Why is the CAP so understaffed?

EdFred said:
So, you have never, in all your life, ever ran into someone, somewhere, anywhere, and just shook your head at their appearance? Call me skeptical, but I highly I doubt that.
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I can't specifically remember a time when I've done that, but I was in grade school at one point, so it's probable. I'm just glad to be here Fred.
 
EdFred said:
Non-121 Pilots get a bad enough rap from the general public. No need to give them more ammo.
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I doubt that the general public cares what non-121 pilots wear.
 
Rich Holt said:
I am genuinely surprised by the vanity of the grown adults that happen to fly aircraft on the side. Imagine caring about if the guy next to me thought I looked like a "tool" because I chose to be comfortable. Why should that matter to me? Who died and made him the flying fashion police?

That being said, I've never actually worn a flight suit while flying a GA plane. I can imagine that the boots would be a bit of a challenge to manage.
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I sometimes wear boots with knobby tread, because it gives me better traction when pushing the aircraft.
 
Morgan3820 said:
Contractors need that training , though.
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It wouldn't be so bad if I hadn't turned in the certificates that I received in uniform and was told they didn't count even though they were well within the same FY. My contract is for Army Military Funeral Honors.... I manage 2,000 burials a month in 13 states of the northwest region. I still fail to understand how any of these particular classes help me except maybe the cyber awareness because it is required for access to the network.

Classes on uniform maintenance, drill and ceremony, budgeting, and similar are completely appropriate.

The rest are about as appropriate as cyber awareness was for this crusty old Tank Commander that didn't touch a government computer in 20 out of 25 years of service.
 
Rich Holt said:
That being said, I've never actually worn a flight suit while flying a GA plane. I can imagine that the boots would be a bit of a challenge to manage.
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Haven't either but if I were doing something like pipeline patrol down low in terrain with few options if the motor packed it in I'd be tempted to wear a bag and a helmet. As it stands, I'll dress for the weather. Heading up to Maine Thursday so it's not shorts weather there yet.
 
red4golf said:
It wouldn't be so bad if I hadn't turned in the certificates that I received in uniform and was told they didn't count even though they were well within the same FY. My contract is for Army Military Funeral Honors.... I manage 2,000 burials a month in 13 states of the northwest region. I still fail to understand how any of these particular classes help me except maybe the cyber awareness because it is required for access to the network.

Classes on uniform maintenance, drill and ceremony, budgeting, and similar are completely appropriate.

The rest are about as appropriate as cyber awareness was for this crusty old Tank Commander that didn't touch a government computer in 20 out of 25 years of service.
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Lower your expectation and you won’t be disappointed. This understanding has served me well throughout my 25+ years of federal service.
 
Morgan3820 said:
Lower your expectation and you won’t be disappointed. This understanding has served me well throughout my 25+ years of federal service.
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Doesn't make it ok. I pay their salaries as I contribute to my own through taxes and if I am held to a standard...... shouldn't they?
 
Pugs said:
Hard for me to say since I'm not in CAP but when I look at the USN current list of mandatory training you can be sure I want nothing to to with it. Until I retire (<6 months) I already have to do a significant subset of this training at two federal customers and my company for 20+ years not to mention the 20 years in the Navy. I've had my fill of it.

[clip for length]
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As university faculty, we're required to do the following every N number of years:
Sexual Assault Prevention and Response (SAPR) Awareness
Cyber Awareness
Privacy Act - FERPA, the education version of HIPPA
Equal Opportunity, Harassment and Resolution Options

CAP also requires a rather extensive Youth Protection program that includes online training and in-person class. Goes along with the fingerprints and the FBI background check.

A Pugs points out, every time I get a new contract (usually DOD or NASA industry), it's pretty much the same long list of stuff. Fortunately, I get to bill the time I'm being bored.
 
I never owned a flight suit, or in fact anything other than a navy blue polo shirt, in my time with CAP.
 
EdFred said:
So, you have never, in all your life, ever ran into someone, somewhere, anywhere, and just shook your head at their appearance? Call me skeptical, but I highly I doubt that.
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I don't understand the reason to buy new jeans with holes in them.
My father, in one of his excellent observations (at an SF con I took him to) pointed out "there should be a weight limit on spandex"
 
I've noticed CAP can vary greatly depending on the region and the unit.

I'm active duty Air Force and a member of CAP. I had a buddy in college who was quite active as a cadet and he was quite a goober about it and it all seemed rather self-important. Consequently my initial impression of the organization was negative and my thoughts were similar to many of those expressed here in this thread.

However, years later I was talked into joining by an aviation mentor who's a retired F-15 pilot and the opposite of a goober. I told him I have zero interest in wearing a uniform, going to meetings, or doing lots of CBTs, as I do plenty of that for my day job. Other than having to wear a CAP polo shirt, I've done none of those things and my experience has been positive. Most of the senior members in my squadron feel the same way. In fact, almost all of us are active duty or retired military.

