The Civil Air Patrol is losing a lot of friends among General Aviation pilots. I was a CAP Cadet when I was 12 (years ago) but left to pursue other interests.

The original charter for the Civil Air Patrol was basically Search and Rescue and Education. But in recent years, the CAP has found they can "grow" their business by spying on unsuspecting (and innocent) citizens and fellow aviators. By doing "dirty work" for the DEA and Homeland Security, the CAP has been receiving millions and millions in additional taxpayer funding to purchase night vision scopes (the same as seen on Apache AH-64 helicopters) and other "goodies" for spying. I'm all for catching Osama Bin Hidin' and his thugs and for keeping meth-labs shut down, but Civil Air Patrol guys are not full-time law enforcement officers trained in espionage and surveillance. And there are too many occasions where young CAP pilots have violated the CAP safety & ethics code. I don't have the link, but Google "AVWEB Civil Air Patrol Addicted To Drugs" and you see that the CAP has basically prostituted itself to get more money for larger airplanes, vans, new offices, hundreds of more new Cessna aircraft. And this link (just add the "dot-com" at the end of the link, www.ConcernedPilotsOfAmerica.com ) will show more aviation folks are disgusted at the Civil Air Patrol.

I for one, believe throwing $50 million a year at the Civil Air Patrol isn't prudent stewardship of taxpayer funds. Leave espionage, law enforcement and spying up to the existing agencies and let the CAP concentrate on their original mission... Just my 2 cents worth...