Major News from Memphis area CAP

[ccrop]

The squadrons from Millington, Olive Branch and West Memphis have been granted unprecedented access to Memphis International Airport. They are getting a 5 day tour of the entire facility. The event started off at a meeting with the facility general manager. He stated that nobody....repeat NOBODY, has been granted this sort of access since 9/11. The cadets started off at the Tennessee Air National Guard. Here they got a tour of the maintenance operations and a detailed look at a C5. The highlight of this day happened when selected individuals got to land a C5 in the flight simulator. (I'm so jealous!). The next day they got a tour of the airport flight ops. This included ground control and a trip to the control tower. They will get a chance to work with TSA agents as they screen passengers and luggage prior to boarding. They will also work with ramp personnel, loading baggage onto the planes. Next comes a trip Federal Express where they will get to see how packages arrive on a truck and follow the parcels onto a plane. They will be at the FedEx ramp till 3am one morning loading planes! (not so jealous of that). The cadets will tour the Fed Ex maintenance facility as well. One more major highlight will be a chance to fly the FedEx 727 flight simulator!!!!! This is a huge privilege for these cadets!! I hope that word of this will get out and other CAP squadrons will get a similar chance.
ArBar please feel free to jump in and add anything I may have missed.
KUDOS to all who organized this event!!   :clap:

[JC004]

That sounds like a pretty neat aerospace careers activity. 

[RADIOMAN015]

That's outstanding :clap:   Was this due to one of your senior members being associated with the airport in an official capacity OR was it done with just a request
RM

[Reno]

I'm a member of AR-120 just across the bridge in Jonesboro. A couple years ago we got a fantastic tour of the FedEX facilities. Nothing like this was organized though. Let us know if it happens again in the near future. We'd love to join you!

[JC004]

I'm looking at this and the NCSA list.

I feel like there should be some kind of general aerospace career exploration NCSA like this.  Have a few across the country in strategically good locations, get the airlines involved (heck, maybe even get 'em to help out with the cadet transportation), line up different companies and organizations, and give cadets a more general taste of aerospace career opportunities rather than the specific stuff we have like engineering.  Maybe it'd be geared more towards younger cadets who'd go on to a more specific NCSA later.  I think it would be good to have more NCSAs that focus on younger cadets.

How awesome would it be to do one around DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia where we have a lot of great facilities - military and civilian - that could be involved.

[NIN]

I'm looking at this and the NCSA list.

I feel like there should be some kind of general aerospace career exploration NCSA like this.  Have a few across the country in strategically good locations, get the airlines involved (heck, maybe even get 'em to help out with the cadet transportation), line up different companies and organizations, and give cadets a more general taste of aerospace career opportunities rather than the specific stuff we have like engineering.  Maybe it'd be geared more towards younger cadets who'd go on to a more specific NCSA later.  I think it would be good to have more NCSAs that focus on younger cadets.

How awesome would it be to do one around DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia where we have a lot of great facilities - military and civilian - that could be involved.

That was the intent of the Airline Careers Exploration NCSA when Colonel Ed Phelka started it (he worked for Northwest, and subsequently Frontier, and he was at Frontier when he got that NCSA off the ground, so to speak).  IIRC, that NCSA hasn't run since Ed got laid off from Frontier.

[commando1]

One of my cadets attended this program and he loved it. (My father works for FedEx so the whole loading planes thing really doesn't interest me  )

EDIT: Sentence clarification.

[JC004]

That was the intent of the Airline Careers Exploration NCSA when Colonel Ed Phelka started it (he worked for Northwest, and subsequently Frontier, and he was at Frontier when he got that NCSA off the ground, so to speak).  IIRC, that NCSA hasn't run since Ed got laid off from Frontier.

That's why I went to look at the NCSA list.  I thought that I remembered there being one focused on airlines.  We could develop one that focuses on different areas of aerospace - a crash course so to speak in different types of opportunities - military and civilian.  Then perhaps funnel into specific NCSAs.

[jimmydeanno]

Last year in Japan, we had unprecedented access to Haneda Int'l.  Talked to the airport manager, who like our coin, so he showed us his coin collection from President Bush Jr., VP Biden, Secretary of State, and a few other dignitaries.  We got to check out Japan Airlines areas, go through their training facility for flight attendants, use some simulators, and look important. 

Airport operations at large airports are fascinating.  I'm always surprised when I think about where my bag goes in the amount of time it takes to walk across the terminal.

[ccrop]

That's outstanding :clap:   Was this due to one of your senior members being associated with the airport in an official capacity OR was it done with just a request
RM

Maj. Frank Warner from the West Memphis Sqdn. was the primary organizer of this event.
I was told yesterday that he would like for this to be a national event but seemed a little
unsure if that could be pulled off. I sure hope it can become national or at best stay a local
thing and incorporate the Jonesboro Sqdn.

[JC004]

Does anyone know where the requirements for something to become an NCSA can be found?  Surely there are some requirements because I've seen, for instance, a note on the Security Forces orientation that it was "not yet" approved as an NCSA. 

It would be GREAT if we could get some wings with great programs building them up into NCSAs.  I'd LOVE to see the aerospace careers orientation and I'd be very happy to put some of my resources and contacts into that.  Have maybe 3 of these at different areas in the country where there's a good concentration of aerospace-related places.

I'd LOVE to help put together something like this around Philadelphia, Baltimore, DC.  That's a great place to do it and I can get a number of my resources/contacts involved.  As some people know, I've tried getting some love for aerospace around here but it seems to be at the bottom of the latter in terms of innovation and focus.  It's sad, really.

[fcwmjw]

I am the person who arranged for this week of activities at the Memphis International Airport, FedEx, etc. The purpose was (and is) to give exposure to the many different career opportunities available in aviation for the cadets to consider. To avoid confusion with a similar named event (ACE) I named this Careers In Aviation (CIA).

The idea came from the Denver event arranged by Ed Phelka. After meeting with the System Chief Pilot for FedEx and the Vice-President for Maintenance at FedEx I determined to make this work. And it did. I just expanded it to take advantage of everything aviation related that is available in Memphis. The Vice-President for Operations at the Memphis Airport got involved and it happened!

So many people opened so many doors it was unbelievable. We did go places where no tours have ever gone. And places where no tours have happened since 9/11.

Presently I am compiling a detailed report on where we went, what we did, and what was learned. If any who read this were attending it would be appreciated if you could list the areas we visited. That will help me. I remember most but may miss some.

I do want to make this a National Cadet Summer Activity. And making it regional is a great idea. 

So let me hear from you.

My personal e-mail is: fcwmjw@msn.com

Frank C. Warner, Major CAP

[JC004]

Excellent.  Don't get to far.  We will also look forward to said report.   :clap: