[Pilots] September Newsletter

[Greg Bestul]

Hello MN Wing Pilots,

We have passed Labor day, and the state fair is over and the summer has wound down to bring us into fall. There is only about 20 days until most of the funded missions will be closing for the end of the fiscal year. We still have good funding left in the orientation flight mission and flight clinic mission, so lets try and use up what funds that have been provided to us before the end of the fiscal year.
We have our last wing wide orientation flight day coming up Sept 21, so try to get as many cadets flying as we can!
Remember the cost of getting funded flights is making sure all the paperwork is filled out completely!
Good news on the maintenance front. NHQ has made some changes so that we are again able to get parts for our airplanes in a timely manner. Two of our C182’s that have spent most of the summer waiting for parts are coming out ready to fly since the changes took place.
It has been a challenging time with seven of the planes completing pitot static tests, and a rash of alternator failures in the last month. But Maintenance has been doing a great job getting our planes back into the skies now that they can get parts. We should be back to full strength in the coming weeks.
WALDO is coming to MN.
An exciting new program is coming to MN wing. WALDO is a high-definition camera system that will be attached to one of our planes and used to do disaster photo missions. There is only a handful of wings across the country that will have this system. It is being funded and directed by FEMA, as they are excited to have us get good quality pictures of areas so that they can make disaster declarations and get funding for repairs available to affected people. Since MN wing is one of the few to have this system, we will possibly fly missions in neighboring states to help get pictures to assess damages.
The initial training group will be heading to Kansas City this month to get training on how the system works. From there they will be training additional crew so that we will be ready and able to fly when NHQ calls.
If you would be interested in being trained for this mission, please send me an email so that you can be added to the list. You will need to be a Mission pilot to fly this mission. We will also need scanner/operators to control the camera system. The camera will be mounted on a C182 airplane.
We have two ops eval flights to complete by the end of September as well. If you are planning an A12 or A0 flight and could have a CAP-USAF member ride along please let me know so we can complete these two flights.

Thanks for all your hard work and dedication, it is greatly appreciated,
Take care, Fly Safe,
Capt. Greg Bestul
Minnesota Wing Director of Operations
Civil Air Patrol, U.S. Air Force Auxiliary
612-251-4786
GoCivilAirPatrol.com<https://www.gocivilairpatrol.com/>
[cid:61f98534-bd9e-4696-94c1-ad9a712c9c90]

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