The official publication of Minnesota Wing Civil Air Patrol
St. Paul unit hosts well-attended search and rescue exercise
by 1st Lt. Scott Johnson,
St. Paul Squadron
Saint Paul Composite
Squadron hosted the annual
Group III search and rescue
training exercise at Fleming
Field in South Saint Paul,
Minn., Aug. 5-7. The event
was attended by more than
150 members from around
the wing. Participation
included 11 aircraft and
several ground teams.
In addition, three local tele-
vision news crews covered
the event, resulting in sev-
eral new member leads and
positive publicity.
Planning for this event
started last December at the
annual Emergency Services
Conclave held in Saint
Cloud, Minn. The squadron
held weekly sessions, start-
ing in January, to plan the
event. A squadron brain
storming session started the
planning, resulting in the
meeting room walls being
covered with white boards
and papers full of ideas,
laying the foundation for
the event.
Members divided into
teams to plan specific areas.
Cadets planned the flight
line marshalling program
under the direction of Lt.
Col. Paul Adams. The plan
Lt. Col. Paul Adams, St. Paul Squadron, marshals on
the flightline. Photo by Capt. Mike Rehbein
and subsequent training
achieved safe airplane
movement, efficient parking identification and direction
and refueling and clean air- to a location skills.
planes.
The air operations team, led
by Maj. Ralph Delperdang,
Maj. Charles Freese, Capt.
Cliff Tamplin, SM Mike
DeLeon and SM Andy
Schmidt, worked up a plan
to maximize training. The
result was ample sorties,
including operations with
the Coast Guard Auxiliary
August/September 2005
to test radio communica-
tion, air-to-river vessel
The ground operations
team, led by Capt. Paul
Pieper, devised training sce-
narios including simulated
injured bloodied bodies.
This tested the ground
teams on their ability to
find, provide first aid and
rescue a missing person. He
also supervised the airport
campground and provided
support for out of town
guests during the night
hours.
All successful exercises
depend on the detailed
tracking of expenses. The
finance department was led
by Col. Kevin Sliwinski,
Col. Jerry Rosendahl and
1st Lt. John Vadnais.
Vadnais set up teams to run
the refueling station using a
special fuel card. Pilots did
not pay for fuel with per-
sonal funds. Sliwinski and
Rosendahl coordinated all
finance activities to keep
the event running smoothly.
SM Bill Cammack donated
ample supplies of Bug
Blaster to keep everyone's
windshields clean. He also
donated his time and per-
sonal airplane to the local
media for flights to follow
the event.
1st Lt. Matt Barrett and 2nd
Lt. Gordon Miller provided
computers and printers, as
well as set up and tested the
radios and antennas.
To promote the event, 1st
Lt. Mike Jansen telephoned
each squadron commander
to personally invite each
unit to the event. A photo
postcard was mailed to each
SAR/ Page 3
Page 2 WingTips August/September 2005

Commander’s Column: New national commander takes over

by Col. Steve Miller, seniors were given many Flight Academy has also
wing commander opportunities to learn new recently ended. Once again,
Civil Air Patrol has a new leadership and followership the academy staff did an
national commander. The skills. The graduation outstanding job in training
National Board, which con- luncheon was one of the new pilots (both powered
sists of all regional com- largest I have attended. It is and glider) for the wing.
manders, wing command- great so see the family sup- Work continues on our
ers and a few others, elect- port for our cadets. maintenance center.
ed Maj. Gen. Tony Pineda Another Minnesota Wing
to the position. Pineda will -Semper Vigilans
hold this position for three
years. Seasoned wing aircrew members
Civil Air Patrol also has a
new national vice com-
Col. Steve Miller respond to weather survey
mander. The National but there have been numer- by Lt. Col. Greg Nastrom, St. Cloud Senior Squadron
Board elected Brig. Gen. ous issues surrounding it. This survey was given to about 30 seasoned commercial
Rex Glasgow to the posi- Those working on the flight instructors, or CFIs, at the Minnesota Wing Check
tion. Glasgow will hold this project feel this time it will Pilot Clinic on April 16. It consisted of two questions
position for one year. The be a go. which are given below along with the responses given.
national vice commander is (The number of responses varies as not all persons gave
All units should be receiv-
elected each year. two responses to each question.)
ing or have already
The National Conference received a Quicken pack- It is interesting that the most common response to the first
and Summer Board meet- age and a new Chart-of- question by these CFIs was forecasts and their proper use,
ing went very well. The Accounts. The program and seeming to anticipate an article by Richard Collins in the
break out sessions were Chart-of-Accounts will be May 2005 issue of Flying, where he wrote, "So what is
informative. This year, ready for use at the begin- the biggest [weather] trap? Simple. The forecasts, or, the
there were only minor ning of fiscal year 2006, way that we use the forecasts." It is comforting to verify
changes made to the regu- which begins Oct 1, 2005. that the Minnesota CFIs are way ahead of Collins. Notice
lations. We will be getting this was also the third most popular responses to the sec-
Our cadet encampment,
a new picture id. This item ond question, behind only icing and thunderstorms.
held at Camp Ripley,
was approved at previous
Minn., was once again a Question 1. What are the two most important weather
National Board meetings,
successful one. Cadets and items that a pilot should know and understand before
being allowed to fly solo VFR?
WingTips is a publication of Responses in rank order:
Minnesota Wing Civil Air Patrol, 1. Forecasts-11 (unreliability of them, rapid weather
U.S. Air Force Auxiliary changes can be different from them, they are not observa-
P.O. Box 11230, St. Paul, MN 55111 tions)
www.mncap.org
wingtips@mncap.org 2. Winds-7 (rapid changes of them, frontal passages cause
changes to them, how they reflect changing weather)
The views expressed, either written or implied, are not neces-
sarily those of the U.S. Air Force, the Civil Air Patrol or 3. Visibility and ceiling-5 (rapid changes to them, hazards)
Minnesota Wing. Submissions should be sent to the above
email address.
4. Fronts-5 (effect of fronts on weather, speed of change
at a front, movement and creation of weather with fronts,
Wing Commander: Col. Steve Miller
Wingtips Editor: Maj. Shannon Bauer
Survey / Page 3
August/September 2005 WingTips Page 3

