What is Civil Air Patrol
March 28, 2010
Civil Air Patrol needs pilots and support personnel. As the official U.S. Air Force Auxiliary, CAP is assigned more than 90 percent of the Air Force’s inland search and rescue missions. It is credited with saving an average of 80 lives each year. CAP was founded one week before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Its volunteers flew more than 500,000 hours during World War II. Chartered by an act of Congress, CAP’s basic missions include Aerospace Education, Emergency Services and Cadet Programs.
How Big Is Civil Air Patrol?
Civil Air Patrol Operates The Largest Fleet of Single-Engine Aircraft in The U.S.
More than 150,000 citizens who were concerned about the defense of America’s coastline petitioned The U.S. government to organize a volunteer coastal patrol. Just one week before the December 1941 Japanese attack onPearl Harbor, Civil Air Patrol (CAP) was founded. Originally CAP was placed under the jurisdiction of the Army Air Forces,and during WWII CAP pilots flew more than one-half million hours, were credited with sinking two enemy submarines and rescued hundreds of crash survivors during wartime. On July 1, 1946, President Harry Truman established CAP as a federally chartered benevolent civilian corporation, and Congress passed Public Law 557 on May 26, 1948, making CAP the auxiliary of the new U.S. Air Force. CAP was charged with three primary missions: aerospace education, cadet programs and emergency services. Today CAP consists of 52 wings (all 50 states, D.C and Puerto Rico). The country is divided into eight geographic regions. -CAP includes approximately 1,600 units nationwide -Currently has over 53,000 members -Operates one of the largest fleets of single-engine piston aircraft in the world, with 550 currently in the fleet -Flies, through volunteer members, nearly 110,000 hours each year and it maintains a fleet of 1,000 emergency services vehicles for training and mission support.
When domestic aircraft fail to reach their destination… it’s CAP to the rescue.
During 2008 CAP members were credited with saving 91 lives
The Air Force Rescue Coordination Center assigns more than 90% of its inland search and rescue missions to CAP. This includes missing or overdue aircraft, emergency location transmitter signals and missing persons. CAP senior members and cadets are authorized to wear uniforms and insignias similar to those worn by U.S. Air Force personnel. Senior members provide their own uniforms, while cadet uniforms are supplied at no cost by CAP. CAP participates in disaster relief missions by supplying ground teams and aerial surveillance. Its involvement with Homeland Security has increased significantly and CAP aircraft are used for aerial surveillance during counter drug missions. Many of our citizens recall that day of the terrorist attacks as, “A day that will live in infamy.” On September 11, 2001, when the truth of what had happened became apparent, the FAA ordered all domestic aircraft currently airborne to land at the nearest airport. In a short time silence ruled the skies. But then the sound of a single engine, four-seat, red, white and blue Cessna broke the silence above the site where the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center once stood. This CAP aircraft provided the world with the first aerial photographs of the devastation below. CAP’s part in Homeland Security began during WWII when CAP aircrews not only sank and damaged a number of Nazi submarines, they towed targets through the skies providing aerial gunnery practice for the nation’s military pilots. Today CAP continues Homeland Security service to our nation by flying into No-Fly-Zones and Temporary Flight Restricted areas providing real-time moving targets for intercept missions by military aircraft. When a hurricane moves ashore, CAP ground teams move into stricken areas to assist in evacuation of survivors, fill sandbags, provide radio communications when the phone lines are down and whatever else needs to be done. When the clouds blow away, CAP aircraft are airborne taking aerial photos of the destruction and sending them via satellite to ground stations and local emergency management officials.CAP pilots are among the best trained …
CAP members maintain peak proficiency by regular training missions that simulate the worst possible scenarios. Pilots are required to undergo an annual flight review with CAP check pilots. Civilian pilots are required to do this every two years. CAP cadets are eligible to apply for the National Flight Academy, where they can qualify to fly CAP aircraft. Ground teams train during Search and Rescue Exercises (SAREXs). They learn map reading, radio direction finding and air to ground communications. Mentoring the cadets is an important function of CAP. Great things happen when these young people see a need and then fill it. For example, Cadet Kyle Zobel, a member of the Raleigh-Wake Composite Squadron, which is based at the Raleigh-Durham International Airport, wanted to see his high school sponsor a cadet squadron. The Southeast Raleigh Magnet High School had an active leadership program and was looking to expand it with more hands-on programs. Zobel collected facts and figures that chronicled CAP’s achievements and he took his proposal to school authorities. Ms. Bridget Bryant, coordinator of the leadership program, stepped up and assisted Zobel in his quest. Bryant’s dedication to the project was evident when she applied for CAP membership. The Bulldog CAP Squadron is the first to be sponsored by the North Carolina public school system. It was a distinct privilege for the author to attend the ceremony when NC Wing Commander, Col. Roy Douglass presented the squadron its charter .In a gymnasium packed with students, families and friends, The Southeast Raleigh Magnet High School Cadet Squadron became a reality, and as the word spreads throughout the school, membership continues to grow.
