FLIGHT LOG

Pell City Squadron Alabama Wing Civil Air Patrol

July 2010
CALENDAR
Jul 1st 4th 8th 12th 15th 22nd 29th Cadet meeting 1800-2030 Happy Birthday America Cadet meeting 1800-2030 Officers Meeting 1830-2030 Commanders Call MXF 0900 Cadet meeting 1800-2030 Cadet meeting 1800-2030 Officers Meeting 1830-2030 Cadet meeting 1800-2030

Commanders Corner:
Summer is here It looks like summer has arrived in Alabama with a vengeance. The mercury has stayed above 90 for most of the day. There are no immediate signs of relief except for knowledge that fall will eventually arrive. The immediate concern is working in the heat. It does not matter whether we are working on a mission or working in our yard. Our bodies will take some time to slowly acclimate to the new environment. During this period of acclimation we are all at risk. To minimize this risk we need to do the following: Take lots of breaks. The military work/rest schedule for a heat index above 118 deg F. is 30 minutes work and 30 minutes rest. Rest in the shade if possible. Drink lots of water. At a heat index of 118 deg F. you should drink 1.5 quarts of water each hour. On a day with low humidity you may feel dry, but you are still losing a large amount of water. You must stay hydrated. You need to drink water before you get thirsty.

Wear loose and light colored clothing. Loose clothing allows your body to breath and light colors reflect some of the heat. Wear sunscreen when working outside. Very few things are more painful than sunburns. Wear insect repellent. Late afternoon and evening the little creatures are at their worst. Plan your activities. Plan activities to be completed in the early morning or late afternoon to avoid the most intense heat of the day. Watch the reported heat index values. Remember when working in full sun to add up to 15 deg F. to the reported heat index values. Watch the weather. Thunderstorms often develop quickly in the day due to convective heating. Lightning is very dangerous and can be intense. Watch the weather and have a backup plan. Watch the people around you. One of the first signs of severe heat stress is loss of judgment. You may not realize that you are having a problem. Review the signs and symptoms of heat emergencies. Heat Cramps, Heat Exhaustion, and Heat Stroke. Heat Stoke can be fatal. With care we can all enjoy the warmer weather and remain safe while our bodies get acclimated to the heat. Remember to watch out for your pets in this heat.

Captain James T. Gosnell Squadron Commander, 118

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First Lieutenant Ron Harlan

our own Squadron 118 members assisting in various phases of the exercise and kept everything moving at a good pace and served a barbecue lunch to the survivors and the various crew members. The water portion of the training involved jumping into the water from the ferry boat fully clothed and with shoes on, swimming about 100 yards to the life raft, climbing into the raft, climbing out again, waiting for the helicopter and rescue crew to pick you up and being flown to shore attached to the long line by either a chair harness or the under-arm strap. Each trainee could inflate their life vest anytime they wanted but it had to be inflated prior to the pick- up.

Safety Corner:
The ALWG Standards and Evaluations Group conducted a water survival training course on Friday, June 4th. The event was one of those rare training opportunities that, other than climbing out of a ditched aircraft, was as realistic as possible. Bo Andrews of the AL Highway Patrol (and CAP) and several of his fellow troopers supplied the rescue helicopter and the long line rescue team. The training session started in Donnie Todds hanger at PLR with a welcome by Brad Lynn, the Vice Wing Commander, and a thorough briefing by Donnie and Bo as to how the water portion of the training was to be conducted. We were briefed on the two types of life vests to be used and the features of the life raft that was to be our interim staging point before being rescued from the water and flown safely to shore. Bo also explained the two types of lifting devices, the under-arm strap and the chair harness, that would be used. There is a CAP video on Water Survival that was not shown at this session because of its length but it will be made available to all the participating squadrons for viewing at a later time. Several of our 118 members saw the video at our regular meeting on June 10th. The trainees then made their way via the CAP van or personal vehicles to the Pell City Park for a thorough dunking in Lake Logan Martin. Jon Garlick of the Calhoun County Sheriffs Department (and CAP) procured the boat and crew from their marine unit, which took the trainees out into the lake where the simulated ditching took place. There were several divers from the New London Fire Department in the water to assist in the case of an emergency. The AL Marine Police also patrolled the bay to keep other boats from entering the rescue area. The Pell City Fire Department was standing by with an ambulance in case anyone needed medical assistance. There were also a number of

