[Pilots] Spring Operations Newsletter

Wed Apr 30 12:16:37 CDT 2025

Hello MN Wing Pilots,

Spring is upon us, and as the saying goes "Spring rains bring clean planes!"  It's that time of year, we need to get all of our planes washed. CAP-USAF wants to see at least two washing per year.  ANE and 21D have already been hard at it and have washed N837CP and N9834L!

So, if your squadron has a plane assigned to it, get a time scheduled this May to get it washed. Once you have completed the washing, send me a email letting me know which plane and what date you completed it so I can get it recorded.

We are continuing to do a great job flying our planes, for April (through the 29th) we have flown 259 hours, last April we flew 209. We have not had any damage issues this month, so keep up the good work!

Flight academies are coming up this summer, if you are an instructor interested in helping teach at one of the academy's or a TMP or MP that would be interested in ferrying a plane to/from an academy, Let me know. The dates and locations of the closest ones are
NCR flight academy  Jun 12-26 Fremont NE
Great Lakes academy  Jun 6-16 Oshkosh WI
IL wing academy Jun 14-22 Mattoon IL

This summer we are going to try a new program to promote and accomplish as many orientation flight as possible.
We have been fortunate to have several new squadrons and flights start up in MN wing this year. Wright Co flight, Detroit Lakes squadron, St Michael squadron, and several more that are in the works. With these new squadrons along with several of our other squadrons that do not have planes, we want to be able to offer cadet orientation flights to the cadets in these squadrons. The new program will have us contacting squadron commanders to line up cadets that would like to have O rides and coordinate Orientation pilots and planes to be able to get the cadets airborne.
We have Maj Jim Zurales as our wing Orientation flight czar. He will be the contact person to coordinate the planes, pilots, and cadets. So if you are an Orientation pilot that would be able to help out, please contact Maj Zurales with your availability.
His contact information is:
Maj Jim Zurales
612-281-3100
jimzurales at gmail.com

Finally, an area that we need to improve on is proficiency flight debriefs. Proficiency flights are a great opportunity for us to get funded flying, but they are very specific about the requirements of what and how we have to document , and we are not doing that very well.
Some items to help explain how we will be able to improve this:

In the preamble to the CAP standard 71-4, which is where the proficiency flight profiles are located.

[cid:22b0d4a0-366d-4cc9-b0be-7711775aaaaa]
The Yellow highlight shows what we are supposed to be doing (note that the debreif items are supposed to be typed into the Results/Deliverable section). We fall short on typing all the items that are supposed to be done into the debreif!
The green highlights shows the alternate method that we are going to use from now on to document our proficiency flights.
The red highlight shows what may start happening if we don't start getting our documentation done correctly!!

To accomplish the new method we will use the following steps:
#1 find which profile you want to fly in the CAP standards 71-4

[cid:9a846045-530f-4b2a-ae19-946012ae4f66]

#2 Print out the profile sheet for the profile you choose.
(squadrons may want to print out some profile #4,#7, and #16 profile sheets to have them available for pilots to pick up and go. These are the most common profiles we fly)

[cid:cb38fe54-869c-4aa7-95b4-e2f0d39f36d7]

#3 Go fly, and mark your profile sheet to show what you did (feel free to make notes)

[cid:48c77ba1-8e74-4529-966c-de1b5e3851d3]
#4 After your flight during the debrief, make a statement in the results/deliverable section that you have uploaded the profile syllabus. Scan your syllabus,  Then click on the Sortie Files link to go to the upload page.

[cid:f7e5a7e2-f650-4fc1-a1a3-e3ee962b1b74]
#5 On the upload page you will have to click on the dropdown menu for "select folder" then click on "add folder"
Type " profile"  in the folder name and upload your syllabus file. Your documentation in Complete!!

[cid:ec86502f-b3da-4bb3-9419-3a631ccc5370]
[cid:ed6c23b9-b0e6-4214-af3d-b2d2316b386a]

I realize that this will take a few times to get used to, but in the end it will be easier than having to type in all the items into the results section, making sure not to miss anything, and will preclude us from having a proficiency flight funding denied.

We will be reviewing this new process during the flight clinic ground training, which will be coming soon.

Thank you for your help with this new process, and for all you do to help make CAP and our wing a great organization to be a part of.

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/>
MNCAP.org<https://www.mncap.org/>
[cid:9351ad5b-9eb4-4931-a4a0-d5dd576e24cd]

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