Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Squadron Commander Maj. Jim Gosnell Cadet Commander Capt. Cindy Bennett
Inside this issue: Commanders Corner Calendar PAOs Corner Safety Officers Corner W.E.S.S. W.E.S.S. Photos 5 6 1
May 2011
COMMANDERS CORNER . . .
Due to the storm damage received by the Gosnells, Maj. Gosnell will not have an article this month but will resume his regular contribution in Junes newsletter. Here is what he reported after the storm: Rebecca and I are fine. Thank you all for your calls and messages. We did have significant damage, but not nearly as bad as some of our neighbors. We are grateful the we escaped injury. We are truly blessed. We caught the edge of the morning storm and have a lot of damage. We have about 30 downed trees. Some of them hit the house and deck. One pine tree centered Rebecca's car. Our roof, which was only one week old, is damaged, but intact. The front and back decks are both severely damaged. We have siding damage. Our power is out, with our service torn off of the house. We are using our generator for power. We are still waiting to see insurance adjusters for the house and the car, so we can not clean up any of the damage involving them. We have been given permission to start cleaning the areas where trees are down and not involving the house, car, or fences. We are working on the back yard, which is covered with downed trees. It alone will take quite some time. The wireless service is very poor in Moody right now. My cell phone currently is not working at home. I am able to retrieve my messages when I am out picking up supplies. If you need to reach me during this time my home phone is best. I will send more information as it is available. Jim Gosnell Commander
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Promotions
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To serve America by developing our Nations youth; accomplishing local, state and national emergency and humanitarian missions; and educating our citizens on the impact of aviation and space. - CAP Mission Statement
Calendar . . .
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MAY 2011
Sun
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Mon
2
Tue
3
Wed
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Thu
5 Cadet Meeting P.T. Clothing Lakeside Park 1800
Fri
Sat
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MOTHERS DAY
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Cadet Meeting Blues 1800
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Cadet Mt. 1800 BDUs
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Armed Forces Day Trent Johnsons High School Graduation
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Cadet Meeting BDUs 1800
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31 Memorial Day
June 1
June 2
June 4
June 5
LAKE WESS
LAKE WESS
PAOs CORNER . . .
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Its great to be alive following the recent tragic storms that passed through our beautiful state. Im constantly reminded on the fragility of life and how quickly circumstances can change. Lets all look at this time to refocus on what we want to accomplish with our lives and how we will live the remainder of our time on this sphere. I find it exciting when cadets promote. It represents dedication, commitment, and hard work. The promotion is the payback for those elements. As PAO, it is my job to place information in local newsletters and publications. If you have recently promoted, and Ive not asked you for permission to publish your promotion, please come and ask me. I will not put any cadets name or photo in a newspaper or publication without your and your parents permission. Thanks to all of you cadets who have joined the Yahoo mailing group. If you set up a Yahoo account, you can access the files and calendar. Please make the most of this tool. If you should change your email address, please let me know so that I can update it on the group. Sometimes incorrect information is sent out by mistake. If you should see that happening, please contact me personally, including the corrected information, and I will do my best to correct it. Junes newsletter will focus on the storms, damage, and the part Civil Air Patrol is playing in it all. Please send me any information that would help support that focus. 2nd Lt. Elizabeth Shurbutt
Cadet Services
http://www.capmembers.com/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ PellCityCAP/
Safety Corner . . .
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SAFETY
Yes, at the end of May, Memorial Day will signal the start of the 101 days of summer that will extend through the Labor Day holiday. Of course, they dont have to be hazardous, if you follow some common sense safety rules in your recreational activities. You may recall the story about how military base commanders noticed a sharp increase in absences during the summer. It seems that the military members were doing many of the same activities that we all do for summer recreation, boating, swimming, camping, hiking, riding motorcycles, etc. They were also experiencing many of same injuries that the civilian population does when their recreation turns harmful. The military started to focus on the off-duty activities and put in place programs to help the soldiers learn safer ways to do the activities or recognize some that were so risky that they should be scratched altogether. I know boating, swimming and other water sports are very popular with our members and well they should be, with a wonderful lake so close to you. Just remember the safe way to perform all the fun things so that fun doesnt end up with pain or worse. Of course, warm weather also encourages us to get out and do work items that can expose us to dangerous conditions so follow the safety rules here also. The events on April 27 have dramatically shown us that the storm season is upon us. I hope that you werent affected adversely by the storms but I already know that some of our members were. While we are taking a breather we should take another hard look at our preparedness for another onslaught if it were to occur. The FEMA web site has some very good suggestions if you want use it as a checklist to see if your preparations are done well. Please have fun this summer but plan to be safe as well! Ron Harlan, 118 Safety Officer
Reminder: Read the newsletter and receive a Safety Briefing Credit. Please email Ron Harlan at reh1685@aol.com
Nathaniel Bedford - Basic School Christian Blankenship - Basic School Thomas BrackerBasic School Tiffany ChandlerBasic School Jerrod FinlayAdvanced Staff School Allaina HowardBasic School Allison Howard Basic School Jessica LucyAdvanced School Mark LucyBasic School James Mastroni Basic School Raymond MillerBasic School Christian NorwoodBasic School Michael NorwoodBasic School Jonathan WatkinsBasic School Peter RandolphICS/Staff Rachel ShurbuttICS/Staff Major Cindy BennettStaff Major John RandolphStaff 2nd Lt. Elizabeth ShurbuttPhotographer Lt. Eddie ShurbuttStaff
http://nesa.cap.gov/
WESS PHOTOS . . .