CAP Isn’t Just For Pilots
Ordinary people doing extraordinary things.
CAP isn’t all about flying airplanes. While many CAP members are aviation enthusiasts, a host of other specialties are needed. CAP maintains a nationwide network of Very High Frequency (VHF) repeaters and High Frequency (HF) long range communications system. Administrative, Personal Development, Finance, Safety, Legal, Medical, Chaplain Service, Drug Demand Reduction are just a few of the specialties available. Senior members may join at age 18. There is NO mandatory retirement age. CAP boasts many highly skilled pilots who are beyond the age for receiving Social Security benefits. The age for cadets is 12-18, but a cadet may elect to remain a member as a cadet until age 21. FBI criminal background checks are required for senior members. Seniors enter CAP with no rank but after completing the Level One and Cadet Protection Training they may be promoted to 2nd. Lieutenant. The top grade for seniors is Lt. Colonel. Members receive promotions, just as they do in the military, they earn them. Wing Commanders receive the rank of Colonel when serving in that position. The highest rank in CAP is Major General. This rank is reserved for the CAP National Commander. Maj. Gen. Amy Courter is currently serving in this position. Yes, that’s right–there is no Glass Ceiling for women in CAP. Cadets working through the training programs learn discipline, leadership and are immersed in aerospace education. Cadets attaining officer rank are eligible for many scholarship opportunities. Former CAP cadets are currently enrolled in the nation’s military academies. Nearly 10% of the freshman class at the U.S. Air Force Academy each year are CAP Cadets. The Commander of the most recent Space Shuttle Mission was Eric Boe, a former CAP Cadet. This great nation wouldn’t be so great if ordinary people stopped devoting their extra time to volunteer their talents to something worthwhile. The typical CAP squadron will have doctors, lawyers, office workers, computer specialists, truck drivers, factory workers, sales persons, fast food workers, you name it–we have it. We all joined at the senior level of membership, but…the sky is the limit! Civil Air Patrol is a collection of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Civil Air Patrol: Citizens Serving Communities … Above and Beyond,
More information is available from CAP Headquarters, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama:
===> CLICK HERE
For North Carolina residents, please CLICK HERE
Arizona Golf ? A Golfer?s Paradise
March 28, 2010
Arizona is truly a golfer’s dream. “I don’t think so,” you’re thinking. “I’ve heard about your summers.” Yes, they are hot. Really hot. But, as the late Paul Harvey used to say, “Let’s hear the rest of the story.”Arizona is a golfer’s dream for two major reasons: its weather and its magnificent golf courses.Arizona is noted for its desert climate, exceptionally hot summers, and mild winters, but the high country in the north features pine forests and mountain ranges with cooler weather than the lower deserts. In the summer, when the temperatures climb into triple digits on the desert, simply pack your clubs and go north. Flagstaff will welcome you with open tees. In the winter, head for Phoenix, Tucson or Yuma where lush greens and perfect days await you. The entire state boasts the lowest number of rainy days in the country generally assuring golf weather you can count on.. The average number of sunny days in its major cities?Phoenix 318Tucson 299Flagstaff 270Yuma 335Arizona also boasts of some of the greatest golf courses in the country. Some of the top courses are:Trilogy Golf Club at Vistancia – In Golf Digest’s most recent 2008-2009 edition of its Places to Play guide, Trilogy Golf Club at Vistancia was one of only 23 golf club’s nationwide – and the only golf course in the state of Arizona – to earn the publication’s coveted 5-Star designation. The 5-Star designation is determined by combining the opinions of official Golf Digest raters with the feedback provided by the general public on Golf Digest’s Web site. Golf Digest defines the 5-Star rating as “Superb. Golf at its absolute best. Pay any price to play at least once in your life.”Trilogy Golf Club at Vistancia in Peoria is not just another Arizona desert course you play once … this is an experience that will leave you wanting more. Crafted by Gary Panks, Trilogy stops just short of the split rail-surrounded tee boxes that mark such historic