January 2014 All Hands Meeting - Happy New Year

By 2Lt Hollerbach, Photos Courtesy of Lt Col Tinnirello

January 7, 2014 – our first meeting of the New Year!

During this monthly meeting, the following promotions and ratings were awarded to members of Amelia Earhart Senior Squadron 188.

Promotions

Capt Michelogiannakis, 1Lt Kraus
and 1Lt Fletcher-Hernandez 

1st Lt Georgios Michelogiannakis promoted to Capt
2d Lt Gabriel Fletcher-Hernandez promoted to 1st Lt
2d Lt Robert Kraus promoted to 1st Lt

Capt Michelogiannakis receiving his
promotion from 2Lt Choate and
Capt Rivas

Leadership Ribbon

1Lt Fletcher-Hernandez and Capt Rivas

1st Lt Gabriel Fletcher-Hernandez achieved the technician rating in the Communications Specialty Track.

Newly minted CAP pilot 2Lt Choate

CAP Pilot
1st Lt Robert Kraus
2d Lt Eric Choate

With the addition of these two new CAP pilots, Squadron 188 now has a total of 9 CAP pilots (Maj Luneau, Maj Riebli, Capt Ironfield, Capt Coreas, Capt Michelogiannakis, Capt Eichelberger, 1Lt Rugroden, 2Lt Choate, 2Lt Kraus) plus 5 trainees in the pipeline!

Safety Training
After the awards, for this month’s safety training, we watched and discussed a heartbreaking video.

The story told in the video is about Russ Jeter, an experienced and careful pilot, who made a critical error and paid a very high price for it – the loss of his son. Kudos to Mr. Jeter, for sharing his story and funding the creation of this video.

As pilots, we are all taught to evaluate whether or not we are fit to fly on any given day, using tools such as IMSAFE and others. But sometimes it is difficult to really evaluate our own fitness, particularly in areas where the answers may not be

1Lt Rugroden

obvious.  We can readily determine things like – did I get enough sleep last night?  Do I have a cold? Am I taking any medications right now? Have I been drinking alcohol in the last X hours? Etc. But what about more subtle factors like stress?

1Lt Chavez

There is a lot of research about the negative effects of stress: Stress can cause us to lose concentration, become forgetful, and generally perform poorly on tasks, even those that may be quite familiar to us. Recognizing these effects and evaluating their potential impact, however, can be extremely difficult. A simple IMSAFE self-check may not be adequate when “stuff happens” in life, particularly when these precipitating events occurred days or weeks earlier, as was the case in Mr Jeter's story.

1Lt Bitz

The video can be accessed here, on the AOPA website.


Stay safe!