Not too good of a statistic

Started by deepblue1947, May 28, 2017, 02:25:17 AM

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Eclipse

#60
Quote from: KASSRCrashResearch on June 25, 2017, 06:22:19 PM
Quote from: GaryVC on June 25, 2017, 04:14:51 PM
Quite a few people who join CAP have little or no aviation knowledge.  We have three new senior members. Two have never been in the military and one was a finance NCO in the AF. They all joined because of grandchildren and none of them know much about aerospace. This test which is easy for someone with that background, helps bring everyone up to at least a basic standard.

Meh. I showed it to my wife who has no aerospace background whatsoever and she goes "Why are they testing people on elementary school level history stuff?". It's kind of comical quite honestly because it's all basic common sense stuff that any reasonably intelligent person over the age of 10 or 12 should be able to reason through.

It's really not.  History is selectively taught in schools these days, and details on the history of something as "boring" as Aerospace,
isn't considered as important as fostering some of the more "agenda-based" curricula.

For people born in the 50's and especially the 60's, the space race, not to mention the political connectivity to it, was front-page news
and drove the majority of the technological advances of that era.

By the 70s, budget issues, the short-memory and attention span of the general public, not to mention its own success meant AE was
no longer "exciting", and started dropping from the zeitgeist, which just got progressively worse.

Ask the average adult what the "outrage of the day" is, or what the RHOBH are fighting about and you'll get 15 minutes of detail,
but ask them how an airplane actually flies, or who Chuck Yeager is and you're likely to get crickets.

YMMV by school system, but that's the reality on the mean.

I looked at a lot of that stuff and drew most of it from memory, that's not the norm, (>I< was going to be an astronaut, after all) even among CAP members and recruits, and that pool would be inclined know about that more than most.

"That Others May Zoom"

KASSRCrashResearch

Quote from: Eclipse on June 25, 2017, 06:44:25 PM
Quote from: KASSRCrashResearch on June 25, 2017, 06:22:19 PM
Quote from: GaryVC on June 25, 2017, 04:14:51 PM
Quite a few people who join CAP have little or no aviation knowledge.  We have three new senior members. Two have never been in the military and one was a finance NCO in the AF. They all joined because of grandchildren and none of them know much about aerospace. This test which is easy for someone with that background, helps bring everyone up to at least a basic standard.

Meh. I showed it to my wife who has no aerospace background whatsoever and she goes "Why are they testing people on elementary school level history stuff?". It's kind of comical quite honestly because it's all basic common sense stuff that any reasonably intelligent person over the age of 10 or 12 should be able to reason through.

It's really not.  History is selectively taught in schools these days, and details on the history of something as "boring" as Aerospace,
isn't considered as important as fostering some of the more "agenda-based" curricula.

For people born in the 50's and especially the 60's, the space race, not to mention the political connectivity to it, was front-page news
and drove the majority of the technological advances of that era.

By the 70s, budget issues, the short-memory and attention span of the general public, not to mention its own success meant AE was
no longer "exciting", and started dropping from the zeitgeist, which just got progressively worse.

Ask the average adult what the "outrage of the day" is, or what the RHOBH are fighting about and you'll get 15 minutes of detail,
but ask them how an airplane actually flies, or who Chuck Yeager is and you're likely to get crickets.

YMMV by school system, but that's the reality on the mean.

I looked at a lot of that stuff and drew most of it from memory, that's not the norm, (>I< was going to be an astronaut, after all) even among CAP members and recruits, and that pool would be inclined know about that more than most.

Fair enough.  I guess I am just ahead of the curve or something then...whatever.

I just find it funny that with as much emphasis as is placed on AE  that so many people are able to skirt this.  Even in senior squadrons where you're not dealing with cadets and thus AE is basically pointless busy work during meetings they seem to focus on it to an almost ridiculous degree; seriously....it easily accounts for about 50% of our time in meetings. We could get so much more done that is actually useful if we did not have to do that stuff.

I guess I just take the tack that you suck it up, tackle the unpleasant bits and get them out of the way so they aren't in the way of more interesting stuff that may present itself down the pike.  That applies to so much in CAP that I pretty much have to just go "What am I eligible to pursue?" and run with it so that when another option comes up to knock out a promotion or proficiency requirement, I'm good to go.
I have complete faith in the continued absurdity of what ever is going on.

Eclipse

Quote from: KASSRCrashResearch on June 25, 2017, 08:27:15 PM
I just find it funny that with as much emphasis as is placed on AE  that so many people are able to skirt this.  Even in senior squadrons where you're not dealing with cadets and thus AE is basically pointless busy work during meetings they seem to focus on it to an almost ridiculous degree; seriously....it easily accounts for about 50% of our time in meetings. We could get so much more done that is actually useful if we did not have to do that stuff.

Such as?  AE is 1/3rd of the mission, contains an internal and external component and isn't supposed to be "optional".

In addition to educating members (internal), units are supposed to have a community outreach program (external)
which serves as both a recruiting tool and a GA advocate.

Trying to advocate for GA when you don't even know the "five forces of flight" or how to spell "Aeroplain" isn't going to
engender you at the local AOPA meeting.

Doubly so if the unit doesn't have cadets because that means it's >50%< of the unit's mission.

"That Others May Zoom"

KASSRCrashResearch

Quote from: Eclipse on June 25, 2017, 08:36:48 PM

Such as?  AE is 1/3rd of the mission, contains an internal and external component and isn't supposed to be "optional".

In addition to educating members (internal), units are supposed to have a community outreach program (external) which serves as both a recruiting tool and a GA advocate.

Trying to advocate for GA when you don't even know the "five forces of flight" or how to spell "Aeroplain" isn't going to engender you at the local AOPA meeting.

Doubly so if the unit doesn't have cadets because that means it's >50%< of the unit's mission.

I don't think we even have local AOPA meetings. LOL

All I know is that we do a bunch of "public days" or "movie nights" at the airport but since I usually work weekends, I will not able to take part with anything approaching regularity.  The only way I can get out of work for something CAP related is if it is ES related (which is really funny because if we get a missing aircraft find, I would likely immediately revert back to my "day job" so if I were ground team, I have to go behind a tree and ditch my CAP uniform). 

The joke has been made that my job as the assistant AE officer is just going to be keeping the flight simulator software updated and correctly configured so someone else can just boot it up and do their thing.  I'm biting my tongue in person and going along with what I am told to do because...well, chain of command. At least they are letting me pursue other qualifications at the same time so that I do not have to twiddle my thumbs and sit on my butt when something interesting is going on because I am just the squadron's assistant AE officer.

AE may well be "one-third of the mission" on paper (read as: "it's how we go about justifying our budgets in between ES missions") but from a practical standpoint, it seems to be pretty far down the list of things that most CAP members I have met are really enthusiastic about giving up their weekend for.  It seems to be the CAP equivalent of a mandatory "morale event" or "fun run" in an active duty AF squadron: you do it because you have to.
I have complete faith in the continued absurdity of what ever is going on.