courses as St. Andrews, Royal Troon or Maidstone, and has the taste of a Shinnecock Hills. Rolling fairways, intimidating native grasses and beautiful bunkering highlight this gem.The Boulders in Carefree – The Boulders Club, a semi – private country club for club members and resort guests, features a 6,811-yard, par 72 championship golf course and a 6,726-yard, par 71 championship golf course, both designed by Jay Morrish. The Boulders is world renowned as one of the finest golf resorts in the western United States. The courses are considered the most demanding in the Southwest, and are known for their rugged beauty. The course offers 36 challenging holes, golf pro shop, fitness center, restaurant, and a residential home development.Camelback Golf Club – The Indian Bend course at Camelback is one of the few area courses where the golfer must negotiate tight, tree-lined fairways off the tee. This traditional layout is a great change of pace if you’re planning on several rounds of desert golf. The Indian Bend Course is an American links-style 18-hole, Par 72 course. The course features secluded sand bunkers, rolling terrain, water hazards and beautiful mountain views.The recently redesigned Padre course is a fun and challenging alternative to the many desert-style golf courses in the Scottsdale-Camelback area. This traditional parkland layout offers a large dose of risk-reward holes. The Padre course is one of the truly underrated of Scottsdale’s premier courses and a round of golf here is always a fun experience.The TPC Stadium course is a resort-style layout operated by the PGA Tour and offers you the opportunity to play where the professionals play. It is located on the grounds of the AAA Five Diamond Fairmont sScottsdale Princess Resort and opened for play in 1986. The “Stadium Course” has gained immeasurable attention as the stage for the FBR Open (formerly the Phoenix Open) — the largest spectator event on the PGA TOUR. Each year, more than 500,000 fans flock to the TPC for a fantastic tournament.The course is beautifully defined with bunkering, elevation changes, water features and desert landscaping. It embodies the standards of excellence set forth by famed design team of Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morrish. Built in the middle of the once barren Sonoran desert in 1986, this course is not dominated by its desert setting. There are plenty of carries over the desert from the tee box, but little desert on the course itself. The Stadium Course (see http://www.golf-in-arizona.com for more information) has much more of a parkland or links-style feel as opposed to true desert target golf. The short par-3 sixteenth hole (162 yards from the back) was considered the rowdiest on the tour, with more than 20,000 (mostly college) fans cheering on every shot to the green that is surrounded by five bunkers. Tiger Woods made the hole even more famous in 1997 when he aced it and the crowd roared from the moment he hit the shot until he pulled it out of the cup.Omni Tucson National Golf Course. As host course for the PGA Tour’s Chrysler Classic of Tucson and the Southern Arizona Open, the Omni Tucson National Golf Course takes center stage. Its traditional-style fairways cap a bluff overlooking the beauty of the Santa Catalina Mountains. The PGA pros rank the 18th hole as one of the most challenging finishing holes on the tour will have you swinging in no time.If you are looking for a native challenge in Tucson, try their new desert-style target course. This Tom Lehman designed course offers a combination of native desert vegetation with strategic fairway bunkering. Players can approach each hole in a variety of ways, keeping the course challenging and unique with each new round.There are many challenging and rewarding courses to play in Arizona and you can almost always depend on great weather that allows you to enjoy golfing somewhere in Arizona all year round.Arizona has a reputation as a golf Mecca, and it certainly doesn’t lack in the number, variety or quality of golf courses.
Kingman Training Eraser
March 28, 2010
Short vid showing my Eraser.
Commemorative Air Force Museum
March 28, 2010
The Arizona Wing is the home of Sentimental Journey, the most authentically restored B-17 Flying today. Warbirds from WWII through Vietnam are also on display. Memorabilia from WWII can also be viewed. Warbird flights available, or shop at our gift shop. Open daily, admission fee. Visit us today or to plan your event at our meeting facility.
