What's your favorite to do in CAP????
Cadet Programs.
Cash my paycheck....
Aerial photography
Making a positive difference in a persons life.
I like all of those and i like the O-Flights in a cessna 182t glass cockpit. I am a plane freak.:p
Giving back, making a change, providing direction.
Can't pick "one".
But the rest of the stuff, the things we get to do. Tag along, see, etc.
That's nothing compared to just being thanked, and knowing you're doing something good.
I have been a cadet for four years and it has been a blast!!!!
Watching a small, quiet cadet finding their confidence and facing the formation for their first command.
That moment during a CharDev discussion when the cadets are debating their positions to one another without any prompting or coaching by me.
Any time I get to put on my Service Dress.
The rush when I get a call about a UDF mission.
The feeling in my stomach as we climb the first 20 ft on take-off.
The look of pride a new member has the first time they wear their uniform to a meeting.
Anytime I wear my flight suit.
Listening to one of my best friends describe what CAP means to him. He was a cadet and is now a Major in both CAP & USAF. If you don't feel like standing and saluting after that, you should check your pulse.
Whenever I wear my BDUs.
Reading this from the CSAF:" And to all these great airmen, thanks for your selfless service during this very, very difficult period. They really do make all of us proud."
At Wing Conference hearing from our Guest Speakers, two lost hikers who had been out for days that we found.
The moment in a trainee's eyes when they "get it" during an FTX.
That moment when I finally "get it" during an FTX.
On Facebook, seeing the 601st Air and Space Operations Center (America's AOC) posting a cover photo with the headline "Saluting Civil Air Patrol".
Night ELT in winter, in Class B and the SFRA, during airline "rush hour" in the airspace between BWI & DCA. Super competent MO in the right seat, working a Ltronics DF and giving me steering commands, because I sure didn't have a free eyeball to look at it. . .two VHF radios were just barely enough. Approach and tower controllers watching out for us, squeezing in calls and seeing the long, long string of airliners coming up the Chesapeake Bay in the dark. . .
Got it DF 'ed, and used the little courtesy light under the C172 wing to mark the spot for the ground team; ready to call it a night when the MO said the IC had a call about a second ELT, well west of BWI. I asked, and Potomac Approach cleared us through, and just before we exited, an Air Canada heard what we were doing and wished us "Good Hunting". We found that ELT at DMW. Refueled in the cold and dark, and when we popped back up, outside the SFRA, Potomac gave us direct to home base and a Bravo Zulu.
We had SUPERB maintenance then, by an A&P who ran Fort Meade's flying club and was a LtCol in CAP, prior to the current system. Which is why we were willing to fly single engine, night, VFR (mostly) at 1,000 AGL for 4+ hours.
I was tired, cold, hungry, and I got the leans once from yanking and banking in the pitch dark. And it was immensley satisfying.
Going to a SAREX, NESA, etc and getting to see a light bulb turn on for a member who finally understands something we're teaching them.
(Case in point: watching a cadet on my AGSAR team at NESA this year throw a gridder on a map and give me accurate coordinates in 10 seconds instead of 10 minutes, after struggling with maps just hours before.)
Quote from: stillamarine on August 29, 2013, 04:34:03 PM
Cash my paycheck....
We don't get paychecks. We are volunteer.
Wait.
What?
Quote from: Androbic on August 31, 2013, 02:43:22 AM
Quote from: stillamarine on August 29, 2013, 04:34:03 PM
Cash my paycheck....
We don't get paychecks. We are volunteer.
I suppose it matters how you define paycheck, the thanks of a cadet, or their parent; the knowledge you have made a positive impact; the pride that comes with service in the community. I think I get paid pretty well
OK, now I'm confused. Do we get paid or not?
Check's in the mail.
Schoolhouse Rock Money Rock The Check is in the Mail avi (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiTC4S5FsCg#)
Griping...... ;D
Seriously, though, I rejoined this organization to teach Ground Search and Rescue to Cadets, because a good man did so for me once upon a time. I put up with the rest of the manure so that I have an opportunity to do that. If circumstances change and I don't have that opportunity any longer, whelp, that'll likely be the death knell of my CAP career.
Those rare fleeting moments when you are surrounded by good friends; everyone's improvising,adapting, and overcoming; and you are solving problems right, left, and center. It could be raining or snowing. You could have nothing to work with. You are tired, wet, and hungry. The odds would seem to be impossible. And you would not be anywhere else on earth. That is CAMARADERIE. It's that rare flash of that feeling every now and then that keeps me sending the check in every year.
For the first 10-12 years, I would say the Cadet Programs. I feel it made a difference in my life and I've always enjoyed making a difference in the lives of other young men and women.
In recent years, I've developed a passion for Emergency Services. I enjoy every aspect of it. My only regret, if any, is that I would like CAP's participation in ES to be more significant. And I don't mean just training, but actual emergency response.
I've also enjoyed the friendships, past and present.
Quote from: Storm Chaser on September 01, 2013, 03:24:32 PM
For the first 10-12 years, I would say the Cadet Programs. I feel it made a difference in my life and I've always enjoyed making a difference in the lives of other young men and women.
In recent years, I've developed a passion for Emergency Services. I enjoy every aspect of it. My only regret, if any, is that I would like CAP's participation in ES to be more significant. And I don't mean just training, but actual emergency response.
I've also enjoyed the friendships, past and present.
Ya I like ES to. But I love comm and planes