Alaska Wing Men

Smoothice · January 17, 2011, 02:42:04 PM

Is there a thread on this already?

Did anyone see that new show on Nat Geo??

Anyway, there was a segment in it featuring a CAP 182 and a Cadet doing her first x-c solo.

There were a few things that caught my attention about it....

1. The two pilots (senior member and the cadet) had on the green flight suits. They had the CAP Command Patch on the shoulder...is that wrong?
2. The CAP call sign did not seem to match the tail number of the plane.

other than that, it was a cool segment...good to see our pretty planes out there!

jeders · January 17, 2011, 02:49:37 PM

I didn't see it, but I would like to see the CAP segment. As far as your questions, the command patch should be on the chest, not shoulder, but other than that it seems fine. The CAP callsign has nothing to do with the tail number. For example, the plane at my squadron is CAP 4243, which has nothing to do with its tail number.

Smoothice · January 17, 2011, 03:00:10 PM

Thanks for the reply. I guess our squadron just made it easier using the last 2 numbers of the tail for the callsign...I did not realize there were other options.

It was a really great segment. In fact, my wife asked me "do your CAP planes really look like that?" when I said they did, she said they "looked pretty" :clap:

Fubar · January 17, 2011, 03:02:41 PM

It looks like two aircraft were used and through the magic of editing they made it look like one aircraft figuring nobody would be watching tail numbers

Smoothice · January 17, 2011, 03:04:33 PM

Quote from: Fubar on January 17, 2011, 03:02:41 PM
It looks like two aircraft were used and through the magic of editing they probably made it look like one aircraft figuring nobody would be watching tail numbers

thats funny...in fact, in another segment of that show, they kept showing either a TURBINE version, or RADIAL version of what was supposed to be the SAME plane....ha! $:-\$

jeders · January 17, 2011, 03:05:33 PM

To the pretty planes, awesome.

As for the callsign, there is a 4 digit callsign supplied to every aircraft by national. The first two digits correspond to the wing that the aircraft is assigned to. The last two digits are assigned by wing. Then CAP (not CAP Flight, like it used to be) is used before the 4-digit identifier.

Smoothice · January 17, 2011, 03:09:17 PM

Quote from: jeders on January 17, 2011, 03:05:33 PM
To the pretty planes, awesome.

As for the callsign, there is a 4 digit callsign supplied to every aircraft by national. The first two digits correspond to the wing that the aircraft is assigned to. The last two digits are assigned by wing. Then CAP (not CAP Flight, like it used to be) is used before the 4-digit identifier.

yeah, we use the first two numbers which are the numbers for our wing, and the last two numbers, we take the last two numbers from the tail....it works.

ol'fido · January 17, 2011, 03:35:45 PM

Wondered how long it would take for someone on here to go on about the uniforms. :angel: I saw that show and the other two episodes so far. As for the call signs, you never know when they filmed something like this. It could take two-three years for the production, editing and selling this to some network so at that time they may have still been using the CAPFlight call. OTOH, a lot of people still use it without thinking because it just kind of rolls of the tounge and the change is recent.

The part of the show that fascinated me was the fact that it is perfectly legal in AK to land on active highways in non-emergency situations. The fact that you can do it while giving a flying lesson to a 19 yr old student was interesting to say the least.

BTW. Did anyone see the show "L-Birds: The Little Planes That Did" on the Military Channel(DISH 195). Not directly or even indirectly related to CAP but it did highlight the kinds of aircraft that CAP flew in the early days. It also showed the "guts not glory" of those pilots.

SARDOC · January 17, 2011, 06:15:40 PM

Quote from: ol'fido on January 17, 2011, 03:35:45 PM
The part of the show that fascinated me was the fact that it is perfectly legal in AK to land on active highways in non-emergency situations. The fact that you can do it while giving a flying lesson to a 19 yr old student was interesting to say the least.

I did see that...They mentioned that the person must be a qualified "Bush Pilot". I thought that was really cool. In the CAP segment I saw the fact that the student was taking off and landing on gravel runways too.

It was great to see the Cadet doing her first solo. As far as the uniforms...yeah not exactly to reg...that's as far as I'm going with that. I liked to see they were keeping consistent with the mission of Civil Air Patrol.

Mark_Wheeler · January 17, 2011, 07:13:19 PM

Quote from: jeders on January 17, 2011, 03:05:33 PM

As for the callsign, there is a 4 digit callsign supplied to every aircraft by national. The first two digits correspond to the wing that the aircraft is assigned to. The last two digits are assigned by wing. Then CAP (not CAP Flight, like it used to be) is used before the 4-digit identifier.

Not all wings have 4 digit CAP callsigns, It CAWG the airplanes are 4XX where the last 2 digits change.