I've flown as a target in an exercise for the local base, done low level route surveys, and taken many cadets up for orientation rides in both a 182 and a glider. My squadron has been called out to look for lost hikers and photographed Idaho Backcountry strips to survey usage rates. I have yet to attend a meeting or take a Hurt Feelings CBT.

While CAP certainly has people flying 182s in flight suits and thinking a little too highly of themselves, it's not a representation of the organization as a whole.
 
Rich Holt said:
Why is there so much animosity about people wearing flight suits? I recommend wearing bags around everywhere. They are stupid comfortable and have pockets in all the right places.
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I used to ski in them. It must have worked, I never caught fire on the slopes.

Nauga,
who has never been flaming
 
Rich Holt said:
Why is there so much animosity about people wearing flight suits? I recommend wearing bags around everywhere. They are stupid comfortable and have pockets in all the right places. We had a name for people who complained about other people wearing their green (or tan) PJs to work in the Navy. We called them SWOs. They were mostly bitter about prior poor life decisions though.
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I still have several flight suits that don't fit me any more. I should dig them out and try one on, nowthat I have lost 20+ pounds on a non-carb diet.

Besides, pickle suits and Cammy Jammies are cool!
 
JFK Humphries said:
I am retired USAF and I remember working with the CAP back in the mid 1980’s and they, or that outfit seemed to be a coherent group that had their act together.

I recently went to one meeting as a favor for a friend and it was a shambles. The Cadets were overweight and they had beards and tattoos all over them. It would have been ridiculous but I remember when they had their act together. Actual CAP staff running around playing USAF. Even the so-called commander’s who had no college, not a day in uniform (active or reserve).

telling me to call them Sir or Mam. It’s just like you don’t even have 10 years in CAP and you are mad that you are only a CAP Major.

Think twice before you get involved with these people.
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What squadron was this? I’d be happy to ask some questions and find some truth to this.


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Skymac said:
Too much red tape and b/s to stay a pilot for them and complete real missions. A good idea though, just too much play military gets in the way of actually being useful.
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Being a CAP pilot for many years and retired AF, I can completely agree with this. The AF does make being a CAP pilot a lot of work. It is typical AF that the procedures are created for the lowest common denominator. Therefore when one craps, we all wear diapers. It’s like this in the real AF too.


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Fracpilot said:
Being a CAP pilot for many years and retired AF, I can completely agree with this. The AF does make being a CAP pilot a lot of work. It is typical AF that the procedures are created for the lowest common denominator. Therefore when one craps, we all wear diapers. It’s like this in the real AF too.


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LOL!!! I love that saying!
 
Well. First thread I’m reading here, and I’ve got to say that the degree of petty and drama rivals the sewing groups I used to be in. I don’t know whether to be amused or to roll my eyes or to just be glad that I don’t care who thinks that adults shouldn’t wear glitter or any of the stuff I wear every day. :D

And it’s okay for adults to have opinions, though adults do need to learn to be civil and not go off rolling their eyes at people for wearing things they think those people shouldn’t. When I go to the opera and see people in cut-off sweatpants, the eye-rolling is internal or behind closed doors because an external one reflects more on me than on them.

But y’all do you. :p
 
Does anyone else see the irony in the new balance and cargo shorts wearing gang making comments about appropriate clothing choices? For the record, i am not defending either side of the fashion police argument. I don't care if camo thongs are the only permitted clothing, wait...
 
NoBShere said:
Does anyone else see the irony in the new balance and cargo shorts wearing gang making comments about appropriate clothing choices?
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Remember the school uniform arguments.??



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NoBShere said:
Does anyone else see the irony in the new balance and cargo shorts wearing gang making comments about appropriate clothing choices? For the record, i am not defending either side of the fashion police argument. I don't care if camo thongs are the only permitted clothing, wait...
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so you're saying flip-flops are out? Hmm...
 
Josie Flies said:
Well. First thread I’m reading here, and I’ve got to say that the degree of petty and drama rivals the sewing groups I used to be in. I don’t know whether to be amused or to roll my eyes or to just be glad that I don’t care who thinks that adults shouldn’t wear glitter or any of the stuff I wear every day. :D

And it’s okay for adults to have opinions, though adults do need to learn to be civil and not go off rolling their eyes at people for wearing things they think those people shouldn’t. When I go to the opera and see people in cut-off sweatpants, the eye-rolling is internal or behind closed doors because an external one reflects more on me than on them.

But y’all do you. :p
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Thank you for setting me straight.
 
Interesting thing about crocs. When Mike Judge was writing the movie Idiocracy (it's about a future where everybody is an idiot), he had everyone wearing crocs because they looked stupid. Couple years later they were very popular.

