And what has the average CAP guy actually found?
According to many NTSB reports, squat.
Sorry, but flying a few basic SAR patterns ain't rocket surgery.
As for the cattle, I've been fortunate not to need to go looking for any of my friends in downed aircraft, but as for the cattle last I check they are a little smaller than most aircraft.
It shows just how little you really know about this.
Cattle are incredibly easy to find from 1000 AGL, unless they are hiding under trees. Very high contrast, and very few false signals. It's not too difficult to tell cattle from sheep at that altitude. BTDT. Counting them, well, that may take a bit more effort, and it's not something I've tried.
Aircraft are not so easy unless they are on fire. Even in open farmland, a wrecked airplane looks a HELL of a lot like old farm equipment, debris piles, fallen trees, etc., and some look like as little as a bit of disturbed foliage and that's it. Fabric covered airplanes and heavily forested terrain are the worst.
The "average" CAP ES member does not have a distress find because it takes a lot more than one aircrew to accomplish that successfully and predictably. Occasionally, people get lucky, and it's a lot easier if an ELT goes off -- and they usually don't. Most of us do have non-distress finds because there is no shortage of accidental ELT signals even now.
FYI, much of the recent activities has been from self-proclaimed "experts" like you flying lower than they should and finding power lines. And the resulting power outage is the best way to find them when that happens, not an airborne search and an ELT search is not likely even if it goes off (power lines screw with ELTs).
The worst thing about this is that you think you do understand it. You don't. Not even close. It's like some self proclaimed RC or sim expert claiming they can fly your aircraft because all your ATP training is irrelevant.
And there is much more to a search than flying one airplane. The critical part is the planning section. Just how many searches have you planned? Do you know how to exclude an area? Flying over it once is almost never enough, even in perfect weather, and flat, open terrain.
If you are not in radio contact with the relevant CAP base, you cannot stay out of their way. Since when is assuming a long response time and a big sky considered competent deconfliction? Especially when looking for the same thing. And you are very unlikely to have appropriate radios for that.