Flight Instruction – The Online Aviation Dictionary
March 28, 2010
This article is one in a series of articles about flight instruction in the United States. Here we examine one of the tools used in most flight instruction curriculums, the online aviation dictionary. The beneficiary of such an indispensable tool is the student pilot. But also flight instructors, and even aerospace engineers can realize benefits from a highly effective online dictionary for aviation.The web developer or webmaster, who has been assigned the task of creating an online aviation dictionary, should also find the following information useful. Here we characterize those elements which produce a highly effective online aviation dictionary, and we provide a list of good online aviation dictionaries along with a discussion about those dictionaries. So what are the components of a highly effective aviation dictionary?First and foremost, an aviation dictionary should be comprehensive, but not so comprehensive that the student pilot, and flight instructor, must look through many aerospace terms in order to find those terms which are fundamental to flight training. But also, it should be comprehensive enough for the aerospace engineering student, so that at least basic aerospace engineering terms can be found. Therefore, the dictionary for aviation should have a balance between typical terms found in a flight instruction program, and typical terms used by the aerospace engineer student.Many believe that a dictionary for aviation should have a search component incorporated. This really depends on the degree of comprehensiveness of the aviation dictionary. While a search component may be useful to some, many visitors prefer to see terms laid out on a page the same way they are found in a book. So the decision as to whether the dictionary should have a search component really comes down to how many terms are in the aviation dictionary. A dictionary which has a very large number of terms probably should have a search component.It should also be noted that both a dictionary for aviation and an aerospace dictionary should have many common terms. For example, those terms used to describe the force of lift produced by a wing will be found in both of these dictionaries. But mathematical terms, laws of physics, and theorems used to describe lift may only be found in an aerospace dictionary, or more specifically an aerospace encyclopedia. Another words, a detailed mathematical explanation of the force of lift is not needed in an aviation dictionary.Also, a dictionary for aviation is not an aviation encyclopedia. An encyclopedia provides a much longer description. Aviation terms can be found in Wikipedia, and a long description is given for these terms. For example the term wing lift in Wikipedia consists of an entire page of information, from a discussion of Newton’s Laws to the Kutta–Joukowski theorem. On the other hand, a dictionary for aviation should describe wing lift in one or two sentences. So a good aviation dictionary should provide a description in one to a few sentences.A few other points should made in terms of creating a good online dictionary for aviation. A good online aviation dictionary should consist of images, at least for the most commonly used terms. Also, an aviation dictionary can be part of a large aviation site, or exist on it’s own as a site. And, if it does not have a search engine, it should be easily navigated so that terms can be found quickly.Finally, and most importantly, the pages which make up a dictionary for aviation should not be loaded with unnecessary objects and scripts which result in slowing down the loading of the page. There is nothing more annoying to the visitor of any online dictionary then the slow loading of pages. Therefore, aviation dictionary pages should be light and basic, in order to allow for the quick look up of aviation terms. Word has it that in 2010, Google will be incorporating speed of page loading into their search algorithm. So keeping the page loading speed fast, may in the future help with the all important Google ranking.Why is this information about the aviation dictionary important? For the builder of a dictionary for aviation, it is important to structure the site so that it incorporates the elements presented here. For the student who is within a flight instruction program, it is important to select an aviation dictionary which also incorporates these elements.The following is a list of popular aviation dictionaries found online:alphadictionary.com/aviastar.org/dictionary_eng.htmldictionary.babylon.com/science/aviationaviationdictionary.org/datwiki.net/naa.edupilotportalusa.atspace.com/aviation_dictionary_a.htmlIn terms of the aviation dictionaries listed above, we found datwiki.net to be very comprehensive, with a fast search engine. Also, babylon.com had a highly effective aviation dictionary which included a search engine, and language translation capability. AlphaDictionary.com was also highly effective because they incorporate a search of 1065 dictionaries at once when placing a term into their search component. After placement of a search term into their search engine, you get a list of dictionaries which carry the term. The draw back to this method is that it is more time consuming when looking for a definition. Aviastar.org provides a single page list of terms. Aviationdictionary.org was very comprehensive and had a fast search engine, and had more acronyms then the other online aviation dictionaries. Naa.edu had a good list type aviation dictionary without a search engine, and it appeared very comprehensive, although I think their site would appear more professional without the annoying music on their home page. Finally, pilotportalusa.atspace.com/aviation_dictionary_a.html was comprehensive, a list type, with many images.To conclude, the builder of an aviation dictionary should produce a high level of comprehensiveness, but not to comprehensive, allow for the incorporation of images on each page, make sure each page is easily navigated to all pages of the dictionary, and most importantly, make sure each page loads quickly even for those visitors who must use a slow connection to the Internet. An online aviation dictionary is an integral component of any flight instruction curriculum. Student pilots, flight instructors, aerospace engineers, or anyone who has an interest in aviation, all are beneficiaries of a useful aviation dictionary.
