Odd CAP news event

James331

James331

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James331
So here I sit at the FBO in SYR, I see a whole gaggle of kids and a news crew, huh, looks like the CAP guys are flying the kids, that's cool!!

...yeah, not really.

So the CAP took up the two teachers up one at a time as the kids sat around in the FBO doing home work, once a teacher landed and the news guy got the footage of her getting out, the other teacher corals all the kids out onto the cold ramp to stand infront of the plane for a picture, didn't see a kid even touch the plane, I hope I missed something here, but this was more of a waiting around a signature FBO field trip for the kids, than anything aviation related. This makes me really consider arraigning my own kids education if I ever decide to produce offspring.
 
That sucks! Kids didn't get to at least sit in the plane for a picture, let alone go for a ride? Was teach a hotty? Maybe that's why she got a ride (excuse the pun).
 
She was maybe a 4.

Didn't see any of them in it, maybe just before I got there, but just the teachers went up.
 
It's a pain in the arse to get approval to fly someone who isn't a CAP member so they must have planned to take teachers from an early stage, not just on the spur of the moment. Odd. I've flown hundreds of kids for CAP, never taken any teachers!
 
I have yet to meet a pilot that would rather take adults over kids. Assuming CAP doesn't have an issue with it, I wonder if there wasn't some sort of BS liability issue on the parent/kid side.

Ugh...regardless that sucks.
 
The kids probably didn't get their permission slips, insurance waiver, background checks and fingerprint cards turned in in time to go for a ride.
 
I flew lots of kids when I was in CAP. They don't have any issues with it. I had heard about the teacher thing--not sure of the details though.
 
Getting the kids up is (or, was; I don't fly CAP anymore) pretty easy; since it's routine, there is only a couple hours of web/email/paperwork/prep to wade through.

Anyone else is a severe bureaucratic goat-rope. Gruesome, just awful hoops to jump through - unless the pilot is "connected", of course. I chased it down for the Mayor of the town where our airplane was based , and it took a couple months to get it approved.
 
Sundancer said:
Getting the kids up is (or, was; I don't fly CAP anymore) pretty easy; since it's routine, there is only a couple hours of web/email/paperwork/prep to wade through.

Anyone else is a severe bureaucratic goat-rope. Gruesome, just awful hoops to jump through - unless the pilot is "connected", of course. I chased it down for the Mayor of the town where our airplane was based , and it took a couple months to get it approved.
Click to expand...

Getting CAP kids up is no problem. I do it a couple of times a month.

Getting AFROTC and AFJROTC kids up is a modest PITA. I do that this Saturday. I don't like the restrictions much, but it's going to happen, weather permitting. Not much I can do in 30 minutes, but I'll ferry them from a towered airport to a close-by nontowered airport, and then reverse for the next AFROTC cadet; they are all first flights and the syllabus is airport pattern and ground operations.

Getting some arbitrary kid off the street up is completely uninsured, and isn't going to happen short of an emergency. The only exception is self-funded Angel flights, which are permitted in CAP aircraft (just recently). To my knowledge, no one has exercised the Angel Flight option; I suspect it's a whole lot easier to use a different plane.

The teacher program is rarely used for kinda obvious reasons. It's a big PITA unless the teachers are CAP members (not usually), and the return isn't so great. I don't know why one would haul kids around to an event like that. Its benefit would be for outreach to the teachers, who can then pass it on in a classroom. An FBO is a poor place for that, especially if they aren't allowed on the ramp.

There are a few flavors of non-CAP members that are allowed, but they all require special approval. State and local emergency workers happen from time to time (we've flown CalOES search dogs and their handlers around). Even active-duty Air Force personnel requires permission. Same for government -- we can't even fly the Governor around to survey disaster damage without approval. The issue is insurance and liability.

I do show & tell occasionally with the search aircraft, especially at local "airport day" events. For that, we let the kids in the plane, but tied down and powered off. They require close supervision or else they start WAILING on the yokes (I'm not kidding!) and pushing random buttons. I haven't had an ELT set off that way yet, but it's honestly only a matter of time. Typically, we tape over the master and standby switches and the ELT, and put page protectors over the computer screens. It's not enough.
 
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