CAP Officer Aviators in Aerospace Education

Started by Major Carrales, December 14, 2006, 08:14:08 PM

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Major Carrales

AM I alone in seeing the potential of CAP Officer Aviators in the AE programs?  I see that as a large pool of aerospace information, knowledge and skills.

Here are some things that I do not think are unreasonable...

1) A Joint Cadet/Aviator sesson every now and then where Pilots discuss subjects and provide first hadn information to cadets on their experiences in a possitive way.  It can/could/should  preceed or follow O-Flights.

2) Maybe record pilot stories and other aeronautical tips for publication in a newspaper of journal.  It could be led by the PAO.

3) More CAP sponsored assistance to those seeking a pilot's lisc.  More like a support forum. 

Any suggestions?   
"We have been given the power to change CAP, let's keep the momentum going!"

Major Joe Ely "Sparky" Carrales, CAP
Commander
Coastal Bend Cadet Squadron
SWR-TX-454

Al Sayre

All of the Aerospace Education Officers and Assistants in my Squadron are pilots.  It's a fairly easy professional track for new people to get into, so we generally have some new blood in the pipeline at all times. 

I am hoping to be able to put together a ground school program for our Cadets in the very near future, but one must have an instructors license (CFI,CFII, CFIG etc.) to teach and give them their sign offs.
Lt Col Al Sayre
MS Wing Staff Dude
Admiral, Great Navy of the State of Nebraska
GRW #2787

MIKE

This past weekend while discussing AE for CLC, we were talking about how pilots don't always make the best AEOs... And it seemed like some units were sticking pilots with AE by default because they were pilots and it was assumed that they would be good at AE.

Just throwing that out there.
Mike Johnston

Al Sayre

Not all of them are good teachers, but in general they have a good grasp of the technical parts of the material.  We frequently have them review test results with Cadets who fail an AE test.  It seems to help when an in depth understanding of the material is required...YMMV
Lt Col Al Sayre
MS Wing Staff Dude
Admiral, Great Navy of the State of Nebraska
GRW #2787

MIKE

Sometimes they can get a bit too technical though, which was something that was mentioned.
Mike Johnston

Al Sayre

Lt Col Al Sayre
MS Wing Staff Dude
Admiral, Great Navy of the State of Nebraska
GRW #2787

lordmonar

They key to a good AE program is being able to relate to the audiance and having a firm understanding of the subject matter.

While a pilot with 1000 hours may know everthing about flying and have a lot of expeirnce, he may not be able to relate to the Woman Gardening Club or a class of 5th graders or even a room full of cadets.

While I agree....in a perfect world a great AE person would be both a good educator and a good pilot....one does not make the other.
PATRICK M. HARRIS, SMSgt, CAP

Major Carrales

Quote from: Al Sayre on December 14, 2006, 09:00:03 PM
All of the Aerospace Education Officers and Assistants in my Squadron are pilots.  It's a fairly easy professional track for new people to get into, so we generally have some new blood in the pipeline at all times. 

I am hoping to be able to put together a ground school program for our Cadets in the very near future, but one must have an instructors license (CFI,CFII, CFIG etc.) to teach and give them their sign offs.

That sounds great...if you get a chance e-mail me a copy of the "ops plan," be it formal or informal.  I would like to see if we could pull that off in our unit.  We plan to have lots more cadets in 2007...I mean new ones and this is the sort of thing they will benefit from.
"We have been given the power to change CAP, let's keep the momentum going!"

Major Joe Ely "Sparky" Carrales, CAP
Commander
Coastal Bend Cadet Squadron
SWR-TX-454

Major Carrales

Quote from: MIKE on December 14, 2006, 09:05:34 PM
This past weekend while discussing AE for CLC, we were talking about how pilots don't always make the best AEOs... And it seemed like some units were sticking pilots with AE by default because they were pilots and it was assumed that they would be good at AE.

Just throwing that out there.


Of course, I concur.  People cannot merely dump the position on someone an dleave them out to flounder.  What I am discussing is more of an augment.
"We have been given the power to change CAP, let's keep the momentum going!"

Major Joe Ely "Sparky" Carrales, CAP
Commander
Coastal Bend Cadet Squadron
SWR-TX-454

Major Carrales

Quote from: MIKE on December 14, 2006, 09:14:34 PM
Sometimes they can get a bit too technical though, which was something that was mentioned.