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Last month I was flying into Birmingham from a trip to the east coast in a twin engine aircraft. When I put the landing gear down there were only two green lights instead of the normal three green. I informed the tower that I needed to depart the area and work out the problem. After I had stabilized the aircraft and made certain the autopilot would maintain the heading and altitude needed I began the process of trouble shooting the landing gear indicators. I ended up changing a few light bulbs, which did not correct the problem. So, I requested a fly by of the tower so they could look at my gear with binoculars to see if it appeared to be down. The tower said everything looked in place. So I made a very smooth landing and taxied very slowly to the ramp. This same problem happened to an Eastern Airline aircraft that was landing in Miami back in the 70s. The three man crew also requested to leave the airport area so that they could evaluate why one of their landing gear indicators was not working. Unfortunately the three pilots became so focused on the inoperative landing gear indicator light bulb they missed the fact that the autopilot had disengaged. The aircraft made a very shallow descent into the everglades where the L-1011 airliner crashed. Many people were killed, some did survive. This became a landmark accident in the aviation community as it re-emphasized that, as pilots, we must always fly the aircraft first. I will tell you that this accident was on my mind as I worked the problem with the landing gear. We all need to keep situations like this in mind no matter what we are doing flying, driving, or cutting the grass, always pay attention to the task at hand. Do not let yourself become distracted. And always remember: it is the little things that will get you every time. Maj. Iddins AL-118 Standards/ Evaluations
Pell Citys Cadet Squadron welcomes Col. Beth Dumont as a temporary Senior Member of the squadron. Beth is living in Pell City and working temporarily at Regional Medical Center in Anniston. Col. Dumont is originally from the Highpoint Composite Squadron in Cadillac, Michigan and attained the General Carl A. Spaatz Ward March, 2008. Welcome, Beth!!!
Aerospace Article . . .
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Space Probes
Space is a dangerous and unpredictable place. That fact standing, we have sent out probes to scout ahead into space. Probes are robots, programmed to send back data gathered from missions. Space probes are a helpful tool in learning about our Universe. When they fail, it does represent a loss of millions of dollars, but no lives are lost, and that is their purpose. Some have been invaluable, like PIONEER and VIKING. Some, however, were faulty, such as MARINER 3 and MARINER 8. We will discuss these missions in greater detail. In 1959, the USSR launched LUNA 3, which sent back photographs of the far side of the moon. MARINER 2, sent to Venus, made the first successful probe flyby of another planet. MARINER 3 was destroyed when its protective shroud failed to deploy. MARINER 4 made a flyby of Mars in '65. MARINER 8 failed to launch, so its sister probe MARINER 9 became the first probe to orbit the red planet. PIONEER 10 and 11 both made flybys of Jupiter in the mid-70. PIONEER 11 went on to flyby Saturn. These two probes were designed to test long range space probes, and the successes and failures of these missions made the VOYAGER missions possible. MARINER 10 used Venus as a slingshot to reach Mercury, and as it did so it made the first ultraviolet scans of the planet's surface. The probe made three flybys of Mercury. VENERA 7 became the first probe to return data from another planet in 1970, and VENERA 9 became the first spacecraft to land on the surface of another planet when it landed on Venus in '75. Both these probes were launched by the USSR. VIKING 1 was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida on August 20, 1975 on a TITAN 3ECENTAUR D1 rocket. The probe entered Mars orbit on June 19, '76, and set down on July 20th. There it began its programmed search for Martian micro-organisms (It did not find any little green men, but it might have found remains of life. That is still in debate.) VIKING 2 was launched on September 9th, and entered orbit on August 7th, 1976. It touched the surface on the 3rd, doing much the same thing as VIKING 1, except its seismometer worked, and recorded one land quake. Earth received the last transmission from the VIKING probes, from the VIKING 1 Lander, on November 11th, 1982. The VOYAGER missions are possibly the most widely known space probes. VOYAGER 1 was launched on September 5, '77. It flew past Jupiter on March 5, '79, and Saturn November 13, '80. Voyager 2 was launched August 20, 1977 (before Voyager 1), and flew by Jupiter on August 7, 1979, by Saturn on August 26, 1981, by Uranus on January 24, 1986, and by Neptune on August 8, 1989. Voyager 2 took advantage of a rare once-every-189-years alignment to slingshot its way from outer planet to outer planet. MAGELLAN, launched May 1989, mapped 98% of Venus, and mapped a gravity field of 95% of the planet. In 1994, just before it batteries would have run out, it was sent into the atmosphere for a final atmospheric entry test. Hubble Space Telescope, launched April 1990, is a high-resolution camera, capable of taking pictures of nebula, stars, etc. that are millions of light years away, providing data about other galaxies, black holes, and other planets, called explants. After its November 1, 1994, launch, NASA's WIND satellite will take up a vantage point between the Sun and the Earth, giving scientists a unique opportunity to study the enormous flow of energy and momentum known as the solar wind. Written by Cadet John Smith
CADET OATH
"I pledge to 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."
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SENIOR PROMOTION
Senior Member Elizabeth Taylor Promoted to 2nd Lt.
CADET PROMOTION
(photo unavailable) Cadet Allison Howard Promoted to C/SSgt.
Cadet David Thompson promoted to C/AMN