A Night with the Civil Air Patrol

[Mike Griffin]

Last night I attended a meeting of a Civil Air Patrol Cadet Squadron.   Years ago in the early 70's, I flew out of Tampa, Florida as an observer for the CAP but really never had the chance to work with young cadets who were involved in ground support squadrons so last night was my first experience in doing so.  Actually, one of our club members is a Captain in this squadron and he had invited me along with three other club members to attend because they are always needing adults to work with the cadets.

These young men and women are wonderful kids and a pleasure to be around and are more than eager to explain what they do and why they do it.  It is such a wonderful thing to be around dedicated young people who have high aspirations.

I noticed that on the table of displays which included model rockets, planes and even a NASA space suit, there was a fairly large hexacopter.  The reason I call it that is because there were six rotors and it was larger than most I have seen.  It was also capable of delivering things.  I started inquiring about how they used it and they are going through training right now to learn how to fly it and it will be used to look for downed aircraft, stranded or lost hikers and many missions similarly related.  It even has the capability of delivering food and water to people who are stranded or injured and cannot be reached in any other manner.  

I guess my point is that we gripe, including myself, about the misuse of these things but there are many applications that are very productive and could even save lives.

I want to conclude that I will be getting involved again with the Civil Air Patrol whether I return as a flying observer or working with these cadets.  There is always a need for adults to be involved with these cadet squadrons and that is where I might end up.  They follow military protocol and they wear Air Force Cadet uniforms.  It brought back some fond memories as a lot of the cadets went through a promotion ceremony and I was privileged to see the excitement of these young people.

By the way, it is also a great way to promote control line flying and they are interested.

Thanks for letting me express the enthusiasm I was fortunate to be a part of last night.

Mike

[Tim Wescott]

Our RC club hosted a group of first-person-viewer quad racers.  Just a racing quad, with no other modifications, could be used for short-term tactical reconnaissance in an emergency situation.  You couldn't maneuver one inside a house, but you could look inside a garage or a commercial building, you could check down a cliff or up a hillside for people or crashed cars, etc.

For fire service personnel needing to assess a fire or a car that's gone into a ravine it'd be great.  Ditto for a SWAT team that needs to find a shooter.

I think quads have a lot of value to offer.

[Mark Scarborough]

I saw an advertisment for a quad that would be deployed in situations of heart attack, stating the quad could have gps programing to allow it to fly to the scene of the heart attack victim in much faster time than an ambulance. ( this was in a city setting) the quad had an onboad radio transmitter reciever to allow hands free conversation with the reporting party and could talk them through using the on board defibulation (?) machine to shock the patient back into rythm,,or try.
interesting notion,,

[Ed Carlaw]

I was a cadet in the NJ 22nd Wing back in the late 60's. I spent a couple of very cold nights in January on a bivouac at Fort Dix/ McQuire AFB. We had to dig a pit to sleep in inside the pup tent. I learned a lot while I was in. We had a great bunch of people doing a great job back then. Brings back some memories. Ed.