Field Trips

[addo1]

Share your favorite field trips you have done with your squadron.  On Saturday, my squadron took a trip to the Frontiers of Flight museum at Lovefield airport.  It was an awesome experience and we learned a lot about all aspects of flight!  

[SDF_Specialist]

Ohio Wing Drill Academy 2006. It was a blast!!

[fyrfitrmedic]

 My home unit has revived an old custom of a weekend trip to Gettysburg, including camping at Mcmillan Woods and a day hike around the battlefield.

[mikeylikey]

^  Thats awesome!  That is such a good day trip, as is Valley Forge and Philadelphia (Central Philly, the tourist part, not south, west, or east Philly, the "bad parts").

[SAR-EMT1]

USAF Museum at Wright-Pat

IL Aviation Museum at the Former Chanute AFB

Armour Museum at Knox

[A.Member]

I think every squadron should have a goal of making one major (long weekend or similar) trip each year (or perhaps every other year) to places such as:

• Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
• National Museum of the Air Force
• Pima Air and Space Museum/Davis-Monthan Air Force Base (the "Boneyard")
• Kennedy Space Center

I'd love to get our cadets (and officers) to one of these as well:
http://captalk.net/index.php?topic=3149.msg59098#msg59098

or here:
Reno Air Races

Of course, Blue Beret is an option for cadets to attend Airventure but it could make for a good trip as well. 

There are all kinds of cool places to visit.

[flyerthom]

We got to tour the Aggressor squadron at Nellis AFB.

[Flying Pig]

This one time at Wing Conference we snuck out and........Oh boy, look at the time.....

[JAFO78]

I would say going to Airventure was the best thing we did.

It was more then one squadron in our group. but we did not wear our uniforms because we wanted to build friendship and just have a great time. our meet up place was a area we called war Bird Alley. 

First time I saw B-29 fly.....w-o-w. And then we saw ...........w-o-w, and then......w-o-w.

[addo1]

I think every squadron should have a goal of making one major (long weekend or similar) trip each year (or perhaps every other year) to places such as:

• Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
• National Museum of the Air Force
• Pima Air and Space Museum/Davis-Monthan Air Force Base (the "Boneyard")
• Kennedy Space Center

I'd love to get our cadets (and officers) to one of these as well:
http://captalk.net/index.php?topic=3149.msg59098#msg59098

or here:
Reno Air Races

Of course, Blue Beret is an option for cadets to attend Airventure but it could make for a good trip as well. 

There are all kinds of cool places to visit.

I have been lucky enough to go to 3 out of 4 of the above.  They are fabulous!  

[Eclipse]

Ohio Wing Drill Academy 2006. It was a blast!!

I think unit CC's should make a distinction - and most do, between a CAP-event and a field trip.

I'm sure the Drill Academy was "fun" on the level those things are, but "fields trips" should be more low-impact "esprit-de-corps" activities like those mentioned - museums, Challenger Centers, even picnics and movies.

Something with group time, but no specific metric of completion or performance.

[Skyray]

My understanding is that our very own Kach is a tour guide at the grandaddy of all aviation destinations, Cape Canaveral.  some of you guys, especially the homeless central Florida ones, should contact him.

[SDF_Specialist]

Ohio Wing Drill Academy 2006. It was a blast!!

I think unit CC's should make a distinction - and most do, between a CAP-event and a field trip.

I'm sure the Drill Academy was "fun" on the level those things are, but "fields trips" should be more low-impact "esprit-de-corps" activities like those mentioned - museums, Challenger Centers, even picnics and movies.

Something with group time, but no specific metric of completion or performance.

It was optional participation. Of course, everyone did participate. You're right though. The unit considered it a field trip, but it was more of a CAP activity.

[NIN]

Now THIS is a field trip..

[A.Member]

Now THIS is a field trip..

I suppose.  If that's the best you can do... 

[genejackson]

Took my Squadron to the Airborne Museum at Ft. Bragg.  They absolutely LOVED it and when the workers saw who we were, they "assigned" us a private guide who actually was on Normandy.   Wow is the best way to describe the day these cadets had. 
Also, we told every cadet they had to bring a buddy and by the end of the month, we had a dozen or so new cadets and several new parents who signed up as Cadet Sponsor members.   

[Cecil DP]

Last year our squadron visited the 8th Air Force Museum in Savannah. Great trip. last month the Air Museum at Warner Robbins, GA.

I would like to see a trip to the Congressional Mdal of Honor Museum in Charleston

[addo1]

Now THIS is a field trip..

COOL!! VERY COOL!    I bet they had fun.

[addo1]

...who we were, they "assigned" us a private guide who actually was on Normandy...   

