[Pilots] CAP resuming flight operations

[Greg Bestul]

Hello MN Wing Pilots,

We have weathered the longest government shutdown in history, and it definitely clipped our wings with the ability to fly!

I wanted to bring you up to date as to where we are now and what to expect. While the government is officially open, it will take time for the wheels to go back into motion. During the first week of November most of the CAP NHQ staff was put on furlough, so they need to all be brought back on and get caught up. We will then need to await our funding to be allocated to all of the missions. We are also awaiting the word from NHQ that maintenance can be resumed on our airplanes. Hopefully the go ahead for maintenance will be received by the end of this week. We have positioned most of the planes needing oil changes and inspections at SYN and SGS so once the go ahead is received we will see a majority of our “grounded” airplanes back up again within a week.
Once we receive funding for our flight missions, hopefully we will be able to take advantage of the mild fall weather we have been having and get a lot of proficiency flights done. We want to get everyone back up to speed and current before winter sets in. As we get back to flying, be extra careful moving airplanes in and out of the hangars. We experience the most incidences of hangar rash when we are not proficient and regularly used to moving the planes around. This long break may have started some rust to form on our skills!
Another item to be careful of when we start flying again is make sure you are putting your sorties in the correct mission. We don’t want to put any sorties on a NCR mission, only MN missions.

Some of the planes have been sitting for a while so make sure to do through prefights and check for current database dates in the GPS.

While we wait for things to get back to normal, we can be working on our new winter operations briefing. Each squadron should present this to their pilot group before mid-December. The new presentation can be found on the MN wing website under operations>standardized procedures and training> winter operations briefing.  Make sure you get the 2025/2026 version (it should be uploaded on the website shortly.) If you need a link to the new presentation you can contact Capt. Frank Daly at fdaly at mncap.org<mailto:fdaly at mncap.org>. There is also an added section this year on operation of the electric tug (the ones we have at SGS and HCD) we have had several hangar rash issues associated with operation of these tugs so want to make sure everyone is familiar with them before operating them.
Remember to email rosters of pilots attending the winter briefing to Capt. Frank Daly so that your pilots are eligible for the funded flight portion of the mission.

Some good news on the self-funded flying front. A decrease in the maintenance fees for self-funded flights. The new rates for self-funded flying maintenance charges are on the wing website. For this year they will be $41/hr. C172 and $50/hr. for C182
I will send out notices when maintenance has resumed and when funded missions have received funding.
Thanks for all you do,
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:3bb6e737-d04a-4ddb-9afa-07a71d0ff8e5]


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