Waiting to hit the water

I had the type of life vest that looks like large suspenders so I initially elected to not inflate it and swim using a crawl stroke. I quickly tired and I then inflated the vest and swam the rest of the way using a backstroke. At least for me, it seemed much less tiring using the backstroke and using the vest for floatation. Using an underwater strap as an aid to getting into the five-man raft was helpful. After a few minutes in the raft, I put on the chair harness and entered the water again to await a pick up. There was a rescue person at the lower end of the long line to assist in hooking up to the D-ring on my harness and who rode the line to shore with me. The helicopter crew did not use the winch capability of the craft for this exercise. One thing that surprised me, even though Bo warned us about it, was the force of the water flying into my face from the rotor downwash. It seemed like someone was spraying me in the face from a highpressure hose. As I said in the opening paragraph, this was an extremely realistic training exercise and I am glad several of our squadron members were able to participate. I am grateful to all the organizations that contributed personnel and equipment to the session and to our own squadron members who assisted in carrying

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this out in a professional manner. Donnie Todd has said that another such session will be held this summer. If you havent had this training and you wish to participate in over-water operations, you should be on the lookout for the next session.

Stay Safe! Ronald Harlan, Safety Officer/Squadron 118

Alabama State Troopers Participate in the water survival training

Cadets Page
Ahhhh, the end of May. School is out for students and teachers Now is the time to be lazy, sleep in -3-

late, not worry about tests, or classes and enjoy all the fun that summer brings. First lets start by congratulating Cadets Jerrod Finley and Daniel Brasher upon their graduation from high school. Now they get to start planning the rest of their lives. This is a milestone in their lives and we wish them the best life has to offer. With summer here there are a lot of activities that CAP offers and our cadets and Senior Members are able to participate in. With the disaster in the gulf region making headlines and CAPs participation in that mission, we started the month with a Water Survival Course here in Pell City the first weekend in June. Both 1st Lt. Eddie Shurbutt and C/CMSgt Jerrod Finley got very wet at the lake. C/CMSgt Finley caught a ride to National Emergency Services Academy at Camp Atterbury, Indiana the next weekend to provide staff support to the school. While he was there we had two other cadets preparing to take part in the joint AL/MS 2010 Basic Encampment in Gulfport, Mississippi. I think everyone had a good time wherever they were. The latest promotions are as follows: promoting to C/A1C is Tiffany Chandler, promoting to C/SrA are Allison Howard, Allaina Howard, and Michael Norwood, promoting to C/CMSgt is Daniel Smith. Congratulations to all!! Keep up the good work. Also in the month of May there was an Air Force Association Sergeants Award presented to C/CMSgt Jerrod Finley. On May 3rd retired Master Sergeant Raymond Dixon visited the cadet meeting and made the presentation to Cadet Finley. We appreciate the partnership that the Air Force Association has with Civil Air Patrol and thank them for this award. Last of the travelers this month was Capt Cindy Bennett who attended National Aerospace Education Officers School. This school was held in Pensacola, Florida June 22-26. We learned a lot of new stuff that we will be experimenting with. With activities and supplies from evilmadscientist aerospace could get interesting in the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, several of us decided to visit the public pier and beach after school was out on Wednesday June 23, only to discover the oil had washed onshore and there were workers in hazmat suits shoveling sand into plastic bags. How sad.

On a more positive note this month, June 25th marked the birthday of General Hap Arnold. General Arnold was the Commanding General of the Army Air Force during WWII and the second achievement of cadet advancement is named after him. So all those who promoted to C/A1C this month, congratulations on completing your Arnold. The Cadet Oath I pledge that I will serve faithfully in the Civil Air Patrol Cadet Program and that I will attend meetings regularly, participate actively in unit activities, obey my officers, wear my uniform properly, and advance my education and training rapidly to prepare myself to be of service to my community, state, and nation.

