Civil Air Patrol
Falcon Squadron
40
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Civil Air Patrol |
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Falcon Squadron
40 |
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| The SAREX morning dawns on a CAP Airplane |
Rick Woods gives the Becker class to the morning participants |
A typical sortie briefing |
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| You could hear the practice ELT, but can you spot the location? |
RTB - Return to Base | CAP Flight landing at Fullerton |
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| A friendly wave or Look Out! Don't worry folks, a zoom lens was used for this picture |
What a CAP crew should look like | CAP Traffic at the fuel pump |
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| Still piloting, even after landing | Nothing to do with the SAREX, but it sure looks nice! |
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The California Wing of the Civil Air Patrol was activated by the Air Force on Friday, 26 th October, in support of operations relating to the fires in California. CAP is flying reconnaissance flights in support of various Federal, Sate and local agencies. Flight and support crews have responded from as far north as Fresno.
Two of the primary tasks assigned are searching for possible victims in areas
not easily accessible by ground crews, and airborne fire damage assessment of
various buildings, facilities and towers used by both the US military and numerous
civilian agencies. The initial request for CAP assistance was received from
the National Operations Center at 10 AM. The first of several CAP aircraft were
in the air by 11: 30. Flight operations continued until about 8 PM.
According to Incident Commander Major Robert Keilholtz, "The feedback we've
received so far from the government has been outstanding. This mission continues
the long-standing tradition of Disaster Relief activity by the members of the
California Wing". Major Keilholtz is himself a fire evacuee. Major Joseph
Di Mento, a Fallbrook evacuee, said "This mission gives me an opportunity
to help further the mission. My family was fortunate to have escaped the conflagration
in and around Fallbrook, while others lost everything they had in the fires.
I'm just happy to have had people there to help us."
The Mission Base opened at 7 AM on Saturday morning at Gillespie Field, with
7 CAP aircraft and 30 members assigned.
Squadron 40 member 2LT Rene Caldera was assigned as the photographer on a flight
whose targets included the Palomar Observatory while 1LT Matthew Scherzi worked
Air Operations.
Aircraft used are six Cessna C-182's and one Gippsland G-8 Airvan. Flights operations
are throughout San Diego, San Bernardino and Orange Counties.
Additional Articles:
CAP
National Website - 29 OCT 07
Aero
News Network - 01 Nov 07
April 19, 2007
Search and Rescue mission in the Tehachapi, CA area.
February 17/18 - Squadron 40 conducted an ELT search and rescue
exercise where we practiced using the Becker DF unit to find a simulated lost
aircraft. Every aircrew successfully located the practice beacon. Four members
achieved new qualifications.
Click
here for the article on the National CAP Website.
Incident Command
Briefing 