"One of the big things was Crocs," Cohen remembered. "Our production designer [Darren Gilford] had everyone wearing Crocs in the movie. We didn't even know what they were. Mike was like, 'You'd have to be an idiot to wear these!' By the time the movie came out, everyone was wearing them."
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/85160/10-smart-facts-about-idiocracy

And that's all I got to say about that.
 
murphey said:
As university faculty, we're required to do the following every N number of years:
Sexual Assault Prevention and Response (SAPR) Awareness
Cyber Awareness
Privacy Act - FERPA, the education version of HIPPA
Equal Opportunity, Harassment and Resolution Options
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Try working for a bank. Substituting for Privacy Act was Anti Money-Laundering, Anti Bribery and Corruption, Servicemember Relief Act, Workplace Violence Awareness, Ethics and Reporting (a sad, sad joke if you worked for [cough] certain banks), Unfair & Deceptive Practices (see previous note), and a few I am no doubt forgetting.

Every single year. And the last year I worked there - TWICE, because they changed their training system and, since the new courses were slightly different, well obviously we had to do all the new ones, too.

All of us, even the IT geeks.

Obligatory OT: I never joined CAP as a kid, and I've avoided it as an adult... since there's zero chance of ever flying a CAP plane, and I don't really want to teach drill & ceremonies to kids. I see 2 or 3 guys flying the CAP 182 pretty regularly, but I don't recall ever seeing any kids near the plane.
 
DaleB said:
...Obligatory OT: I never joined CAP as a kid, and I've avoided it as an adult... since there's zero chance of ever flying a CAP plane, and I don't really want to teach drill & ceremonies to kids. I see 2 or 3 guys flying the CAP 182 pretty regularly, but I don't recall ever seeing any kids near the plane.
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That's pretty bad. I just checked the records of the plane that's assigned to my squadron, and in the past two months, it was flown by nearly a dozen different pilots, including sixteen flights that were carrying cadets (i.e., "kids").
 
Several years ago this little bulldog standing all of 5 ft nothing in her boots and full camo would march, degrade, and scream at her squadron of CAP kiddos marching them on taxiways and around an apron in front of guys yelling "Clear prop" etc. She'd also make them call her "sir." How she treated the kids was bad enough but she was teaching them unsafe practices at an airport.

One day she decided to scream and try to berate me for daring to park my car in an unmarked space in a public parking lot at the county airport. I told her I didn't see a handicap or other reserved parking sign and asked her the problem. She informed me it was her spot as "base commander" and I was "disrespecting her authority" by parking there. I don't think I've ever laughed right in someone's face like I did that day.
 
I notice the OP came in to drop this steaming load and hasn’t bothered to come back. According to the profile page hasn’t logged in since the day of the post.

Are we supposed to say “Thanks!” ?
 
Todd82 said:
Several years ago this little bulldog standing all of 5 ft nothing in her boots and full camo would march, degrade, and scream at her squadron of CAP kiddos marching them on taxiways and around an apron in front of guys yelling "Clear prop" etc. She'd also make them call her "sir." How she treated the kids was bad enough but she was teaching them unsafe practices at an airport.

One day she decided to scream and try to berate me for daring to park my car in an unmarked space in a public parking lot at the county airport. I told her I didn't see a handicap or other reserved parking sign and asked her the problem. She informed me it was her spot as "base commander" and I was "disrespecting her authority" by parking there. I don't think I've ever laughed right in someone's face like I did that day.
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A Karen in uniform. Interesting subspecies of Karen’s.
 
I think it’s the work environment that gets in the way. I enjoyed my time in CAP. We flew a lot and used the airplanes effectively to support local government and take care of cadets interested in aviation. Even then there were enough douche nozzles in BDU’s to make it not worthwhile.
 
Todd82 said:
Several years ago this little bulldog standing all of 5 ft nothing in her boots and full camo would march, degrade, and scream at her squadron of CAP kiddos marching them on taxiways and around an apron in front of guys yelling "Clear prop" etc. She'd also make them call her "sir." How she treated the kids was bad enough but she was teaching them unsafe practices at an airport.

One day she decided to scream and try to berate me for daring to park my car in an unmarked space in a public parking lot at the county airport. I told her I didn't see a handicap or other reserved parking sign and asked her the problem. She informed me it was her spot as "base commander" and I was "disrespecting her authority" by parking there. I don't think I've ever laughed right in someone's face like I did that day.
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Oh please please please let one of them try it with me. :rolleyes: It's all I'll ask for for Christmas.
 
It's unfortunate that most interaction with CAP is with little brats that are allowed to get away with it. I've seen it a handful of times in Colorado and they were rapidly "corrected" as was the senior member with them to allowed/told them to do it. As we tell potential members (the parents) each squadron has a different personality. Visit more than one, see if it works for you. It's not for everyone. Neither is flying in any form but we don't berate our friends if they don't want to come along for lunch. Or do we?
 
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