Top ten lessons learned by hibernating CAP aircrews coming out for the summer.
- Before launching your sortie, be sure to check your critical systems. This includes not only a good preflight of the aircraft, but also ensuring that your CAP radios and direction finder are fully operational. Do you know how to "punch in" both the CAP radio and the DF on your intercom panel?
- Did you know that your aircraft's comm radios and your own ears will have a much higher sensitivity to picking up an ELT signal than your DF will--no matter what type of DF you have in the aircraft? Hint: while you're flying an ELT search, keep ATC (or UNICOMM) tuned on one Comm radio, and tune your second radio to the ELT's frequency (121.5 MHz on actual missions, or 121.775 MHz on training missions). You will pick up the ELT at a greater range that way.
- Keep your DF on at all times while flying (and tuned to 121.5 MHz), even when you're not tasked on a mission. Emergency Services isn't just something we do occasionally; SARSAT is no longer actively listening 24/7 like it used to. It is up to all pilots to monitor for emergency signals; and it is most especially our responsibility to monitor for these critical warnings. How embarrassing would it be for someone at NHQ, or even HQ First Air Force, to look at WMIRS and see that we had an aircraft flying an orientation flight, or a B-12 proficiency flight, in the same area we made a "find" in 12 hours later? Worse still, what if it was that 1 in 100 actual-emergency activations, and there were survivors of a wrecked airplane we could have found much earlier?
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