  Living history is the best!  At the Frontiers of Flight museum, we talked to a guy who fought under Patton.  He fought 93 combat missions.
His job was to silence the anti-aircraft fire before the carriers dropped the paratroopers.  He was 1 of 2 people in his whole squadron, that lived through the war. Amazing!!!

[brasda91]

USAF Museum at Wright-Pat

Armour Museum at Knox

I've done two encampments at Wright-Pat, museum is awesome.  I've heard it's expanded even more.

Our squadron just did a trip to Ft. Knox a few weekends ago.

[brasda91]

Took my Squadron to the Airborne Museum at Ft. Bragg.

When I was on active duty, my barracks was right across the street from the museum.  I could look out my window and see it.

[Ford73Diesel]

I've done two encampments at Wright-Pat, museum is awesome.  I've heard it's expanded even more.

It has. They added a cold war space program type room thats shaped like a missle silo, along with some more planes.

[baronet68]

Fort Lewis Military Museum
Seattle Museum of Flight
Soviet Fox-trot Class Submarine Tour
Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum (home of the Spruce Goose)

[Horn229]

^  Thats awesome!  That is such a good day trip, as is Valley Forge and Philadelphia (Central Philly, the tourist part, not south, west, or east Philly, the "bad parts").

Nothing wrong with south philly, that's where you need to go if you want a cheesesteak (Pat's and Gino's are both in south philly).

Center city is good, east philly is good. North of center city is problematic for about a mile. West of 50th street is where you don't want to go.


Back on topic..

The USS Intrepid
National Air and Space Museum

I'm trying to talk my Sqdn CC into a night tour of the national mall, then going to see the Air and Space museum as soon as they open.

[fyrfitrmedic]

^  Thats awesome!  That is such a good day trip, as is Valley Forge and Philadelphia (Central Philly, the tourist part, not south, west, or east Philly, the "bad parts").

Nothing wrong with south philly, that's where you need to go if you want a cheesesteak (Pat's and Gino's are both in south philly).

Center city is good, east philly is good. North of center city is problematic for about a mile. West of 50th street is where you don't want to go.


Back on topic..

The USS Intrepid
National Air and Space Museum

I'm trying to talk my Sqdn CC into a night tour of the national mall, then going to see the Air and Space museum as soon as they open.

- Lots and lots to see in Center City Philly; gophila.com is a good resource.

- Pat's and Geno's are suitable steaks for tourists and the inebriated; try Jim's or Tony Luke's instead.

- The areas best avoided in Philly are West Philly between 45th and 63rd, North Philly from just south of Girard to just north of Champlost, almost all of Southwest Philly except for the areas close to the airport, and much of the Point Breeze section of South Philly.

- If you're already in Philly and looking for a place to check out near the airport, Fort Mifflin's not a bad historical site.

- If you're in the area and looking for something a little different, the USS New Jersey hosts overnights for youth groups of all sizes.

- The USS Intrepid is currently away from its Pier 86 berth for restoration at Staten Island and will reopen on 11 November 2008. IMHO, it needed some serious work; many of the exhibits were showing their age from back when the Intrepid was on display at the Philly Navy Yard before its move to NYC.

[jimmydeanno]

WIWAC, our squadron went on a 7 day trip to DC, it was super-cool.  We toured the West Wing of the White house, signed the First Lady's guestbook, toured the Admin building next door, visited the capital, a bunch of monuments (Jefferson, Washington, Iwo Jima, Lincoln) we had a guided tour of the National A&S museum at the mall from a guy they gave a piece of Skylab, went to Arlington National Cemetery, visted the Tomb of the Unknowns, Library of Congress, etc and got to tour the city. We even visited our Senator.

It was by far the best "field trip" I've ever done in CAP - I guess it was like a junior CLA.

[gistek]

Spent the weekend on the USS Yorktown once.

Squadron paid for it with a grant from our State Representative.

We took our Blues & Corporate, but wore DDR t-shirts and kakhi's as our "uniform" most of the time.

It was mostly Scout troops there and when they assembled us for th safety briefing the Officer put his hand up in the scout quiet sign. I watched for about 10 seconds as scouts raised their hands and continued talking. Then I called our squadron to attention and everyone got suddenly quiet. Our C/OIC (officer-in-charge) ordered the squadron to At-Ease and the Safety Officer began his briefing.

Explanation of C/OIC - that unit likes to give up and coming cadets a chance of leadership for events so the Cadet Commander can have a break. For the duration of the event anything that requires a command decision is the responsibility of the C/OIC not the C/C. If the C/C is there, he or she acts as adviser.

It gives the senior members and line staff a chance to evaluate prospective leaders and it looks really good on the cadet's resumes and job applications. I always told them to be sure to list it as work experience with a salary of "vol."