Aircrew (non-pilot) Roles other than Civil Air Patrol

N918KT

N918KT

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Lately, I'm considering joining the Civil Air Patrol and looking at checking out a couple local squadrons. A fellow EAA chapter member told me at the last pancake breakfast he was a part of a local Civil Air Patrol squadron where he mentioned they have a need for mission scanners and mission observers. He briefly told me about the roles and how to join. I have always wondered about the process of joining, the training involved, and the time commitment to volunteer for these roles.

However, this also leads me to be curious where if there are other aviation civilian non-profit organizations that offer air crew (non-pilot) roles other than CAP? My understanding is that not all CAP squadrons offer these kinds of roles so I was looking at other non-profit orgs that offer similar non-pilot roles in aircraft. Or is CAP pretty much the only game in town?
 
Some pipeline patrol companies have observers, and some aerial photography outfits have photographers... with a commercial pilot in the right seat, or have crewmembers running camera or other electronic equipment in the back. Oh, you said non-profit. Nevermind.
 
Over the years I have read multiple articles about (presumably non-profit) organizations that do various types of environmental work - tracking deforestation, river pollution, that kind of thing. I assume they would have a non-pilot crew member along to take pictures or notes, etc. Would be worth a Google search for something like that.

I seem to remember recently reading about one that actually planted new trees from an airplane. Some kind of a dart-like container with tree seed and I guess starter fertilizer too maybe.
 
RussR said:
Over the years I have read multiple articles about (presumably non-profit) organizations that do various types of environmental work - tracking deforestation, river pollution, that kind of thing. I assume they would have a non-pilot crew member along to take pictures or notes, etc. Would be worth a Google search for something like that.

I seem to remember recently reading about one that actually planted new trees from an airplane. Some kind of a dart-like container with tree seed and I guess starter fertilizer too maybe.
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Hmm, that's interesting, thanks.
 
I’m sure there’s some out there, but other than Civil Air Patrol, I can’t think of any. The venn diagram of non-profits and aviation operations is pretty small to begin with; most of the entities that operate some type of flying service usually contract it out.

Even on the .mil side of things, aircrew roles are getting fewer and further apart with UI-drive, solid state avionics packages, man-portable ISR/UAV imagery collection platforms, and expanding datalink capabilities.

Until the advent of the 406-mhz PLB/EPIRB, finding an ELT needed manpower and some expertise in map reading land navigation as well as comm systems capabilities and operations.

Today, ADS-B and other tracking technologies combined with gps ELT/PLB/EPIRB or satellite communicators like SPOT devices solve the geolocation problem and therefore the manpower aspect of a lot of aviation search and rescue.

Emergency preparedness/disaster assistance is really helped by imaging UAVs with the ability to stitch the various data collections together to make composite/mosaic images. In the post-9/11 and post-Katrina world, Defense Support to Civil Activities (DSCA) shifted FEMA’s operational profile from being reactive to proactive and getting Title 32 National Guard incident management structures in place and operational before the disaster strikes so assessment and recovery operations begin as early possible. This also took a bite out of the need for volunteer non-pilot aircrew requirements. That leaves things like Angel Flight and the like, which usually don’t operate in a crew concept and missionary flying, which I know nothing about.

You could likely search FEMA and your state’s civil emergency response team databases to see if there’s something in your area that fills the need your looking to fill.
 
There's the Coast Guard Auxiliary but I don't know a lot about them other than seeing them in flight suits at various eastern shore of Md restaurants and clearly flying their private aircraft.

U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary - District 7

Public and Members Website for the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary's District 7
wow.uscgaux.info wow.uscgaux.info
 
TCABM said:
I’m sure there’s some out there, but other than Civil Air Patrol, I can’t think of any. The venn diagram of non-profits and aviation operations is pretty small to begin with; most of the entities that operate some type of flying service usually contract it out.

Even on the .mil side of things, aircrew roles are getting fewer and further apart with UI-drive, solid state avionics packages, man-portable ISR/UAV imagery collection platforms, and expanding datalink capabilities.

Until the advent of the 406-mhz PLB/EPIRB, finding an ELT needed manpower and some expertise in map reading land navigation as well as comm systems capabilities and operations.

Today, ADS-B and other tracking technologies combined with gps ELT/PLB/EPIRB or satellite communicators like SPOT devices solve the geolocation problem and therefore the manpower aspect of a lot of aviation search and rescue.

