Civil Air Patrol

[mavsfan31]

I'm starting to look into becoming a cadet in the CAP.

Who all has done it? What exactly is involved with it? Would you recommend participating in it?

[aloft]

I was a cadet for 8 years, did all there is to do as a cadet, got the t-shirt. It's a great way to learn about aviation, explore opportunities in the field--both civil and military--and learn some leadership skills in the process. You can talk to current CAP cadets and learn a lot more about the program at www.cadetstuff.org -- they have a very active discussion forum like this one on there.

[coa787]

Originally Posted by mavsfan31

I'm starting to look into becoming a cadet in the CAP.

Who all has done it? What exactly is involved with it? Would you recommend participating in it?

Mavsfan31,

I am a current CAP cadet. Basically, you would look for a CAP squadron that is near you. Once you've found one, you can contact them and ask to attend one of their meetings. The meetings are usually held once a week and you can see what it's like. If you like it, you will have to attend three more meetings and then you will get sworn in as a CAP cadet.

Once you are a cadet, you start attending the weekly meetings and doing things at those meetings that will help you to get promoted to higher ranks. You also get many opportunities to do great things. For instance, this past summer, I got to ride on a C-130 Hercules with my squadron and another and got to ask the pilots questions and stuff and visited a real Air Force base.

If you want to step it up a notch, you can go and participate in real search and rescue missions as ground team, or as a pilot, or other things. Talk with your squadron to find out more.

CAP also looks great if you want to apply for a ROTC scholarship for college and it provides a great background to help you prepare for the Air Force.

However, you are not, in any way, obligated to join the military. You can join the Civil Air Patrol to just have fun and experience many things that a lot of people don't get to.

For more info and the ability to locate a squadron, visit the CAP website at http://www.cap.gov/

...Also, you can look at the site in the previous post for more info as well. As for participating, I would definitely recommend it!

Hope this helps.

[Hacker15e]

I was a CAP cadet in the late 80s/early 90s.

It was fun for a little while. Its biggest benefit for me was that I could be around other people who had similar interests as me (military and aviation). Reading some of the academics for making the different ranks was also interesting, since my public education didn't include anything like that.

It also allowed me to get a little flying time in a 172 at a really low rate.

I tired of it when I realized that Squadron I was in was just full of peple who were wanna-bes. It was embarassing.

Overall, I think CAP can be a great program if the Senior members keep it focused and the cadets know why they're there.

[aloft]

Hey Hacker, dunno if you're in the 492 or 494 FSs, but you know Fifi was a CAP cadet, right? General Matthews, too.

[CAP_Flyer]

I wasn't a cadet, but I am a senior in the program. I would definitely recommend looking into it and joining.

That being said, I would also highly recommend doing your homework beforehand in finding a squadron that fits YOU. Every squadron is different as far as how they run the program and the opportunities that are available to you. When I lived out in Idaho, I was racking up 5 or 6 hours a month in the right seat going out on missions and very heavily involved with the cadet program. When I moved to Illinois, it was a whole different ballgame, I think I've been up in the air once with my current squadron in the year and a half I've been here, and the cadets are more interested in becoming Army Rangers than they are in any sort of flying, which baffles me.

Also, like all things, you get out of it what you put into it. So again, just do your homework as far as finding a squadron that you feel comfortable in.

Also, if you end up joining the air force, CAP experience DOES let you go in at a higher enlisted rank at Basic.

Cheers!

Andy

[aloft]

Originally Posted by CAP_Flyer

Also, if you end up joining the air force, CAP experience DOES let you go in at a higher enlisted rank at Basic.

This isn't as big a benefit as one might imagine; simply enlisting for 6 years instead of four will garner the same advancement upon completion of BMT.

[Hacker15e]

Originally Posted by aloft

Hey Hacker, dunno if you're in the 492 or 494 FSs, but you know Fifi was a CAP cadet, right? General Matthews, too.

I flew with FiFi at Seymour, and she was pretty proud of the time she spent as a CAP cadet and a USAFA student. Used to go give her little motivational powerpoint briefing to the squadrons out in North Carolina all the time. She'd all ready left LakenPain for the Thunder-Clones before I arrived.

Matthews is long gone out of the front office.

[scramjet]

I was a cadet for five years. I had good and bad experiences. I think I would do again though if I had the chance to go back. But as someone else said, there are A LOT of military wannabes there. As an example of only one of the minor annoyances I encountered there, I still remember the Civil Air Patrol "captain" (senior member) who said I wasn't clapping my hands right and you have to do it the military style. There was a lot of little annoyances (and some pretty big ones) that made me kind of disgusted with the whole military discipline style and probably turned me off my dreams of being an Air Force Officer and Pilot more than anything else.

