’09 Conference Exceeds Expectations

Photos by Col. John Swain, CAP National Headquarters
Its volunteer members — including these Maryland Wing cadets — are CAPʼ s most treasured assets.
Safety
If members are CAP’s most important assets, then
keeping them safe is paramount. While CAP
traditionally has a low accident rate, year-to-date studies
find that rate creeping up from 2.84 to 3.34 accidents
per 100,000 flying hours. While this rate is better than
the general aviation average, CAP’s goal is to lead the
way with the best safety record of all.
“We need to be the resource of choice for our
partners,” Courter emphasized, adding that CAP’s goal
is a zero accident rate. She also aims for zero aircraft
maintenance issues found during preflight inspections.
Education, setting standards and holding ourselves and
each other accountable to our standards are the keys to
success, she said.
Emergency Services
In addition to increasing orientation flights for CAP
cadets and Air Force ROTC cadets, CAP is seeing its
traditional missions of search and rescue transformed
into more homeland security duties: Search and rescue
missions are down 29 percent, while homeland security
missions are up 45 percent. Thankfully, and because of
technological advances, fewer hours are now invested
searching for lost people or victims of accidents, fr eeing
CAP volunteers to perform increasing homeland security
missions that benefit our nation.
Aerospace Education
2009 finds CAP’s aerospace education program
strong and growing. In fact, since 2007, the number of
aerospace education members has increased 150 percent,
and those teachers work with more than 70,000
students each year.
Cadet Programs
In the spring, cadet achievement tests will be available
online, the first two volumes of “Learn to Lead”
textbooks will be published and a guide for establishing
CAP cadet squadrons at middle and high schools will be
Civil Air Patrol Volunteer 28 November-December 2009