Hey guys, I wish I hard more focus lately to contribute here as much as I used back in the day when it was just the podcast and the original pilot ground crew but I’m so glad to watch this community grow from the side lines it was an amazing community and resource for me when I was working on my private pilot and I can’t thank the 3 of them enough.
But anyways enough of that, what I came here to share today was something I recently started to get involved in. When I first got into aviation it was because I had always been fascinated with flying and how awesome it was, but at the time I had been working in my career of Emergency Services for over a decade and it doesn’t pay that great and flying is expensive so how can I justify the cost to my family?!
The Veterans Administration gave me an opportunity to earn my wings free of charge with the promise I turn some aspect of my training into a career in aviation which is awesome but the catch is idk what I plan to do with that I don’t really have a desire to fly for the airlines.. and it’s not because I don’t think that’s a good job or anything it’s just I dont want to be away from my family for extended periods of time that life style would seriously put a strain on my home life.
So … anyways I’m getting off topic but how do I combined my love of aviation and my career in emergency services??
Doing some research and looking for ways to fly for a purpose more often then flying just when I can afford to or for training I found the Civil Air Patrol.
Now ironically I used to poke fun with my friends about the organization but after some deep research I found out that I was very surprised,
Civil Air Patrols 3 main missions are Aerospace Education, Emergency Services, a Youth Program for Cadets. They are part of the US Airforce ( Auxiliary ) and have a a long history going back to world war 2. They fly over 90% of the inland search and rescue missions for the Airforce and local government agencies, they assist in Counter Drug Operations and homeland security amongst many other things.
They have the largest fixed wing aircraft fleet in the world flying primarily Cessna aircraft like the 172 S Model and the 182 and an extensive training program with Ties directly to the FAA.
I couldn’t have found a better organization to combine all of my experience and interests and I’m hoping it’ll help me find a future profession in aviation down the line.
I’ve only just started my path into the civil air patrol and would love to share it with others as I progress.
Has anyone here had experience with them