Any CAP pilots?

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

On Nov 5, 9:54 am, "Gatt" wrote:
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.

CAP is a good organization. CAP has nice aircraft. Our squadron has a
new C-182T with glass cockpit. You can rent the plane yourself to gain
hours in glass for $80/hr dry, which works out to only about $110/hr.
The FBO next door is renting almost the same plane for $220/hr.
CAP is usually mostly looking for S&R pilots. In my opinion this is
usually best suited for the retired or single person. Calls can come
in all times of the day or night (most seem to come between midnight
and 4am for some reason ) and you should be ready to be at the
airport in about 45 minutes ready to launch. I find that most pilots
who join CAP find that these missions are difficult on work/family,
but for those that have more flexible schedules its very awesome!
Depending on the number of hours, etc you have now you should probably
expect to have about 10 hours in the plane before you are a qualified
S&R pilot. You first need to qualify to fly the plane and then go
through the training routines to become a mission pilot. I've seen
some become mission pilots in 2 months but most pilots do it over the
course of 6-12 months.

-Robert

"Robert M. Gary" wrote in message
oups.com...

I find that most pilots who join CAP find that these missions are
difficult on work/family,
but for those that have more flexible schedules its very awesome!
Depending on the number of hours, etc you have now you should probably
expect to have about 10 hours in the plane before you are a qualified
S&R pilot. You first need to qualify to fly the plane and then go
through the training routines to become a mission pilot.

Thanks for the information! I'm going to call them, say "this is what I can
offer" and if it's what they need, so be it. I'm five minutes from the
mouth of the Columbia Gorge which is a lost hiker haven.

I've seen some become mission pilots in 2 months but most pilots do it over
the
course of 6-12 months.

That fits my timeframe. (My wife is currently finishing up her second
degree and then she'll be making good money. I'm "retiring" from the
telecom/data industry because it's about to crash all over again. We have a
baby, but my father lives five minutes away and he's retired, so that works
out.)

-c

"Gatt" wrote

That fits my timeframe. (My wife is currently finishing up her second
degree and then she'll be making good money. I'm "retiring" from the
telecom/data industry because it's about to crash all over again. We have
a baby, but my father lives five minutes away and he's retired, so that
works out.)

Are you going to make your second career in the aviation industry?
--
Jim in NC

"Morgans" wrote in message
...

That fits my timeframe. (My wife is currently finishing up her second
degree and then she'll be making good money. I'm "retiring" from the
telecom/data industry because it's about to crash all over again. We
have a baby, but my father lives five minutes away and he's retired, so
that works out.)

Are you going to make your second career in the aviation industry?

With any luck, but it won't kill me if I don't. At least I won't have to
move to India if I want to keep my job.

I just took a 30% pay cut to keep my job after the third buyout, and, on top
of that, had to sign a contract that said I wouldn't publically badmouth the
company for six months after I leave it. Without saying what company I work
for, what I've done is hunt spammers, internet pedophiles etc. The company
that bought us out has decided that our worst offenders are
thousand-dollar-a-month customers, so stopping this sort of behavior is not
a priority. Two years ago I helped the FBI find spammers and put online at
least two child porn purveyors in prison. Now, the new company has decided
that the time is better served helping little old ladies remember their
e-mail passwords because that's what makes customers happy. What's more
important is how fast people answer phones; fighting internet abuse is a
spare-time sort of responsibility now. It's starting to smell a lot like
Worldcomm around here.

I worked in the telecom industry before the crash of 2001. (It wasn't 9/11,
it wasn't Bush, it wasn't Clinton, it was the culture of corporate
mismanagement and arrogance.) The old-timer data engineers and admins
around here are all seeing the same starry-eyed clueless arrogance starting
over again, so I'm bailing out as soon as my wife graduates. She has three
classes to go and is already getting job offers, so come summer I'm done
except for private contracting and freelance writing.

-c

Morgans wrote:

Are you going to make your second career in the aviation industry?

Many of us in the telecomm / data industry need to keep a plan ready.

On Nov 6, 4:10 am, B A R R Y wrote:
Morgans wrote:

Are you going to make your second career in the aviation industry?

Many of us in the telecomm / data industry need to keep a plan ready.

Still looking hard for C++ programmers in Telecom. I interviewed a guy
yesterday that was pretty good (used to work in the labs at HP
Openview) but we'll see if the team likes him or not. If not we may
have to open the rec up for sponsorship (which is very expensive)
since its very hard to find programmers that already have the right to
work in the U.S.

http://seeker.dice.com/jobsearch/ser...ms+Integrators


-Robert

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 for pilots right 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 certain pilots and 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 other pilots who 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


Ben
www.haaspowerair.com

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 for pilots right 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've sent several emails to local CAP wings describing my experience and
asking how I might fit into the organization. They were sent to
addresses listed in literature distributed at a local safety festival.

No response, not a-one!

The Coast Guard Aux. looks promising at first glance, so I'm headed in
that direction...

Come to Canada and try Civil Air Search and Rescue Association of
Canada, we are a military funded organization that assists the
military and the federal police searching for missing aircraft and
missing persons.