Maryland Wing Civil Air Patrol Apollo1 Squadron MER-MD-085
We meet the first Tuesday each month at Tipton Airport in Hangar 80.
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On a bright, sunny Sunday October 14th, five members of Apollo I Senior Squadron met for Urban Direction Finding (UDF) training at Tipton Airport, near Fort Meade, Maryland. After discussing training objectives, checking safety currency and training documents, and holding a safety briefing for the activity, the group left Hangar 80 to locate a practice Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT), pre-positioned by 1Lt Ron Miller, Squadron Emergency Services Officer (ESO).
After inspecting the squadron van and meeting one of the training objectives, the group headed to the west end of the airfield. The trainees were shown how to use the homemade ELT direction finders and were sent off to home in on the beacon. The trainees, using three homemade YAGI devices, got initial bearings on the ELT and headed toward the east end of the airport.
As the trainees proceeded along the length of the airports runway, the ELT got stronger and they made out that the signal was coming from the direction of hangar 85. The trainees used body nulling and off-channel signal strength to further narrow down the location of the ELT. After nearly an hour of searching, the trainees finally located the ELT near a parking lot fence at hangar 85.
Apollo I Senior Squadron meets at 6:00 pm the first Tuesday of each month in Hangar 80, at Tipton Airport.
Civil Air Patrol, the official auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, is a nonprofit organization with more than 61,000 members nationwide. CAP, in its Air Force auxiliary role, performs 90 percent of continental U.S. inland search and rescue missions as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center and was credited by the AFRCC with saving 113 lives in fiscal year 2010. Its volunteers also perform homeland security, disaster relief and drug interdiction missions at the request of federal, state and local agencies. The members play a leading role in aerospace education and serve as mentors to the more than 26,000 young people currently participating in CAP cadet programs. CAP has been performing missions for America for 69 years. It is the largest sponsor annually of Wreaths Across America, an initiative to remember, honor and teach about the sacrifices of U.S. military veterans. For more information on Civil Air Patrol, visit www.gocivilairpatrol.com or www.capvolunteernow.com.
More than 1,500 members of CAP serve in Maryland. Last fiscal year wing members flew 42 search and rescue missions and were credited with 31 finds. For more information, visit www.mdcap.org
Photo Caption: 2Lt Anthony Riggs, 1Lt Ron Miller, 2Lt Paul Hasz and Captain Joe Kekich set off to locate a practice ELT located on Tipton Airport. (photo:2Lt Douglas Rhodes) |
