CAP officials push the squadron's airplane into the hangar at the CAP's new facility at Yuma International Airport on Friday.
Photo by Joyce Lobeck/Yuma Sun
The new CAP facility is being provided by the Yuma County Airport Authority in one-sixth of the building formerly used by FedEx on the west of the airport before it moved into its new complex.
Photo by Joyce Lobeck/Yuma Sun
“Amazing” was one cadet's response to the new home for Yuma's Civil Air Patrol squadron that was shown off during an open house Friday afternoon.
Until now, the squadron has been shunted from one temporary classroom to another, observed Cadet Jackie Taylor, a CAP member for six years.
Now the squadron has a permanent home to call its own. The new CAP facility is being provided by the Yuma County Airport Authority in one-sixth of the building formerly used by FedEx on the west of the airport before it moved into its new complex.
“Very awesome,” echoed Cadet Kelsey VanSant. She said she had belonged to CAP in Phoenix and thought that facility was awesome. But the new Yuma facility has it beat.
“We've been like orphan children,” said William “Scotty” Haskell, public affairs officer for the Yuma Squadron 508 of the Arizona Wing. “We were an aviation organization without aviation. Now we're in a corner of the airport. We can see planes come and go.”
Perhaps best of all, the new facility includes a hangar to store the CAP airplane out of the elements, which will protect it and extend its life. It also will make the airplane more comfortable to work on and be much more accessible to cadets as they learn to fly, he said.
Just inside the hangar is a training room with two flight simulators of a cockpit complete down to the noise of the engine if you turn up the sound, Haskell said.
“One cadet walked in and his face lit up when he saw the simulators,” said Craig Williams, airport director.
“The adults were happy, too,” added Haskell.
The facility also has a lunchroom and upstairs is a classroom that will be used for the first time Saturday morning for a safety briefing by Federal Aviation Administration Safety Team.
Rob Ingold, president of the Airport Authority, noted that part of the organization's mission is to promote safety and to get young people involved in aviation.
So when the idea was pitched to create space for the CAP in the vacant FedEx building, the board “embraced it 100 percent,” he said. “We hope it will encourage more people to fly at the airport.”
Haskell said the organization currently has about 28 cadets ages 12 to 18 and 23 senior members age 21 and older from all walks of life. He expects that number will increase with the new facility.
“We're really grateful the board put this together for us,” Haskell said.
Williams figures it was a great investment. He estimates the Airport Authority spent about $100,000 on the project to replace flooring, do some painting, redo the parking lot and improve the fence around the area — renovations that were needed anyway.
That also includes buying the simulators, Williams said, explaining that “our goal all along was to enhance flight training for young people.” He added that the facility will be available to local flight instructors.
In addition, Williams said, CAP is a big help to the airport and the community with its emergency operations. The organization also provides emergency radio services and it promotes aviation safety.
Haskell said that CAP was formed 71 years ago, just six days before the attack on Pearl Harbor. During World War II, CAP patrolled the U.S. coastline for German submarines.
“It has a rich history.”
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