December 2017 All Hands Meeting - Happy Holidays!

Mingling before the meeting starts. Photo by Lt Col Tinnirello.

By 1st Lt Karin Hollerbach. Photos as noted. 

Members (from L to R: 1st Lt Chavez, SM Binninger, 1st Lt Fall,
SM Jones, 2d Lt Sharma) and guests before the meeting.
Photo by Lt Col Tinnirello. 

New member, SM Binninger.
Photo by Lt Col Tinnirello

A warm welcome to our two new squadron members: SM Binninger (new to CAP) and 1st Lt Ettingoff (transferring from Virginia Wing).

Squadron Monthly Recap

November was a relatively quiet month in terms of missions, but we did have one ELT mission in Stockton, with Maj Michelogiannakis (MP), Capt Hayes (MRO), 1st Lt Choate (MO) and 1st Lt Devine (UDF) participating. Congratulations to Lt Devine for his first Find in this mission!

On 8 November, the 129th Rescue Wing invited cadets and Group 2 CAP members to participate in orientation rides. Thanks to Capt Warmkessel (Watsonville) for organizing this event on our side. Participating from our squadron were Lt Col Tinnirello, Lt Col Glenn, Capt Gast, 1st Lt Hollerbach, 2d Lt Campbell, SM Jones, and SM Rainville.   This was my first ever ride in a helicopter, and I think I’m now really spoiled!  That was a lot of fun, especially with being able to ride with the side doors open the entire time and getting a whole new (and windy) perspective on flying! On our tour of the Bay, we also got awesome views of landmarks including the Bay Bridge, Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Embarcadero, and SFO.

Lt Devine (L) receiving a ribbon for this Find from
Capt Hayes (R). Photo by Lt Col Tinnirello.

Lt Hollerbach (L) and Lt Kraus (R) discussing the finer
points of flying. Photo by Lt Col Tinnirello.

On 2 December, we had a Group 2 Flight Clinic, with Squadron 188 participants including Maj Blank, Maj Ironfield, and Maj Michelogiannakis serving as instructors, and Capt Brown, Capt Fenolio, 1st Lt Hollerbach, and 1st Lt Kraus as trainees. Click here for more info on this fun and very educational event.

On 17-19 November, many of our squadron members traveled to Ontario CA to attend the CAWG Educational Conference. Click here for more info.

Waiting for the meeting to start. Photo by Lt Col Tinnirello.

1st Lt Roberts (foreground).
Photo by Lt Col Tinnirello.

Members and guests at the holiday party after the business part of the
meeting. Photo by Lt Col Tinnirello. 

Members and guests at the holiday party after the business part of the
meeting. Photo by Lt Col Tinnirello. 

I Know About This: Better Pilot Series – Personal Minimums

Lt Choate on Personal Minimums. Photo by 2d Lt Roudnev. 

1st Lt Choate presented the current installment of this series, talking about personal minimums – inspired in part by last month’s SAREX at KLVK, in which we had unusual weather for California. This prompted Lt Choate to think further about different types of minimums related to weather and other factors, such as:

• Visibility
• Straight-in vs circling to a runway
• Winds and crosswinds
• Fuel reservers
• Altitude
• Recency and experience
• Familiarity with equipment
• Familiarity with an airport
• Takeoff and landing runway length
• Etc.

As a reminder to all CAP pilots: in some cases CAP minimums are more conservative than FAA ones. Every pilot needs personal minimums – what are yours?

How often do you revisit and revise (up or down) yours?  And you do make your revisions while you are on the ground, and NOT while you are out flying, right?!

New Regs

Maj Michelogiannakis on 70-1. Photo by 2d Lt Roudnev.

New regulations – everyone’s favorite topic!  Remember, the goal of our new regs is to increase safety.

Maj Michelogiannakis went through highlights of the new requirements, many of which include changes to the flight release process as well as qualifications for flight release officers. Please read the regulations in their entirety, as they are now in effect!  Also, we can expect a new California Wing supplement to come out in the next weeks/months.


Upcoming Events

Please join other CAP members at the Saturday 16 December Wreaths Across America event. The ceremony begins promptly at 9 AM, at the Golden Gate National Cemetery.  This is part of a national event, taking place simultaneously at national cemeteries throughout the country, to honor our fallen veterans. Click here for descriptions of the event from past years or click here for information about the Wreaths Across America organization.