Emergency preparedness/disaster assistance is really helped by imaging UAVs with the ability to stitch the various data collections together to make composite/mosaic images. In the post-9/11 and post-Katrina world, Defense Support to Civil Activities (DSCA) shifted FEMA’s operational profile from being reactive to proactive and getting Title 32 National Guard incident management structures in place and operational before the disaster strikes so assessment and recovery operations begin as early possible. This also took a bite out of the need for volunteer non-pilot aircrew requirements. That leaves things like Angel Flight and the like, which usually don’t operate in a crew concept and missionary flying, which I know nothing about.

You could likely search FEMA and your state’s civil emergency response team databases to see if there’s something in your area that fills the need your looking to fill.
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Interesting explanation. Thank you for your advice
Pugs said:
There's the Coast Guard Auxiliary but I don't know a lot about them other than seeing them in flight suits at various eastern shore of Md restaurants and clearly flying their private aircraft.

U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary - District 7

Public and Members Website for the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary's District 7
wow.uscgaux.info wow.uscgaux.info
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I looked into the Coast Guard Auxiliary a little bit as well. Back when I used to work at CDW in airport ops, I know of a local flotilla based at CDW where a couple members go up in their private aircraft for missions instead of using CAP aircraft.
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Candidly, other than orientation rides for the cadets, Civil Air Patrol is in dire need of a new direction/reason for flying. As noted in an earlier post, drones are becoming the first choice for survey of disasters both for FEMA & the insurance companies, and searching for the lost. In Colorado, CAP spent an entire week taking photos of the 2014 flood damage. The Marshall fire of 2021 - I don't remember CAP being involved at all, the commercial drone operators were running the show (and getting into trouble for going into the TFRs without permission). In the past, CAP flew "fire detection" during the summer when asked - meaning up and down the foothills area looking for smoke. This year? Not at all.

A few years ago the USAF realized that CAP as well as JROTC were potential pilot streams, so CAP has funding to teach cadets how to fly and get their PPL. But this only includes the CAP members who are CFIs, which is a very small number overall.

I'm in a Senior squadron that only wants to fly, so I'm dissed because I'm not a CAP pilot and my specialty is Aerospace Education. What they don't want to understand is AE is becoming the driver in CAP. The CAP Solar Eclipse Mission was one of the largest in Civil Air Patrol history. Over the course of 6.5 hours, over 3,400 CAP members (mostly cadets - think a 20-1 ratio cadet to adult) and 34,000 AEM classroom participants in all 52 wings (50 states, Puerto Rico & DC) worked to capture the effect of a solar eclipse on weather and VHF radio communications. That was just April 2024. October 2023 (the Annular eclipse) was the prototype and had about the same CAP participation but considerably fewer classroom participants. The result is CAP/NASA part of the NASA Citizen Science program. [there are already 4 CAP/NASA missions identified for the very near future. Some just might include the need for airplanes....]

AEM - Aerospace Education Members - teachers in K-12 who are a separate category of CAP members. Don't belong to a local CAP squadron but have access to CAP education material and supported by the AE program. This include drones, balloons, rockets, cybersecurity, orientation flights, etc.
 
EvilEagle said:
Join a CAF unit that has a bomber or transport category airplane. We have 1 scanner in the back of the B-24 and 3 in the B-29.
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Hmm, I didn't know the Commemorative Air Force has scanner roles. What does the scanner do on those planes in the CAF?

Will look into them a little further.
 
TCABM said:
You could likely search FEMA and your state’s civil emergency response team databases to see if there’s something in your area that fills the need your looking to fill.
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FEMA uses government assets when possible. So they use CAP. I used to work for FEMA and several disasters I worked had CAP doing work for the operation.

CAP also has Aerial Photographer rating/training/missions.
 
N918KT said:
Hmm, I didn't know the Commemorative Air Force has scanner roles. What does the scanner do on those planes in the CAF?

Will look into them a little further.
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Our scanners have many duties in preflight, briefing (pax) and they control movement of the passengers during the flights while scanning for taxi obstacles (the B-24 has really wide MLG) and for any anomalies during flight.
 
EvilEagle said:
Our scanners have many duties in preflight, briefing (pax) and they control movement of the passengers during the flights while scanning for taxi obstacles (the B-24 has really wide MLG) and for any anomalies during flight.
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Do they watch for engine fires on the B-29?
 
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