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.