Maj Fridell, photo by
Lt Col Tinnirello

The squadron will be dark for the rest of the year’s Tuesdays. The next All Hands meeting will be on Tuesday 2 January 2018.   Enjoy safe and peaceful holidays between now and then.

Mark your calendars: on 30 January 2018, the “5th Tuesday” in January, we will celebrate the 30th anniversary of Squadron 188’s CAP Charter!

Congratulations to the following members for their awards, promotions and renewed or new ES ratings:

• Maj Fridell: Command Pilot: 2000+ hrs PIC + 5yrs as CAP Pilot; Red Service Ribbon (10 years)
• Maj DeFord completed Senior Operations Specialty Track
• Maj Michelogiannakis: renewed AOBD
• Capt Rivas: renewed F5
• Capt Stevulak: Red Service Ribbon (5 years)
• 1st Lt Choate: renewed F5 
• 1st Lt Devine: completed UDF and received a Find Ribbon (see above)
• 1st Lt Roberts Senior Safety Specialty Track
• 2d Lt Sharma’s promotion (from SM to 2d Lt)
• SM Jones: completed MS rating 
• SM Rainville: completed MS rating
• SM Binninger: Membership Ribbon for completion of Level I



2d Lt Sharma (2d L) being assisted with his new Lieutenant's
epaulets by family members and Capt Hayes (R).
Photo by 2d Lt Roudnev. 

• SM Mello: Membership Ribbon for completion of Level I

Happy holidays to all! Photo by Lt Col Tinnirello

Group 2 Flight Clinic at CCR, OAK, PAO and RHV

By 1st Lt Karin Hollerbach, photos as noted.

This weekend, a number of Group 2 pilots participated in a flight clinic, with emphasis on refining everyone’s takeoff and landing skills.

The clinic started off with a ground school session. Since this was a Group 2 event, and we’re all scattered around the Bay Area, we avoided everyone having to travel to a single destination by having the ground school session online. In our virtual meeting, we reviewed common takeoff and landing problems, as well as factors causing them and ways to avoid and/or mitigate them – prevention always being the best option!  Maj Michelogiannakis led this discussion, which was a mandatory part of the clinic.

We were lucky with the weather – after forecasts earlier in the week showed likely precipitation during the day, we had benign VFR conditions and a very high overcast layer only, as well as minimal wind.  OK, maybe not ideal for those pilots specifically wanting to work on their cross-wind takeoff and landing techniques, but great for those of us focusing on other aspects.

Maj Michelogiannakis (L) and Capt Fenolio (R) after their sortie at KOAK.
(Credit unknown - a nice person at the airport.)

Most of the flights were conducted in our G1000 182s, and a couple of people flew the 206 at KRHV.

Capt Brown and I were both assigned to the 182 at Concord airport, KCCR, flying with Maj Ironfield.  We all had a good time and packed an awful lot of takeoffs and landings into 2 short sorties! Twelve landings and two go-arounds later, I know I met my training goals in my sortie.  Thanks to Maj Ironfield (and all the other instructors) for making himself available for this training!

All in all, we had 13 pilots participating in this clinic, flying four airplanes at four different airfields: 4 instructor pilots, 8 trainee pilots, and 1 incident commander (who had to remain on the ground to so that the rest of us could fly safely).

Maj DeFord – Incident Commander (Squadron 188)

Lt Hollerbach (L), Capt Brown (C) and Maj Ironfield (R) between
sorties at KCCR. Photo by Lt Col Tinnirello.

At KOAK

• Maj Michelogiannakis – Project Officer and Instructor (Squadron 188)
• Capt Fenolio – Trainee (Squadron 188)
• 1st Lt Kraus – Trainee (Squadron 188)

At KCCR

• Maj Ironfield – Instructor (Squadron 188)
• Capt Brown – Trainee (Squadron 188)
• 1st Lt Hollerbach – Trainee (Squadron 188)

At KPAO

• Capt Arasmith – Instructor (Squadron 10) 
• Capt Hartman – Trainee (Squadron 80) 
• 2d Lt De Bleecker – Trainee (Squadron 10) 

At KRHV

• Lt Col Sena – Instructor (Squadron 80)
• Maj McCutchen – Trainee (Squadron 10) 
• 1st Lt Gross – Trainee (Squadron 10) 

Squadron 188 at the 2017 California Wing Education Conference

By 1st Lt Karin Hollerbach, photos by Lt Col Crystal Housman except as noted

Opening session at the California Wing (CAWG) Educational Conference on Saturday morning. 

