Cadet Membership Upper Age Change?

[Short Field]

If every pilot who "just wanted to fly" walked away from CAP right now, we'd be pretty funny being the Civil "Air" Patrol without any "Air" involvement.

You might be surprised at the number of new pilots who would join to replace them if they could get some of the free flying hours for themselves. 

[Grumpy]

"I didn't say I'd make them do more than any other member but I would make them do more than just fly. Do you have any idea how much work goes on behind the scenes to allow a unit to function? How about the reports and paperwork that an aircraft involves? I joined four years ago to be aircrew. I have yet to fly because I'm too busy doing what needs to be done."

I can relate to that.  I have a pilot's license and I came back into CAP in 1993 wanting to fly.  I can count the number of times I been up on one hand.  Admittedly, it's probably because I've been involved in other CAP activities.  But I would still like to get air crew qualified sometime.  Maybe this will be the year.

[Lt Oliv]

If every pilot who "just wanted to fly" walked away from CAP right now, we'd be pretty funny being the Civil "Air" Patrol without any "Air" involvement.

You might be surprised at the number of new pilots who would join to replace them if they could get some of the free flying hours for themselves.

No I wouldn't. I WAS surprised at the number of pilots who came, offered to fly and then ultimately decided against joining because they just wanted to fly and didn't want to organize fundraisers, visit schools for recruiting purposes and the like.

A good friend of mine approached a squadron out of state and was told that he likely wouldn't even see the aircraft until he was nearing his first renewal, because there was just so much other stuff he had to do before he could even start on his journey toward the cockpit.

He was even willing to play ball with the PD, with the other stuff that we expect of officers. But he was not interested in waiting around a whole year before he even approached the aircraft. The result? The squadron missed out on a very dedicated CFI who likely would have served them well.

The point I'm trying to make is this, we need pilots much more than pilots need us. To think otherwise is naive, at best.

EDIT: I realize this is an extreme, one year without even being permitted to get AC qualified. But, it was a squadron of non-pilots who built their program around everything other than being a pilot. So, that's what you get.