G1000 Ground Training

Over the past couple of weeks, three new CAP senior members (myself included) have been receiving classroom training on the G1000. If you are not a pilot, this may not seem all that significant, but as a CAP member, this is free training. Working with a regular flight instructor on this would have cost me a few hundred dollars, plus the cost of training CD's and videos. My CAP membership has just paid for itself several times over, and I haven't even gotten to fly yet.

Now may be a good time to point out, for all you other pilots out there, that CAP provides an economical way to build flying time. You wouldn't do it as a career path, but still. If flying on an approved mission (i.e., a real search, a training flight, or a ferry flight), there is no cost to the member to fly a CAP aircraft. In addition, a member can request to use the CAP aircraft for personal flying - and not at regular rental rates either. For a G1000-equipped Cessna 182, the cost is just under $40 per hour, dry. I challenge you to find a cheaper way to fly equipment like this.

The training so far has centered around some off-the-shelf training discs from King Schools and Sporty's. Sure, I could purchase these and go through them at home, but having an instructor (who also happens to be a pilot examiner) who knows the system is invaluable.

Moving Along

Slowly but surely, my CAP experience is taking shape. I still don't know what the holdup was, but everything is now in order for my Level 1. It is now on the books, so I am now "in" and can fly in the aircraft, work with cadets, and get moving on professional development.

The CAP specialty tracks include several roles. I had been looking at the public affairs officer position, but after talking to the wing PAO, I found out that there is a lot of time built into the advancement. Basically, many of the steps require a full year of service, rather than six months as in many of the other positions. This doesn't keep one from working on things outside of the chosen path, and some of the public affairs tasks are pretty interesting, so I might still consider it. On the other hand, the squadron commander asked me if I would be interested in Aerospace Education. It looks pretty straightforward, and obviously fits my piloting experience, so it's rapidly rising to be my first choice. Doing that would require that I become actively involved in training cadets and also doing some outside education, like at local schools. I'm all for that...

Today, I also went to my second senior meeting. On top of some administrative stuff, we talked about having a squadron fundraiser. Most interesting was that a couple of new members like myself need to get G1000 familiarization. Though I don't have enough PIC hours yet, I can still do the ground training. This goes hand in hand with my time playing around with the DA-40 so long ago. I still remember much of the information, and a second time around would be a good thing.

Starting next week, then, we begin getting into some more meaty parts of the flying game.