Cadets presenting the Colors at the
opening session.

This year’s California Wing Educational conference was a big success. A number of people from Squadron 188 traveled to Southern California (Ontario) to attend – and in several cases to also present workshops:

• Maj Wang
• Maj Luneau
• Maj Ironfield (CAWG Stan / Eval Officer, co-led the Check Pilots Meeting) 
• Maj DeFord (CAWG Emergency Services Officer, presented not just one but two Aircrew Track workshops: “Let’s Talk Aircrew – Positions and Responsibilities (MP, MO, MS, AP)*” and “Let’s Talk Aircrew – Briefing and Planning – What are Some of the Key Elements We Tend to Forget and the Interaction with the Base Staff?”)
• Maj Fridell (CAWG Asst Director of Aerospace Communication, “Winning with Your AE Plan of Action”) 
• Capt Hayes (CAWG Asst Director of Communications, “What’s New in Communications”) 
• Capt Brown
• Capt Eichelberger (led/co-presented: Base Staff Track: “Aerial Photography and Staff Interaction”) 
• Capt Stevulak
• Capt Rivas
• 1st Lt Hollerbach (co-presented: Base Staff Track: “Aerial Photography and Staff Interaction”) 
• 1st Lt Fall
• 2d Lt Baldwin

* MP - Mission Pilot, MO - Mission Observer, MS - Mission Scanner, AP - Airborne Photographer

It was fun to see people from other squadrons, whom I don’t normally get to see other than at the occasional mission, and have a chance to relax and chat with them. This seemed to be a common theme expressed by attendees.

Lt Hollerbach, co-presenting an AP workshop,
photo by Maj DeFord.

“Awesome networking opportunity. I was able to work with several different squadrons to tentatively schedule 2018 exercises for Group 2. It’s always great to see SoCal people we only get to see twice a year.” Capt Brown

Kudos to CAWG members in general, by one of our members who had transferred to California from another Wing:

“CAWG simply has an amazing combination of quality, capabilities and dedication.” Lt Fall

As a co-presenter of one of the workshops, I can attest to the fact that we really had to focus our comments to fit everything we wanted to talk about into one 45-minute session.  Sounds like Capt Eichelberger and I were not the only ones to struggle with this:

“I learned that it’s tough for presenters to cram one and a half hours of information into the 45-minute slots allocated for each seminar.  So much great information and just not enough time to get it all in.  Also, so many interesting seminars, and each participant had to carefully pick and choose, as you can't go to all of them.” Maj Fridell

Brig Gen Phelka, CAP Vice Commander (L),
Col Stokes, Pacific Region Commander (C), and
Col Ferguson, CAWG Commander (R), at the opening session.

Some pilot or pilots must have impressed Maj Wang, as she commented on learning “that pilots can be useful Ground Team Members too!”  Thank goodness we have multi-skilled and –rated CAP members!  (I am not a Ground Team Member and am suitably impressed.)

The comments by Col Ferguson (California Wing Commander) and others on his staff at the general session on Saturday morning were inspiring. It was interesting to hear about some of the new technologies being evaluated by CAWG for possible deployment. As someone very interested in technology, I was happy to learn that CAWG has someone to oversee CAWG’s R&D efforts to manage these evaluations.

Squadron 188 and other Group 2 members at lunch, from L to R: Maj Kubiak, Maj Lam, Maj Luneau, Capt Stevulak,
Capt Rivas, Maj Ironfield, Capt Hayes, Maj DeFord, Capt Brown, photo by Lt Hollerbach.

Once again, CAP cadets impressed senior members far and wide. Besides my own observations of maturity and professionalism among the cadets I saw at the conference, I heard about one young woman who was able to rescue a former schoolmate, when she witnessed his attempted suicide and was able to notify officials who were able to intervene. This courageous and clear-thinking cadet was presented with a life saving award.  Several of our squadron members congratulated her on a job well done. Our hearts go out to the troubled schoolmate, and we wish him and his family all the best in moving through this difficult period.

Col Ferguson, CAWG Commander

Other cadets impressed with their maturity in handling themselves at presentations and during group workshops such as the tabletop exercise, in which participants simulated a search and rescue exercise. One guide laid out the situation, based on an actual event, and chose an IC (incident commander) from the audience. Participants then prosecuted the simulated search. This could be an intimidating experience, with mostly senior members participating, yet one cadet had enough courage to get in there, make suggestions and speak up. It is great to see our cadet members develop and exercise their leadership skills!

