Disaster Relief Mission - California Fires

By Maj Kathy Johnson, photo provided by CAP

The Civil Air Patrol’s California Wing completed an airborne photography mission over the Butte and Valley fire areas near Sacramento, CA on behalf of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.  FEMA will use the images to assess the burn areas and identify the damage to burned or destroyed homes, buildings and other structures. These photographs will support their effort to provide financial aid to the affected home and land owners.

“The Civil Air Patrol, as part of the Air Force’s Total Force, is proud to support FEMA with aerial photography,” says California Wing Incident Commander Lt. Colonel Mitch Richman.  “Within a relatively short period of time, we were able to cover a wide area and provide high quality, GPS-referenced photos to FEMA.”

For seven days in September and October, California Wing flew 49 flights that photographed approximately 232 square miles of both burn areas.  Flying relatively close to the terrain, Civil Air Patrol provided nearly 4,800 images of the devastated regions.  The Butte and Valley fire areas covered about 92,000 and 69,000 acres, respectively.

Aerial Photograph Taken by Civil Air Patrol of an Area Affected by one of the California Wildfires 

Livermore Open House and Air Show

By SM Alexei Roudnev and 1st Lt Karin Hollerbach, photographs as noted

CAP attended the LVK Airport Day on October 3, in celebration of the airport's 50th anniversary. For more information on the event, please click here.

1st Lt Robert Adams Showing the Cessna 206 to Young Future Pilots, photo by SM Roudnev 

Maj Noel Luneau Enjoying a Moment of Relaxation
by the Flying Particles Booth, photo by SM Roudnev

Work started on Friday, the day before the airshow, when we washed the plane. It was never so fresh and clean.  Thanks to all who helped with that - especially 1st Lt Eric Choate, who volunteered to take on cleaning the entire belly of the plane - a messy job.

Saturday was LVK day! We had the Turbo Cessna 206 and our van on the field.

The Cessna became one of the airshow stars:  Everyone with kids wanted to have their picture taken inside.

What's an Airshow without Aerobatics?
Photo by SM Roudnev

Many people stopped by and asked about CAP. It was surprise for some people that CAP is not just about "beacon searches."

Our cadets helped.  Thank you to Squadron 18 cadets!  They also put up a great booth to help provide information to visitors.  Maj Shawn Lawson was interviewed by KKIQ and was able to provide valuable information about CAP's mission and about Squadrons 18 and 188.

It was a good opportunity to make new contacts and friends.

All this was accompanied by impressive acrobatics.

Maj Lawson being Interviewed for KKIQ, photo
provided by Maj Lawson

Even when show ended, there was a long line of visitors waiting for their chance to sit inside the Cessna 206 and have their picture taken.

Other emergency services were represented at the show as well. The USCG brought one of their helicopters to show to the public.

Families Lining up to get their Pictures Taken with the Cessna 206, photo by SM Roudnev

East Bay Cadet Squadron 18 Booth, photo by Maj Lawson

USCG Helicopter at the LVK Airshow, photo by SM Roudnev

CAP Van and Cessna 206, photo by SM Roudnev

Lt Choate Cleaning the 206, photo by Maj Luneau

Fleet Week Event at Moffett Field

By 1st Lt Doug Teeple, Sacramento Composite Squadron 14, photographs by Maj Noel Luneau

CAP Aircraft at Moffett Field for Fleet Week Event

The Fleet Week event at Moffett alongside the presence of two MV-22 Ospreys for a First Responders exercise was very successful.

Representing multiple California Wing squadrons, Lt Teeple, Capt Joshua Edwards, and Maj Luneau were present.  Major Luneau flew in the 2013 T206H from Auburn, which we positioned very close to the 129th ANG Wing and the Ospreys, which flew in from Miramar.

MV-22 Osprey

The Osprey exercise was to demonstrate the ability to convert it to a mobile hospital room for air rescue operations that can be deployed by CalOES and FEMA who were represented in large numbers.

The presence of CAP was appreciated by Fleet Week organizers, and future partnering is welcome.  I met the Fleet Week executive leadership to discuss future participation and it was stated that they look forward to partnering with us in the future.  Lt Teeple’s brother, James Teeple, the Program Manager for the V-22 with Boeing, was instrumental in positioning our partnership with Fleet Week leadership.  They understand that CAP can bring more assets for static display or operational demonstration with more advance planning.

Fleet Week Activities at Moffett

CAP Aircraft at Moffett Field

Many Marines, Air Force and CalOES officers and crew learned about CAP as an important component of the CA First Responders portfolio and as part of the total Air Force capabilities.

Organizing for Fleet Week 2016 kicks off in April, so it’s not too soon to start thinking about next year.

We would like to send a thank you to Lewis Lueben, executive leader of Fleet Week, for supporting our participation.