CAP Talk

Personally, I am of the opinion that member-owned aircraft should only be used for cadet orientation rides and transport missions if they are to be used at all and frankly, I'm a little leery of using them even then.  The one thing I am generally confident of is that CAP aircraft are maintained well (yes, there are exceptions), but if member-owned aircraft meet our standards (100 hour, annual inspections, etc.) I wouldn't mind using them for those limited purposes.

However, I don't see using member-owned aircraft on actual missions at all unless the pilot has personally bought and installed a CAP radio.  If they have that and no other CAP aircraft is available for whatever reason, we should use them. 

But, as a general rule we should use the airplanes the AF bought for us unless there is a good reason not too. 

WIWAC, we used member owned a/c almost exclusively. The only CAP a/c we could get was assigned to a region staffer who happend to live in the area. If they were not available, which was not an uncommon occurance, we had no CAP a/c available. The first time I saw more than one CAP a/c at a time was at the ILWG Encampment at Volk Field, WI. Even exercises were done using member owned a/c.

Now that there is a CAP air fleet that is available for regular use, member owned a/c should be discouraged as much as is possible and practical.

I would allow them for flight training of senior members, or other proficiency tasks.  They could be used for missions only if they are equipped to the standard of CAP aircraft as well as meeting CAP maintenance standards.

Must be nice to have a CAP aircraft locally.  The closest one to us is a 1.5+ hour drive away.

Since the wing commander wants to put hours on the corporate birds, usage of member owned aircraft is not allowed and our cadets get "official" O rides once or twice a year.

Unofficial O rides - using the same syllabus - in my 172, is between the parents and I.  This gets the cadets the AE advantage of the O ride while they are studying that chapter, not long after they have finished it.  Also allows older cadets to get the same advantage out of a structured learning program.

The only loser is the wing when it comes to getting credit for the rides actually given - I already budget for 4-5 hours of flying a month to "friends".

Since I do not use my aircraft commercially, I am not required to have a 100 hour inspection.  I will however match my aircraft's maintenance against any of the CAP birds - I have NO deferred maintenance items.  In fact my 172 is in pieces right now because we decided to do some preventive maintenance items while installing a JPI-711.