Finally, although I’m sad to say that Squadron 188 did not win any of the Wing awards this time, it’s exciting to see how many awards went to Group 2:

• Squadron 18 – Cadet Squadron of the Year
• Capt Hamilton, Squadron 10 – Professional Development Officer of the Year
• Capt Welch, Squadron 36 – Communications Officer of the Year
• C/1st Lt Feain, Squadron 10 – Cadet Officer of the Year
• C/CMSgt Clish, Squadron 10 – Cadet NCO of the Year
• Maj Morozko, Squadron 10 – Aerospace Education Officer of the Year and Frank Brewer award winner
• Squadron 10 – Composite Squadron of the Year
• Squadron 10 – Col Dion E. DeCamp Ground Team of the Year
• 1st Lt Geelhaar, Squadron 10 – Ground Team Member of the Year
• Maj Tubis, Squadron 10 – Col Edwin Lewis, Jr. Incident Staff Member of the Year
• Maj Newell, Squadron 10 – Safety Officer of the Year



Maj Albert, Group 2 Cadet Programs Officer,
talking about his squadron's success with
cadet programs.

• 2d Lt Zioulas, Squadron 10 – Senior Officer of the Year

Congratulations to our colleagues at squadrons 10, 18 and 36.  Having met and worked with a number of these dedicated CAP members, I can say – well deserved!

All Hands Meeting - November 2017

By 1st Lt Karin Hollerbach, photos by Lt Col Juan Tinnirello

New member, SM Jones

Welcome to new members, SM Don Jones, retired USAF, and SM Sara Vazquez Gonzalez, who has already begun her training and is currently a Mission Scanner Trainee (MS-T).

New member, SM Vazquez Gonzalez

Squadron Recap

FEMA Wildfires - Thank you to all of the Squadron 188 members (more than 30!) that participated in the FEMA Northern and Southern California Wildfires Mission.  Click here to see more information on this mission.

Other events in October included the Livermore Airport Open House  - participants included Lt Col Tinnirello, Maj Luneau, Capt Stevulak, 1st Lt Hipp, SM Rainville] + CAP483 plane wash [Lt Col Tinnirello, Maj Luneau, Capts Eichelberger & Stevulak, 1st Lt Hollerbach, SM Rainville] , Juan was interviewed for KKIQ. Click here to see the blog description of this event.


Aircrew Survival School - What do you do if you find yourself out in the middle of nowhere, potentially hurt, potentially having to spend the night? 3 squadron members participated in the Aircrew Survival School in October: Maj Luneau and Capt Perreira served as aircrew, and 2d Lt Roudnev participated as a student.

One example of a survival kit.

The idea was to go into the woods and learn how to survive without equipment.  Participants were able to bring whatever they would have on their bodies in an airplane, like a safety vest, nothing more.  Over the weekend, they learned how to make shelter and other useful skills. Lt Roudnev indicated that this was a good reminder to verify what to bring in terms of emergency equipment and confirmed he has since the event updated some of his survival gear.

At the beginning of the month, squadron members also participated in the basic SAREX, held at KLVK. Our squadron provided approximately 1/3 of the personnel for the exercise!

• Maj Michelogiannakis: AOBD (Air Ops Branch Director)
• Maj Fridell: MP (Mission Pilot)
• Maj Wang: CUL (Communications Unit Leader)
• Capt Brown: MSO (Mission Safety Officer) 

Capt Brown, who moved to California relatively recently, commented that, so far, it’s been all beautiful weather.  “During the exercise, most of Saturday we didn’t think we’d fly anything. Forecast was for clear at noon, so we opened the base at 10.  Then scratched the day – then all of a sudden everything cleared.  Good experience, real world for planning.” 

• Capt Hayes: LSC/FASC (Logistics Section Chief / Finance and Admin Section Chief)
• Capt Rivas: MO (Mission Observer) 

Capt Rivas commented that he flew with newly minted MP, David Hartman (San Jose Senior Squadron 80), conducting a parallel search in the Central Valley. Without a SAR package in the aircraft, it was a great exercise for both MO and MP! 

