In mid May, a First Lieutenant from the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) Illinois Wing – Group 2 contacted our club to ask if we could do a demonstration flight for a group of their young cadets. The Civil Air Patrol is the official auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force and a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Their mission is “Supporting America’s communities with emergency response, diverse aviation and ground services, youth development, and promotion of air, space and cyber power.” The CAP Magnus Composite Squadron youth group we met with is headquartered in North Riverside and has a facebook website at https://www.facebook.com/ILWG.Group.2/?ref=page_internal
On Sunday 5/29/22, three Civil Air Patrol cadets and their parents came to Miller Meadow to get some hands on experience with remote control airplane flight. The cadets had practiced a little with a simulator, and knew the basics of RC flying and the controls of a mode 2 transmitter. Brian Huckstep volunteered ahead of time to meet the cadets at the field at 3pm. The weather was warm and partly cloudy, but unfortunately, winds were higher than optimal, with gusts over 20 mph. They brought their own 1.2 meter wingspan Hobbyzone Mini Apprentice foam airplane, but because it was a windy day, we opted to use a larger Eflite Apprentice 1.5m foam plane that Richie Plaza loaned us.
Club members Edward Wilkerson and Gerardo Sulic happened to be at the field during the meeting and graciously helped out with flight demonstrations and explanations of other types of remote control flight, including jets and quadcopters. We discussed the AMA, safety, plane preparation, batteries, flight basics and etiquette, and forest preserve rules, field rules, and of course how to fly. Each cadet then took a turn flying for 5 minutes (one battery) in the air, doing circuits with a trainer and a buddy box controller. The First Lieutenant who organized the meeting on their end sent a nice Thank You note and I suspect we may see the cadets at our field again.
