I’m back from Camp Atterbury and Columbus, indiana, where I spent the last week attending Mission Aircrew School at CAP’s National Emergency Services Academy. I arrived last night in time to watch a DVD with FOD and Deadly and unload the car. Then a night in my own bed. Nice!
I took the intermediate track as a mission pilot trainee. The track is for pilots with 175+ hours PIC who want to go out and learn search patterns and the ins and outs of CAP aircrew operations. We completed five scenarios over the course of three flights.
My aircrew consisted of four trainees and an IP. We flew three-man crews consisting of two trainees and the IP. Training aircrews usually consist of two pilot trainees and two observer trainees. My group consisted of four pilots, so each of the pilot trainees also flew all of the missions an an observer trainee and will likely get a mission observer qualification as well.
I’m internalizing the experience and will likely have a pretty comprehensive episode on the experience ready to go soon. I’m in that really cool part of the Airspeed season in which I have a lot of content, but little time to polish it and get it out. Making lots of notes and categorizing images, audio, and other material. Stay tunes for some really interesting episodes!
And, by the way, I just scheduled another really good USAF ride for mid-July. More about that once it happens.
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