• 1st Lt Chavez: UDF/SET (Urban Direction Finding / Skills Evaluator)
• 1st Lt Choate: AOBD

Lt Choate is usually on an aircew. This time he spent the SAREX learning about AOBD duties. He felt he had a good mentor and had read everything, brought what he thought was enough stuff.  “When I got there, the white board didn’t have markers, erasers – and I had to scramble. Capt Hayes showed up as logistics – phew.  I thought I’d be bored – but was very interesting.  Go, go, go all day. Go/no go decisions. Then planning for next day. Two of the pilots that were going to fly in the SAREX but then one got called to fly the FEMA mission and one had a mixup. So we had 4 crews but only 2 MPs. I was tasked to schedule the next day’s activities with 2 less pilots. It was interesting to see how many criteria go into matching crews. Juggling so many different things – type of aircraft; weight & balance; trainees signed off – is someone in the aircrew be a SET.  When you’re in an aircrew, you don’t realize how many people it takes on the ground to support the aircrew!” 

Lt Hollerbach

• 1st Lt Devine: MSA (Mission Staff Assistant) / UDF 
• 1st Lt Hollerbach: PIO (Public Information Officer) 
• 2d Lt Booth: MP
• 2d Lt Krivega: MSA
• SM Fogle: MS (Mission Scanner) 
• SM Jones: MS
• SM Rainville: MS

SM Rainville was happy that he got to practice everything from his MS training class – including reducing fatigue, how to do proper scanning, and keeping eyes open for anything that looks out of place: His aircrew saw a sailboat on top of a mountain!  

Members before the meeting. 

Renewed/New ES Ratings 
Congratulations to the following members, who renewed and/or completed new ratings:

• Lt Col Glenn: completed MSA 
• Capt Perreira: renewed MSA
• 1st Lt Hollerbach: renewed MRO and AP 
• SM Fogle: completed MS

I Know About This: Checklists 
Maj Michelogiannakis asked the question, “why is CAP so focused on checklists?”

Because you might forget  something important, even if you fly the same plane all the time. In emergencies, it’s even easier to forget. And in CAP, we fly different airplanes all the time.

Maj Michelogiannakis discussing the use of checklists.

Be aware of being too complacent and not questioning. Let’s say during your preflight, the tires look a little low. But someone flew yesterday and it was fine.  So it’s probably ok. Know the specs. People do it all the time, and they get away with it. Until they don’t!

In one accident, the aircrew didn’t check that the flight controls were free and correct.  The crew did that check only one in 10 times – and during one of the other 9 times, took off with rudder gust lock attached. If you do something and it succeeds all the time, the temptation is to skip it the next time. Check every step every time!

The POH doesn’t always say why to do certain items in the checklist. Do it anyway.

FEMA Wildfire Support Mission - October

By 1st Lt Karin Hollerbach, photos by Lt Col Juan Tinnirello

Many Squadron 188 members participated in the FEMA Northern and Southern California Wildfires Mission.

The temporary incident command post established at Livermore airport, including on the left, front to back: 1st Lt Richter, 2d Lt Zherebnenkov (Squadron 188), Maj Wang (Squadron 188), 2d Lt De Bleecker; on the right, front to back: Maj Luneau (Squadron 188), Maj Hayes (Squadron 188), Capt Brown (Squadron 188), and 1st Lt Pierce; and in center front: Maj Lam.

.

From a press release on 28 October:

The California Wing of the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) was tasked on the 20th of October by the U.S. Air Force (USAF) to assist the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) with disaster relief efforts related to the wildfires in Northern California. CAP has been working closely with CAL FIRE throughout this mission.  

Since the 20th, CAP has been operating from a temporary incident command post established at Livermore airport, flying photographic imaging sorties in Sonoma, Lake, Mendocino, Butte, and Napa Counties. Current operations in Northern California were completed yesterday and resources moved to Southern California, to commence photographic imaging sorties for the Orange County fires.  

In support of this mission, CAP volunteers flew over 150 flight hours in approximately 120 sorties. These flights have resulted in CAP uploading more than 5,750 images from 940 square miles, and flew FEMA / U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) personnel to view the areas impacted by the fires. 

Lt Hollerbach (L) and Lt Roberts (R) preparing for a sortie in
Sonoma County.

Approximately 120 members participated Wing-wide, including more than 30 from our squadron:

Maj Wang (L) assisting an aircrew (2nd L, Lt Col Dunn and 2nd R, Maj Vance )
with ensuring the proper camera placement before a sortie. 