CAPs Core Values Integrity, Volunteer Service, Excellence, Respect

Capt Cindy Bennett

Rachel and Eddie Shurbutt at water survival training

Paper or Plastic?
This is a question we get at the grocery store although on a limited basis these days. We no longer have the option of having a paper FAA airmans certificate; you must have a plastic one as of March 2010. But what I would like to discuss in this article is your choice of using paper or plastic to plan your flights. I must confess I no longer pull -4-

out a paper sectional or IFR en-route chart to plan my flights. All my flights both at work and for personal flying are planned on the computer (i.e. plastic). I view most paper like history books, they tell us of the way things were rather than how they currently are. I get the most up-to-date information from the computer, which I consider a living source, meaning a source that is constantly being updated. Paper charts may help us get the big picture of where things are and where things are not, like airports and airspace. I have gotten comfortable using online charts to view my routes. We have talked in the past about online flight planners and online websites to obtain weather information. These are still worth mentioning once again. The website: www.fltplan.com is the Wal-Mart of online flight planning. It is one stop shopping for planning, weather, review of en-route charts, airport info (i.e.) AFD, and IFR approach charts. AOPAs website with their online flight planner is also an excellent site. Both of these sites use a DUATs link to get FAA approved weather. Just like when you call a briefer to get an approved briefing by using one of these sites you are fulfilling your requirement to get an approved briefing. By using an approved site to plan your flights, check the weather and even file your flight it gives you the time to review your work. Once you hang up with a briefer you may have lost some of the information in the conversation. By being able to read the weather we can better understand what is going on. Flight planning is no different. We use the weather information to determine the best altitude and route with reference to the wind and other weather i.e. convective activity or low ceilings, etc. All the data that makes up the aviation charts like sectionals, enroute charts, AFDs and approach charts is gathered and maintained by the FAA. We have already paid for this information though taxes and fees. When you buy a chart you are paying for the printing and the paper. Today we have the advantage to view this data in another medium. The internet has given us a low cost way to access this data. We can ether print it to take with us or download it onto a device that we can use in the cockpit. As operators of FAA Part 91 aircraft the FAA says as long as we have the current and complete data available to us as we fly we are satisfying the preflight requirements to have reviewed all data pertaining to the flight with

reference to charts, etc. It does not specify that it has to be in a paper form. One issue we must deal with if you are not going to use paper is power. This means power to run whatever device you have chosen to view the data. It can be a laptop computer, a net book, or one of the reader devices normally used to read books like a Kendal or Sony Reader. But you must make sure you have enough power to run whatever device you have. You may want to purchase a back up battery or a plug that will access the aircrafts power. I choose to print off the charts that I know I will need, like my destination and an alternate if the weather is in question. I then use a Sony Reader for any unplanned stops or if for some reason I cannot land at my destination or alternate. Many avionics manufacturers have developed products which contain all the information in them. Garmins 696 and others provide you with the means to view all the charts both VFR and IFR. They can get quite pricey just to purchase the unit (generally a couple of thousand dollars). Then you have to buy a subscription to make sure your data remains up-todate. I realize that the cost of flying is not getting any cheaper. So I wanted you to know that a lot of the information that you are required to have is available for free or at a very nominal cost. You really dont have to pay a couple hundred dollars a year to have current navigation data. Take some time to look at the websites I have listed below and you will see when it comes to flight planning today you really do have other options available to you rather than just paper. Capt. Chris Iddins, Standards /Eval. Web Sites: http://skyvector.com/ http://fltplan.com/ Apple IPAD is new to the market and a very exciting device. There have been many apps available for the IPhone and the developers are scrambling to improve and make them available with enhanced features the IPAD supports. Its robust battery life of 13 hours makes it ideal for cockpit use and 12 volts charger cords are available if needed. One of the most exciting products available is Foreflight HD. It provides all information included in the facilities directory as -5-

well as in route high/low charts, VFR sectionals and moving maps, if you get the 3G version. The 3G version includes a GPS chip whereas the original IPAD did not. You can file flight plans as well as see all approach plates. The plate on the screen is just about the same as a paper version in size. I would suggest it is worth a look on the Foreflight web page listed below. There is a nominal subscription charge of $75/yr for administrative fees and server space to hold the updates, but a small price to pay for the amount of info you receive. If you already have an IPAD, you can download the app free and get a trial subscription for three months at no cost. With the IPAD you also have access to movies, when weathered in, as well as email and internet when in the terminal. SM David Taylor http://www.foreflight.com/ipad

State Trooper Helicopter Bell 407 used in Long Line Rescue