT. My hat's off to all the members of
the Civil Air Patrol. Glad we have dedicated troops that will answer the call,
whenever it comes. My ELT might not be as worthless as I thought.
Good on You, Civil Air Patrol
JJ Sinclair

[Skip Guimond]

Thanks for the kind words about CAP. Typically the CAP records about
100 "saves" per year. Of course, many of the "finds" do not result in
saves--but are very important to the families involved. Yes, as a
mission pilot who has conducted many searches I can assure you that
the ELT does make a big difference if it is functioning--especially in
the mountains.

As an active glider pilot I must also remind all that while the CAP is
best known for its search and rescue mission, a major part of CAP
activities revolve around youth activities. CAP has increased its
glider related activities in the past few years, and is now active in
most of the states. We give thousands of glider orientation rides
annually to young people who otherwise would probably never have the
opportunity to experience the joys of soaring. Working directly with
the SSA CAP hopes to increase the public aerospace education, and
hopefully increase the nimber of both power and glider pilots in the
US.

Please consider volunteering to assist CAP in these activities.

Skip Guimond

[Mark James Boyd]

In article >,
Todd Pattist > wrote:
(Skip Guimond) wrote:
>
>> I can assure you that
>>the ELT does make a big difference if it is functioning--especially in
>>the mountains.
>
>How closely can one localize an ELT signal?
>Todd Pattist - "WH" Ventus C

I was once doing a briefing with a US Army helicopter
squadron in Tenessee when this little old guy
with some weird handheld antenna walks in
and starts poking around. He didn't say anything,
and we watched him for a minute, and then
he stopped in front of a closet and asked
"can someone open this please." We opened it
and he pulled out an ELT that someone had
"dropped" into the closet.

I think the CAP ground crews can home in pretty good,
but the hard part is getting to the site of the
crash. Moral: crash near people.

[BTIZ]

check out the CAP Glider pictures at http://members.cox.net/btiz2

And yes.. the CAP L-23 is flying the wave off the Spring Mountain Range
south of Las Vegas

BT

"Skip Guimond" > wrote in message
om...
> Thanks for the kind words about CAP. Typically the CAP records about
> 100 "saves" per year. Of course, many of the "finds" do not result in
> saves--but are very important to the families involved. Yes, as a
> mission pilot who has conducted many searches I can assure you that
> the ELT does make a big difference if it is functioning--especially in
> the mountains.
>
> As an active glider pilot I must also remind all that while the CAP is
> best known for its search and rescue mission, a major part of CAP
> activities revolve around youth activities. CAP has increased its
> glider related activities in the past few years, and is now active in
> most of the states. We give thousands of glider orientation rides
> annually to young people who otherwise would probably never have the
> opportunity to experience the joys of soaring. Working directly with
> the SSA CAP hopes to increase the public aerospace education, and
> hopefully increase the nimber of both power and glider pilots in the
> US.
>
> Please consider volunteering to assist CAP in these activities.
>
> Skip Guimond

[Vaughn]

"Mark James Boyd" > wrote in message
news:3fbe65f2$1@darkstar...
>
> I was once doing a briefing with a US Army helicopter
> squadron in Tenessee when this little old guy
> with some weird handheld antenna walks in
> and starts poking around. He didn't say anything,
> and we watched him for a minute, and then
> he stopped in front of a closet and asked
> "can someone open this please." We opened it
> and he pulled out an ELT that someone had
> "dropped" into the closet.

Many years ago, I had access to one of those handheld gizmos before the
local CAP was able to purchase their own. Twice they asked me to go out
with them to find ELTs that were obviously not on an airfield and apparently
not associated with any airplane crash. One turned out to be a brand new
EPIRB in the showroom of a marine electronics place. The second one was
another EPIRB that had actually been involved in a marine "save" and the
owners had put new batteries it not knowing that the seawater-activated
switch needed to be replaced at the factory. Both had been activated for
several days before we arrived.

I was also involved in another "find" at PBI that was driving the FAA
to distraction. A strong signal would appear on the ground control channel
for hours at a time. It turned out to be on the Sheriff's patrol car that
prowled the grounds. It had an aircraft radio installed and it was
transmitting continuously whenever the ignition was on. The officer said he
was wondering why he hadn't heard anything on the radio for days. The
always-on red "transmit" light on the radio never aroused anybody's
curiosity.

Vaughn