Any CAP pilots?

On Nov 6, 6:41 am, " wrote:
On Nov 5, 10:54 am, "Gatt" wrote:

A coworker is a radio specialist for the local Civil Air Patrol unit, says
they're looking forpilotsright now.

I'm just curious what thoughts or experiences people have with regard to the
CAP.

-Chris

My experience with the Wyoming arm of the CAP was troubling at best. I
offered to go though the Form 5 jump through the hoops process. The
wing was and still is run by a bunch of ex military people who have
the system set up to make it next to impossible for anew guy to get to
fly "their" planes. After a year or so I threw in the towel and
emailed the nationa commander to view my thoughts. I warned him of
incompentence and the inbreed nature of the CAP here. I would not fly
with certainpilotsand named them. Just s few weeks later he flew the
CAP plane through the Snake River canyon where it was about 100 feet
wide and hit a cable 15 feet of the water. Killed him and destroyed
the plane. This year one of the otherpilotswho was known as
marginal at best was on a mission and spun it in, killing himself and
two other innocent humans. Also someone posted that you will be called
for a mission in the middile of the night. i was told a CAP plane
CANNOT fly bewteen sunset and sun up. as in , no night flying.
Probably just more BS that I was fed by the Wyoming CAP chapter. YMMV

Benwww.haaspowerair.com

On Nov 5, 10:54 am, "Gatt" wrote:

I'm just curious what thoughts or experiences people have with regard to the
CAP.

-Chris

Chris,
There is two CAP wings in my state. A power wing and a glider wing
(which works exclusivly with cadets). I am a member of both and I have
a nite and day difference in my experiences. Let me start by saying
that I am in the clique and I get to do as much flying as I want to,
so this isnt about sour grapes. The power wing has suffered from
incredibly poor leadership over the years. It is full of pilots who
just want to fly on the cheap and avoid any real work. The power
safety meetings always degrade into arguments over who has the biggest
twinkie. The safety record has been very poor (This is true nation
wide so whatch out !!).
The glider wing on the other hand has been one of the best experiences
I have had in aviation. The commanding officer and everyone else has
been great (Or we dont let them in ') ). The required safety meetings
are fun, and I love working with the cadets.
Much of your experience will depend on who is running the wing and who
they let in the door. Good luck!
KB

"F. Baum" wrote in message
ps.com...
On Nov 5, 10:54 am, "Gatt" wrote:

I'm just curious what thoughts or experiences people have with regard to
the
CAP.
..
Much of your experience will depend on who is running the wing and who
they let in the door. Good luck!

Thanks for the insights information (everybody.) I'm still waiting to
hear from the unit commander, who hasn't returned my e-mail, and information
from the CAP which will probably come in the mail any day.

-c

Originally Posted by Gatt

A coworker is a radio specialist for the local Civil Air Patrol unit, says
they're looking for pilots right now.

I'm just curious what thoughts or experiences people have with regard to the
CAP.

-Chris

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...