SAR / from Page 1 and SM Gary Schaedler

commander with the event
information one month
prior to encourage people to
preregister. In the preceding
six months to the event,
monthly e-mails were sent
to wing members to attend.
A website was created to
keep people informed of
who had preregistered,
training requests and time
tables for the various events
being planned. This helped
in designing sorties and
planning staffing positions
throughout the weekend.
Lt. Cols. Bill Rutten, Bruce
Sexton and John Reils
served in the incident com-
mander position on short
notice.
2nd Lt. Tyra Cerny planned
all of the food service. She
procured donations of cash,
product or discounts from
Brueggers, Caribou,
Subway, McDonalds, Wal-
Mart, Godiva Chocolates,
Holiday Inn and others.
She arranged to have the
Maj. Ralph Delperdang and Capt. Cliff Tamplin, both
St. Paul Squadron, plan air sorties at mission base.
Photo by Mike Rehbein
Red Cross attend and serve
the food. Attendees enjoyed
lunches, drinks and snacks
on both days, as well as a
free supper on Saturday at
the Holiday Inn -- all for
the unheard of low price of
$5 for the entire weekend.
She also obtained donations
from CINTAS, who provid-
ed first aid kits to the first
30 crews to arrive. There
were movie tickets as prizes
and several free hotel
rooms from Holiday Inn
and more.
1st Lt. Paul Butche, 130th
Squadron, provided free
night glow sticks. He addi-
tionally assisted in the
event planning by attending
several St. Paul Squadron
meetings and assisting with
the computer and radio
technology.
Maj. Odessa O'Brien, 1st
Lt. (Chap.) Don Swanson
handled registration, on-site
member tracking, concierge
table and gift disburse-
ments. They signed in the
attendees, answered ques-
tions, directed them to
where they wanted to be
and made certain everyone
signed up for their desired
training objectives.
Safety officers Maj.
Emanuel Block and Capt.
Joseph Yenkosky monitored
and mentored staff to main-
tain a no injury, no accident
event.
Thanks to a successful
event on Saturday, Col.
Stan Kegel and Mr. Bill
Willis doubled the budget,
and flight operations con-
tinued into the evening on
Sunday.
A Saturday night Holiday
Inn hospitality suite and
pool party was planned by
SM Susan Narveson. There
was enough food to feed
everyone from the wing
that attended and those of
the public nearby.

Survey / from Page 2 IFR?

reading surface charts) Responses in rank order:
5. MVFR-4 (hazards of, do not enter, IMC recovery) 1. Icing and freezing level hazards-15

6. Enroute weather updates-4 (how to obtain them)
7. Temperature and dew point-4 (weather changes with
them, how to read them)
8. Formats-3 (METAR and TAF, text vs. graphics)
9. Stability-2 (relationship to thunderstorms)
10. Interpreting clouds-1; Knowing personal minimums-1
Question 2. What are the two most important weather
items a pilot should know and understand before flying
2. Thunderstorms-12 (recognize their signs, embedded,
frontal, stability)
3. Forecasts-8 (how to keep track of it at your destination,
unreliability, they are not observations)
4. Fronts-5 (movement of weather systems with them,
rapid weather changes at them, impact of them on enroute
weather)
5. Temperature and dew point-4 (fog, lowered visibility)
6. Radar intensity-1
August/September 2005 WingTips Page 4

Senior member and Momentous occasions ...

Viking Squadron celebrated a cadet change of command
cadet officer promotions ceremony Aug. 23. C/1st Lt. Cory Titus accepted com-
Major mand from C/Capt. Joshua Waddell.
Timothy Stoner, Ft. Snelling Southeast Composite Squadron is proud to announce that
Captain C/Chief Master Sgt. Kyle Steever passed his private
Bryce Duncan, Red Wing; Noel Westlind, St. Croix pilots' test on Aug. 1. Steever will be attending Embry
Riddle University on an Air Force Reserve Officer
1st Lt.
Training Corps scholarship this fall.
Kathleen Carlson, Worthington; Curt Kephart,
Southeast; Goerge Lhotka, Hutchinson;
Michael Rice, Anoka; James Van Der Linden,
Worthington; Jody Veek, Anoka
2nd Lt.
William Schrammen, Viking; Eric Stanley, Viking
C/2nd Lt.
Katie Bliss, Wesota; Francesca Fogarty, 130th

Col. Stephen Miller, Minnesota Wing commander, pre-

sented Minnesota Senator Thomas Neuville with his
membership in the Minnesota Legislative Squadron.
Neuville represents District 25 (Northfield, LeSueur
and New Prague area) and recently joined CAP. Photo
by Col. Kevin Sliwinski

Minnesota Wing Civil Air Patrol,

U.S. Air Force Auxiliary NONPROFIT ORG.
US POSTAGE PAID
P.O. Box 11230, St. Paul, MN 55111
PERMIT NO. 7109
ST.PAUL, MN