• Lt Col Glenn
• Lt Col Tinnirello
• Maj Blank
• Maj DeFord
• Maj Fridell
• Maj Ironfield
• Maj Johnson/C
• Maj Johnson/K
• Maj Luneau (squadron member emeritus – yes, we’re still claiming credit for him!)
• Maj Michelogiannakis
• Maj Wang
• Capt Brown
• Capt Eichelberger
• Capt Fenolio
• Capt Gast
• Capt Hayes
• Capt Perreira
• Capt Ramsey
• Capt Stevulak
• 1st Lt Chavez
• 1st Lt Choate
• 1st Lt Devine
• 1st Lt Hollerbach
• 1st Lt Roberts
• 1st Lt Rugroden
• 2d Lt Baldwin
• 2d Lt Booth
• 2d Lt Campbell
• 2d Lt Roudnev
• 2d Lt Sharma
• 2d Lt Zherebnenkov

There will be an article about this mission in the upcoming edition of Bear Facts, the California Wing magazine.  If there’s an online link provided, we’ll add it here!

Participants will be eligible for the disaster relief ribbon with V device – because the affected regions were a Presidentially declared disater area. Congratulations – and thank you – to all who participated in this important mission.

This was an extended mission, including both weekend and weekday time, and we are very grateful for people taking time off from their work-weeks to help.

CAP aircraft at Livermore airport for the mission. 

Livermore LVK Open House October 2017

By Lt Col Juan Tinnirello and 1st Lt Karin Hollerbach, photos and video by Lt Col Tinnirello 

Our beautiful Cessna 182

On Saturday, October 7, members of the Civil Air Patrol East Bay Cadet Squadron 18, based in Hayward, and Oakland Squadron 188 came together to participate in the Livermore Airport (KLVK) Open House and Air Show.

Squadron 18 and Squadron 188 combined booth

Squadron 188 members at the air show: SM Rainville (L), Maj Luneau (2nd L), 1st Lt Hipp (3rd L),
Capt Stevulak (2nd R) and Lt Col Tinnirello (R)

Opening the event, airport manager David Decoteau welcomed all participants, followed by the presentation of the colors by cadets from Squadron 18.  Ms. Bea Miille sang the National Anthem. City mayor John Marchand welcomed everyone and thanked all the people that had contributed so much to make the event a success.

DJ Davis (L), Lt Col Tinnirello (C), and a member of
the KKIQ team (R)

Squadron 18 Color Guard: C/SSgt Ilyana Crespo (L),
C/SMSgt Varsha Penumatsa (C) and
C/SrA Mylo Crawford (R) 

DJ Mark Davis from KKIQ transmitted live on 101.7 MHZ to radio listeners, announcing participants of the show, as well some of the events as they occurred.  Lt Col Tinnirello, as he has done for several years, had the opportunity to do a one-minute presentation on KKIQ about CAP and what we do.





For the airshow, there was a parachute jump team as well as three aerobatic planes doing fantastic maneuvers all over the morning sky. They repeated their performance once more in the afternoon.

Parachute team member

In between, there were fly-bys, warbirds, experimental and other aircraft. Many aircraft were on display and, as we usually do, we too displayed our Cessna 182 at the event. Hundreds of kids and grownups sat in it and took many selfies to show to their friends and families.

The opportunity to sit in a real CAP aircraft, along with the chance to talk with current members, is always an attraction for members of the public, particularly those that would like to put their aviation interests to good use in community service: We had several people that displayed an interest in joining CAP and we look forward to getting to know them better.

Lt Col Tinnirello taking a selfie

There was also wine tasting, community booths, plenty of food trucks, as well as an EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) “Young Eagles” sign-up.

All the fire, sheriff and police personnel and equipment were there too.

Visitors waiting to sit inside the plane and have their pictures taken by parents/friends. 

On the day before, several members from Squadron 188 scrubbed the aircraft to make it shine:

• Lt Col Tinnirello
• Maj Luneau
• Capt Eichelberger
• Capt Stevulak
• 1st Lt Hollerbach
• SM Rainville

With so many hands to help, we made short work of the grease on the belly of the airplane, as well as the dust and bugs on the fuselage!  Thanks to everyone who helped!

All in all, it was a very enjoyable and fun event, with excellent cooperation from Mother Nature ensuring warm (but not too hot) temperatures and generally fine weather!