[Hacker15e]

Originally Posted by scramjet

There was a lot of little annoyances (and some pretty big ones) that made me kind of disgusted with the whole military discipline style and probably turned me off my dreams of being an Air Force Officer and Pilot more than anything else.

Well, sorry that happened. CAP is absolutely NOTHING like the real Air Force.

[Screaming_Emu]

Here is a quick overview of my interactions with the CAP while I was instructing:

1) 3 near misses as they flew opposite the traffic pattern unannounced while doing "bridge patrol"

2) Watching one land 2/3rds of the way down a 2,900ft runway in a 182, lock up the brakes, blow both tires and skid off into the grass. Then while they were sitting in our FBO I overheard the pilot say "we're stuck at W29...for whatever reason when we landed both tires went flat...I have no idea why"

3) Watching one of the "seniors" yell his head off at some poor teenagers so they could go guide a plane into its parking spot during our airports open house...even though it was parking nowhere near any people or other airplanes.

4) Watched a group of like 6 of them walk around the airport for two hours with an antenna trying to find an ELT that was going off

5) Talked to a group of them at an airshow and was told "we're all about safety, we hold ourselves to a very high standard and make sure we follow the rules". All I could do was laugh and walk away.

Could just be a bad squadron near where I was, but damn.

[jynxyjoe]

I was pretty disappointed by the attitudes of the guys who used to stop at my old local airport and the guys I flew in the same sky with at KAUG. Does CAP do some flight training or something. Also, they are made to fly in that uniform right? They can't possibly think they need a flight suit for a 172 (I'm sure).

[typhoonpilot]

Originally Posted by mavsfan31

I'm starting to look into becoming a cadet in the CAP.

Who all has done it? What exactly is involved with it? Would you recommend participating in it?

Highly recommend it. I was a CAP cadet for 8 years in California where they have an excellent program. If your interests are in aviation, and in particular a later move into a branch of military aviation then CAP can be very helpful.

People will make uninformed comments like Screaming Emu from time to time. CAP does have some dorks, but they can be side-stepped and ignored. The foundations of the program are solid and the benefits to you can be immense.

CAP can offer you are glimpse into the military that you would be unable to get anywhere else. CAP can help you in your goal of learning to fly and in advancing your career as a pilot. It can help you develop leadership and communication skills as well as creating lifelong friendships.

If you would like to gain admittance to a military academy CAP will help get you the recognition to beat the competition in getting a nomination. They also have 2 spots per year to the USAFA prep school. CAP will also give you the skills necessary to succeed at an academy.

If you want to pursue civil aviation then the relationships that you develop will help you to get jobs and recommendations for jobs.

As mentioned above, find a Squadron nearby and attend some of the weekly meetings. See if they are a good fit for your interests. Sometimes it is necessary to travel a little further to find a squadron that is a good fit.

Good luck,


Typhoonpilot
Spaatz #787

[scramjet]

Originally Posted by jynxyjoe

I was pretty disappointed by the attitudes of the guys who used to stop at my old local airport and the guys I flew in the same sky with at KAUG. Does CAP do some flight training or something. Also, they are made to fly in that uniform right? They can't possibly think they need a flight suit for a 172 (I'm sure).

They can wear the "corporate uniform" if they want, which is a blue collared dress shirt (in the civilian style) and dress slacks. When you're a cadet and attending say a Powered Flight Encampment, they make you wear the flight suit, which was fine by me because flightsuits just looked so damn cool!

[Mike Lewis]

Originally Posted by typhoonpilot

If you would like to gain admittance to a military academy CAP will help get you the recognition to beat the competition in getting a nomination. They also have 2 spots per year to the USAFA prep school. CAP will also give you the skills necessary to succeed at an academy.

I believe they also have some CAP scholarships in addition to those. I joined CAP my senior year of High School, and I already had an AFROTC scholarship, but my friend who also joined CAP with me was trying for the CAP scholarships to ERAU.

I learned some basic airmanship stuff, but the most useful to me was learning some of the basic drill commands and how to wear the uniform prior to attending ROTC. When I arrived at school for ROTC, I already knew the 54-drill command sequence.

ROTC and the CAP cadet programs are nothing like the actual active duty AF. I remember my first week of active duty when my friend says "Dude, no uniform inspections!"

I only wish I had an opportunity to do a bivouac with my squadron, but they weren't too active on actual mission stuff, but rather on academic information and drilling, and I was with them for less than a year before I went off to college.

In one way that CAP is different than the military is you can visit and observe and participate before signing up. If you are interested, attend a few meetings, see if it is something you'd like, and if so, go for it. That's what I did.

Good luck!

[Screaming_Emu]

Originally Posted by typhoonpilot

People will make uninformed comments like Screaming Emu from time to time.