Mark

cap235629 · January 17, 2011, 07:25:02 PM

Arkansas's are 320-329

bosshawk · January 17, 2011, 08:04:51 PM

I haven't seen the show, but one comment was made to the effect that a radial engined airplane was shown. Alaska Wing has a number of U-6(DHC-2) Beavers and they are radial engined. In a lot of cases, the civilian world has modified Beavers to have turbine engines: perhaps that contributed to the confusion. Those Beavers were built in the 50s, BTW.

researchdoc · January 17, 2011, 08:06:38 PM

Did anyone catch the names of the SM and Cadet?
Thanks.

ol'fido · January 17, 2011, 10:47:23 PM

Quote from: bosshawk on January 17, 2011, 08:04:51 PM
I haven't seen the show, but one comment was made to the effect that a radial engined airplane was shown. Alaska Wing has a number of U-6(DHC-2) Beavers and they are radial engined. In a lot of cases, the civilian world has modified Beavers to have turbine engines: perhaps that contributed to the confusion. Those Beavers were built in the 50s, BTW.

If it's the one shot I'm thinking of the A/C in question is a turbine engine Beaver but the scene was edited in such a way that it was supposed to multiple angles of the same A/C flashed real quickly onto the screen. Unfortunately, one of the flashes was of a normal radial engine Beaver in about the same paint scheme. Probably an editor or production assistant that didn't know the difference.

I've found that articles or shows about airplanes are kind of like ones about guns... They by definition have a mistake in them.

indygreg · January 18, 2011, 12:05:31 AM

Quote from: Smoothice on January 17, 2011, 02:42:04 PM
Is there a thread on this already?

Did anyone see that new show on Nat Geo??

Anyway, there was a segment in it featuring a CAP 182 and a Cadet doing her first x-c solo.

There were a few things that caught my attention about it....

1. The two pilots (senior member and the cadet) had on the green flight suits. They had the CAP Command Patch on the shoulder...is that wrong?
2. The CAP call sign did not seem to match the tail number of the plane.

other than that, it was a cool segment...good to see our pretty planes out there!

Just watched that. I didn't think you could fly a CAP plane until you were 18. Also, are you allowed to teach soemone to fly in a CAP plane?

researchdoc · January 18, 2011, 02:19:37 AM

From what I can tell, Capt Morthorpe is the Director of Safety of the Alaskan Wing.. or maybe a Asst. Director. Anyway I am going to try to interview him for my squadron podcast (see signature below). I contacted the AK Wing to ask for their contact info for the interview and am waiting for a response. I hope they call back and do the interview... should be good. At least it has brought attention to CAP.

Could it be that the call they used was in their personal equipment? But, they filmed the outside of the CAP Cessna?

I have a copy of the episode I will post here when I get the chance.

Al Sayre · January 18, 2011, 02:59:28 PM

Quote from: indygreg on January 18, 2011, 12:05:31 AM

Just watched that. I didn't think you could fly a CAP plane until you were 18. Also, are you allowed to teach soemone to fly in a CAP plane?

The answers you seek are in CAPR 60-1.

Basic answer:
1. Must be 18 for Air Force Assigned Missions as Aircrew. Otherwise have a CAPF5 and you can do C-17 all you want.

2. Yes you can - basic flight training for caders only or for SM's under certain circumstances that are likely only in Alaska with a whole bunch of permissions.

a2capt · January 18, 2011, 06:15:12 PM

The leading two digits of the CAP flight numbers are the state number in alphabetical order.
Arkansas 03, California 04, etc. In cases of leading zeros, they are just omitted.

SarDragon · January 18, 2011, 09:00:45 PM

Quote from: a2capt on January 18, 2011, 06:15:12 PM
The leading two digits of the CAP flight numbers are the state number in alphabetical order.
Arkansas 03, California 04, etc. In cases of leading zeros, they are just omitted.

That's mostly correct.

Nat Cap is in there, and Alaska (50), Hawai'i (51), and Puerto Rico (52) fill it out at the end.

indygreg · January 18, 2011, 09:42:46 PM

Quote from: Al Sayre on January 18, 2011, 02:59:28 PM
Quote from: indygreg on January 18, 2011, 12:05:31 AM

Just watched that. I didn't think you could fly a CAP plane until you were 18. Also, are you allowed to teach soemone to fly in a CAP plane?

The answers you seek are in CAPR 60-1.

Basic answer:
1. Must be 18 for Air Force Assigned Missions as Aircrew. Otherwise have a CAPF5 and you can do C-17 all you want.

2. Yes you can - basic flight training for caders only or for SM's under certain circumstances that are likely only in Alaska with a whole bunch of permissions.

OK. I was just curious.