Aerobatic participant

Aerobatic participant

All Hands Meeting October 2017

By 1st Lt Karin Hollerbach and Maj Noel Luneau, photos by 2d Lt Alexei Roudnev

The squadron's deputy commander,
1st Lt Devine.

A warm welcome to our newest member, Vivian Wan!

Our squadron activities from the month of September included the following:

Missions

Squadron 188 participated in one real-life mission in September: an ELT/ALNOT @ Bolinas, with Capt Hayes (AOBD+MRO), 1st  Lt Choate (MP), Capt Stevulak (MO), Capt Gast (UDF), 1st Lt Roberts (UDF) and 2nd Lt Roudnev (UDF) participating; Lt Choate and Capt Stevulak earned a Distress Find – congratulations!

1st Lt Choate.

Events

• 9-Sep Support of powered/glider cadet o-flights @ O83, with Maj Fridell, Capt Hayes, 1st Lt Choate, 1st Lt Devine and SM Rainville participating
• 12-Sep "Cold Water Rescue & Hypothermia" talk by Dr Thomas Nuckton @ OAK
• 16-Sep AEX 3D Printing, ADS-B @ KOAK, led by 1st Lt Spears
• 16-17 Sep UCC, led by Maj DeFord
• 19-Sep FAA FAASTeam Seminar: Off-field landings, led by Maj Michelogiannakis, with CAP and non-CAP members alike participating
• 24-Sep Hayward Open House
• 24-Sep Support of glider orientation flights for Sq10 @ Byron, led by Capt Gast

Squadron members relaxing before the meeting start.

30-Sep California Dog Rescue Association (CARDA) requalification @ KOAK: "The event was a nice opportunity to refresh radio procedures and meet, and work with, CAP and CARDA members (both the speaking and non-speaking ones)." 1st Lt Roberts.

CARDA is the largest volunteer search dog organization in America, training, certifying and deploying dog teams to assist law enforcement and other public safety agencies in search and rescue operations. CAP Group 2 members were involved in a re-qualification exercise, working with CARDA dogs and dog handlers. 

The CARDA flying exercise was a great success. We flew six dog handlers with their pooches. Each dog handler had flown the year before, and for some of the dogs this was their first time. 

Each flight was a local approximately 15-20 minute flight, with either both dog and handler in the back, or with the dog in the back and the handler in the front.
CAP used to fly CARDA on a regular basis to and from searches. CARDA volunteers have to find their own transportation to searches, which for some searches could be a 6 - 7 hour drive. Using CAP as a resource would greatly increase their efficiency and improve their readiness. 

According to Capt Gast, “it was much more interesting talking with the handlers about their dogs to get a feeling for personalities, and watching the different dogs get loaded into the back seat.  I also liked that the outcome of this was that the dog handlers went back and are already working their chain of command to get requests to come to us more often.”  

Both the dog handlers and the dogs were very enthusiastic about flying in the CAP plane. Lt Col Coby Sena and Capt James Warmkessel were the pilots. Squadron 188 members that participated included Maj Luneau, Capt Gast, and 1st Lt Roberts.

New ES Ratings

1st Lt Bitz talking about this
year's Wreaths Across America
ceremony and fundraising. 

Congratulations to 1st Lt Hollerbach, who completed her initial F91 and is our newest Mission Pilot!

Professional Development 

Congratulations to the following members:

• 1st Lt Devine completed the Officer Basics Course (OBC)
• SM Chung completed Level 1

Miscellaneous

As a reminder to members who were not present at the meeting: annual squadron membership is due.  Please bring a check to the next meeting or mail it to the squadron at your earliest convenience.  Thank you!

Upcoming Events

• 7 Oct This coming weekend, there will be an Open House at the Livermore Airport, LVK. See SM Rainville for details. 
• 21-22 Oct: A SAREX is being planned at LVK.
• 16 Dec The annual Wreaths Across America will be held at Golden Gate National Cemetery
• 31 Oct any ideas for a 5th Tuesday Halloween party?
• December holiday party – details to be determined

Awards

Congratulations, SM Chung (L)! 

Congratulations to the following members:

• Capt Stevulak, 1st Lt Choate: bronze clasp for Distress Find
• 2d Lt Booth: CD Ribbon
• SM Chung: Membership Ribbon for completion of Level I

2d Lt Baldwin reminding all of us about the importance of regular safety education and constant vigilance. 

Safety Update

2d Lt Baldwin presented this month's safety update.