So my observations are uninformed? Just saying what I saw but apparently because you dont agree I'm dumb!

[killbilly]

Originally Posted by Hacker15e

...
I tired of it when I realized that Squadron I was in was just full of peple who were wanna-bes. It was embarassing.

Overall, I think CAP can be a great program if the Senior members keep it focused and the cadets know why they're there.

Originally Posted by CAP_Flyer

...and the cadets are more interested in becoming Army Rangers than they are in any sort of flying, which baffles me.

Also, like all things, you get out of it what you put into it. So again, just do your homework as far as finding a squadron that you feel comfortable in.

Originally Posted by scramjet

There was a lot of little annoyances (and some pretty big ones) that made me kind of disgusted with the whole military discipline style and probably turned me off my dreams of being an Air Force Officer and Pilot more than anything else.

Bolded statements above I think are very important.

I was a CAP cadet for a while when I was 14 or so. I think the program had great potential, but I happened to land in a squadron full teenaged, often openly racist thug-Army-Ranger-Marine-Recon wannabes. It really bugged me, so I bailed.

This was just my particular experience - and I think it was somewhat of an anomaly. But what it DID do for me is make me realize that I did not particularly want to go the military route for flying, because I was not interested in the military lifestyle.

[Schinpop]

In any organization, you will have good guys and bad guys. CAP is not a collection of professional pilots, we are volunteers. Many of us fly several times a month, others fly several times per year. All of us end up representing CAP to the world - on the ground, in the air, and on the radio.

I would be surprised if all of EMU's experiences with CAP are negative. The negative ones just stand out. When you hear CAPFlightXXX in the pattern, you remember what that guy did. If you hear CessnaXXX in the pattern, you may remember what they did, but you won't tag 3-400 other aircraft as being guilty as well.

[Screaming_Emu]

Originally Posted by Schinpop

I would be surprised if all of EMU's experiences with CAP are negative.

I never witnessed anything spectacular, but yeah sometimes they were just like all the other planes in the patterns. But those other things happened in a short enough time span that I couldn't really classify them as isolated incidents. Again, could just be a bad squadron, but damn.

[Schinpop]

Originally Posted by Screaming_Emu

Here is a quick overview of my interactions with the CAP while I was instructing:

1) 3 near misses as they flew opposite the traffic pattern unannounced while doing "bridge patrol"

2) Watching one land 2/3rds of the way down a 2,900ft runway in a 182, lock up the brakes, blow both tires and skid off into the grass. Then while they were sitting in our FBO I overheard the pilot say "we're stuck at W29...for whatever reason when we landed both tires went flat...I have no idea why"

3) Watching one of the "seniors" yell his head off at some poor teenagers so they could go guide a plane into its parking spot during our airports open house...even though it was parking nowhere near any people or other airplanes.

4) Watched a group of like 6 of them walk around the airport for two hours with an antenna trying to find an ELT that was going off

5) Talked to a group of them at an airshow and was told "we're all about safety, we hold ourselves to a very high standard and make sure we follow the rules". All I could do was laugh and walk away.

Could just be a bad squadron near where I was, but damn.

As the safety officer of my squadron, and a proud member of CAP, I would provide an alternate point of view.

1) Unacceptable behaviour that should be reported to the FSDO. We're trained not to do this, and stan/eval should know about it so it can be addressed.
2) Incedents like this are investigated by CAP. The truth will come out and appropriate action will be taken. You just won't hear about it.
3) Not sure about this one since I don't know what was said, nor do I know the situation.
4) This sounds like training to find an ELT on an airport. Not sure why this bothered you unless you were born knowing how to use an ELPER.
5) Safety is the number one goal of CAP and is evident throughout the organization. We have tools that we use to reduce risk during each and every activity. Are these tools known by the casual observer? Probably not unless you're paying very close attention.

[Screaming_Emu]

Originally Posted by Schinpop

As the safety officer of my squadron, and a proud member of CAP, I would provide an alternate point of view.

1) Unacceptable behaviour that should be reported to the FSDO. We're trained not to do this, and stan/eval should know about it so it can be addressed.
2) Incedents like this are investigated by CAP. The truth will come out and appropriate action will be taken. You just won't hear about it.
3) Not sure about this one since I don't know what was said, nor do I know the situation.
4) This sounds like training to find an ELT on an airport. Not sure why this bothered you unless you were born knowing how to use an ELPER.
5) Safety is the number one goal of CAP and is evident throughout the organization. We have tools that we use to reduce risk during each and every activity. Are these tools known by the casual observer? Probably not unless you're paying very close attention.

Thanks for shedding some light on that. Again, was just sharing some of the things I've seen. I'm sure there are some great people in that organization and it is great for what other people have said.