April 2017, All Hands Meeting

By Lt Col Juan Tinnirello, photography by Lt Col Tinnirello and  2d Lt Alexei Roudnev

Capt Rivas (right) conversing with 1st Lt Rugroden (left) and
Capt Eichelberger (middle). Photo by Lt Col Tinnirello.

The meeting took place on the 4th of April and started with the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States, led by Lt Col Tinnirello.

Squadron Commander, Capt Rivas welcomed participants and proceeded to comment on the CAP Report to Congress. He was impressed with the accomplishments as well as the amount of money CAP saved taxpayers because of the contributions of the hours provided by CAP members.


Squadron Monthly Recap

Promotions

Members socializing before the meeting. Photo by
Lt Col Tinnirello. 

Congratulations to Capt Michelogiannakis for his promotion to Maj and to SM Valeur for his promotion to 2d Lt.
   
Missions
The following members participated in missions over the past month.

• 18-Mar ELT at Borrego Springs – Maj DeFord: IC3
• 23-26 Mar Routine IPL Mission – Maj DeFord, Capt Brown, Capt Hayes, Capt Stevulak, 1st Lt Choate
• 26-Mar ELT at KLVK – Maj DeFord, Capt Brown: UDF +FIND (first heard by CAP481)

Members at the meeting. Photo by Lt Col Tinnirello.

Capt Rivas reading from the report to
Congress. Photo by Lt Roudnev.

Events

• 11-12 Mar Winter Ground SAREX – Maj Michelogiannakis: MP; Capt Stevulak: MO; 2d Lt Valeur: MS-T
• 11-12 Mar ICS 300 at Travis – 1st Lt Fall 
• 1-Apr AEX Workshop at KPAO – 2d Lt Zherebnenkov

Renewed/New ES Ratings
Congratulations to those members that obtained or renewed their ratings:

Capt Rivas congratulating Maj Michelogiannakis, who received his promotion
last month, one day after that All Hands meeting. Photo by Lt Roudnev.

• Maj Blank: renewed IFR F5 (Instructor Pilot, Check Pilot, Check Pilot Examiner) Maj Blank is also the only GA8 pilot in our squadron.  Welcome back!
• Maj Wang: renewed AP rating
• Capt Cao: renewed AP rating
• Capt Fenolio: renewed F5
• 1st Lt Rugroden: renewed F5
• Squadron 188 is now back to having 11 active pilots (4 more waiting for F5)

Professional Development 
Congratulations to Maj Luneau, who has taken on a new duty – Assistant Operations Officer for Group 2.
 
Awards
Congratulations to 1st Lt Fall for his Achievement Award from Pennsylvania Wing (PAWG)!

2d Lt Valeur receiving his epaulets from Capt Rivas (left) and Capt Hayes
(right). Photo by Lt Roudnev.  

Upcoming Events

Upcoming squadron events include:

Maj DeFord explaining the two missions he
participated in. Photo by Lt Roudnev.

• Apr 15: Squadron fly-in at KAUN (organized by Maj Luneau)
• Apr 21-23: Wing Evaluation at Riverside (Maj DeFord, Capt Eichelberger)
• Apr 24-26: WMAO (see Capt Hayes if you can help out)
• Apr 28-30: Pacific Region Conference @ Sparks NV
• All hands moved to Tuesday May 9
• May 15-18, Vigilant Guard exercise (Lt Chavez)
• May 30: 5th Tuesday group photo and BBQ (Capt Rivas)

Safety Update: Class B Airspace

This month’s safety update was provided by Capt Gast, who gave an excellent presentation on changes in class B airspace, using Seattle as an example.  If you were not at the meeting, you missed a lot of good information.

Capt Gast presenting updates to class B airspace.
Photo by Lt Roudnev. 

   

Squadron 188 (and many other) members join multi-agency search for missing aircraft

A number of our squadron’s members supported the Sierraville missing aircraft mission, flying as aircrew, serving as base staff, and highlighting our squadron’s commitment to operational readiness.

Thank you to the following members that participated:

• Maj Steven DeFord - IC/OSC
• Maj Chris Johnson - LSC
• Maj Noel Luneau - PSC
• Maj Kathy Johnson - PIO
• Maj Phil Blank - MP
• Maj Jeff Ironfield - MP
• Capt Don Eichelberger - IPU
• Capt Kathy Brown - AP/AOBD
• Capt John Stevulak – MO/MS
• 1st Lt Karin Hollerbach – AP/MO
• 2d Lt Alexei Roudnev - AP
• 2d Lt Scott Booth - MO

Special thanks to Capt Eichelberger and Maj DeFord for serving on the mission for multiple operational periods. Also thanks to those new members that offered to participate but were not utilized.

Click here for a news report announcing the suspension of the search.

A CAWG news release regarding the event follows:

Lt Col Crystal Housman, CAP
Public Affairs Officer, California Wing

April 24, 2017
Search for missing aircraft suspended
Sacramento, Calif. – Civil Air Patrol concluded its operations Monday morning in the search for a missing aircraft with two persons on board in the Sierra Nevada mountain range after the search was suspended by the Sierra County Sheriff’s Office at 9 p.m. Sunday night. The aircraft has not been found.

The Socata TB-20 Trinidad took off April 17 from the Truckee-Tahoe Airport in Truckee and never arrived at its intended destination of Petaluma Municipal Airport. Civil Air Patrol was activated for the search shortly after midnight Tuesday by the U.S. Air Force Rescue Coordination Center at Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida.

Aerial assets from the California Highway Patrol and California National Guard also participated in the multi-agency search, as did CAP ground teams and those from multiple agencies. The search was conducted in a unified command in support of the Sierra County Sheriff’s Office.

Throughout the six-day search, CAP aircrews from California and Nevada conducted visual and photographic searches while logging more than 60 flight hours over the rugged, heavily-wooded and snow-covered search area located 18 miles northwest of Truckee.

CAP volunteers on the ground reviewed more than 8,000 high resolution digital images of the search area, which were captured by wing-mounted cameras on the CAP search planes.

“We are extremely disappointed in the outcome of this search,” said CAP Incident Commander Maj. Shane Terpstra. “We always hope for a fast resolution with missing aircraft searches, but rapidly changing weather compounded with fresh snow worked against us this entire search. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family.”

More than 117 CAP volunteers, 15 CAP aircraft and 12 CAP vehicles participated in the search.