This, too, can happen.  That is why it would be a roundtable sort of thing where we coudl relate the info to them.
"We have been given the power to change CAP, let's keep the momentum going!"

Major Joe Ely "Sparky" Carrales, CAP
Commander
Coastal Bend Cadet Squadron
SWR-TX-454

Major Carrales

Quote from: lordmonar on December 14, 2006, 11:14:02 PM
While I agree....in a perfect world a great AE person would be both a good educator and a good pilot....one does not make the other.


Many times we have great teachers that join the unit, but lack the confidence of really knowing the material.  That is where the unit aviators come in.   Also pilots with lots of info and no medium to get it to the cadets, that is where the teacher would help.

Some sort of balance would have to be reached.  Shall we continue to see if we can create such a thing via discussion.
"We have been given the power to change CAP, let's keep the momentum going!"

Major Joe Ely "Sparky" Carrales, CAP
Commander
Coastal Bend Cadet Squadron
SWR-TX-454

SJFedor

Quote from: Al Sayre on December 14, 2006, 09:00:03 PM
All of the Aerospace Education Officers and Assistants in my Squadron are pilots.  It's a fairly easy professional track for new people to get into, so we generally have some new blood in the pipeline at all times. 

I am hoping to be able to put together a ground school program for our Cadets in the very near future, but one must have an instructors license (CFI,CFII, CFIG etc.) to teach and give them their sign offs.


Don't need a CFI-type certificate to instruct ground school, just a BGI/AGI/IGI depending on what you're doing. No pilot experience needed, though recommended.

And technically, you can teach them all that stuff and not hold any of those ratings. You'll just need a ground instructor or CFI to attest that they've been properly instructed prior to taking their written.

And I believe, if you get a course like the King take home course, you watch the DVDs, do the test, mail it in, and theyll mail you an endorsement to take your written.

Beware: Martha and the other guy King can get rather corny after hours of watching it.

Steven Fedor, NREMT-P
Master Ambulance Driver
Former Capt, MP, MCPE, MO, MS, GTL, and various other 3-and-4 letter combinations
NESA MAS Instructor, 2008-2010 (#479)

JohnKachenmeister

Cadets love hands-on stuff.  What I used to do was bring in a bunch of old charts, and have them plan a cross-country flight.  I'd stop and get a METAR for weather info, and let them pick their checkpoints, approach to the runway, where to call tower/pattern, plan the whole flight.

For extra fun, I'd have them get information out of the AOPA Airport Directory to plan where they would get the $100 hamburger.
Another former CAP officer

A.Member

"For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return."

Major Carrales

"We have been given the power to change CAP, let's keep the momentum going!"

Major Joe Ely "Sparky" Carrales, CAP
Commander
Coastal Bend Cadet Squadron
SWR-TX-454

flyguy06

Remember though, AE is NOT simply about flying airplanes. It entails space travel, model rocketry, thehistory of space travel. Most General Aviation pilot while they are good at aviation arent really into space realted topics and may have a hard time with those subjects.. What we used to do for AE was conduct model rocketry programs, take trips to HUntsville space center and The Air and Space museum

Hammer

Quote from: lordmonar on December 14, 2006, 11:14:02 PM
While I agree....in a perfect world a great AE person would be both a good educator and a good pilot....one does not make the other.


Why would/do you have to be a pilot to be an AEO?  THere's several other flying positions besides pilot.  ANd AE isn't all flying.  A Space/Missile guy would be good too.  As would a Flt/Sgn.

DNall

Quote from: flyguy06 on December 25, 2006, 05:41:21 AM
Remember though, AE is NOT simply about flying airplanes. It entails space travel, model rocketry, thehistory of space travel. Most General Aviation pilot while they are good at aviation arent really into space realted topics and may have a hard time with those subjects.. What we used to do for AE was conduct model rocketry programs, take trips to HUntsville space center and The Air and Space museum
Absolutely. I've seen far too many times that a pilot gets roped into AEO as extra duty & they really don't know the material. I have that situation going on right now in fact & am at least making the guy take the Yeager to familiarize himself with the content. It's kind of a big deal too cause cadets can take the modules in any order & apparently they think the space chapter is easier for some reason & try to take that first.