Air Trails

CAP-WESTERN NEW YORK GROUP NY-024

Capt. Carolynn Fillgrove, Group PAO, Editor

APRIL/MAY 2009 _ ____________________________Volume 5, Number 7

WNY GROUP’S NEWEST MAJOR – Maj. Ellen Maternowski (center),

commander of the Jamestown Composite Squadron, NY-402,
receives her promotion to major from Lt. Col. Charlie Jones (left)
Group Plans and Programs Officer and Major Larry Skerker (right)
Group Commander. Major Maternowski also is wing and Northeast
Region Cadet Programs Officer of the Year. (Civil Air Patrol photo)
 ANNUAL FLY-IN BREAKFAST MARKS RETURN
TO FLIGHT FOR WARTIME CAP OBSERVER
AKRON, NY – Alice Wehhrung-Schmidt never expected to be
reacquainted to her past when she attended the annual Akron Memorial
Day fly-in breakfast recently.

The 91-year-old World War II Civil Air Patrol (CAP) member spent
most the day reacquainting herself with the current activities of her
former service, its modern-day members, and even got one more chance
behind the yoke of a Cessna.

“It was just a wonderful, wonderful day,” Wehhrung-Schmidt

remarked to CAP officers as she was one of the last people to leave the
airport that day.

Wehhrung-Schmidt served as a Civil Air Patrol observer flying and

training with a squadron in Tonawanda, NY from 1942 to 1946.
Squadron meetings were filled with drill and subjects such as radio
procedures. Her war time experience was what motivated her to pursue
the flying lessons she had always wanted, enabling her to earn a private
pilot’s license at the age of 25.

Akron’s Memorial Day Fly-in Breakfast marked one more time for
her to fly when she was given an orientation flight in a private Cessna
owned by Captain Tom Baldwin and Captain Diane Rothberg, both
retired Air Canada captains.

“She was just amazing . . . she still thinks like a pilot . . . she is
very sharp, “ Capt. Rothberg said following the local flight.

Born and raised in Buffalo, Alice, at a young age, told her family
that she wanted to fly airplanes one day. But the dream to fly took a
back seat to formal education. She graduated from Buffalo State College
with a degree in education in 1941 and began a long career as a teacher
and administrator for the Kenmore School District. Her service in the
CAP ended when she left for New York City to pursue a master’s degree.

Wehhrung-Schmidt noted that women training as pilots during

World War II were somewhat of a novelty. She found the flight training
exhilarating, but was ever mindful that she had to prove herself better
than men. When she went to Rochester to take the written exam, others
quickly completed the test and left while she spent six hours taking the
exam and re-checking her answers. The extra attention paid off, she
scored a 97. Then, when she finally got her pilot’s license at the age of
25, she told her mother. Alice told me that her mother hugged her tight
and told her how proud of her she was. She was surprised by this, but
happy, too.

Wehhrung-Schmidt’s love of flying rubbed off on her husband,

Carl. While she studied in New York City, he earned a private pilot’s
license as well. Then he surprised her upon graduation by saying that he
would come to New York and fly her home. Married for 40 years, the
couple mixed aviation with his automotive business. The couple owned
ten different airplanes through the years, to include Piper Cubs, pacers,
Tri-Pacers, and a Cherokee 180. Mr. Wehhrung did his own
maintenance. They even built a hangar at the Akron Airport themselves.

Alice and Carl personally knew Bill Piper, Sr., owner of Piper
Aircraft Co., Lock Haven, Penna. They attended a celebration at Piper
Aircraft when the company had built 320,000 planes.

Alice has flown twice to Mexico in a Piper Cherokee (made in

Florida). She has flown to Alaska and many other places. She stopped
flying in 1986 when Carl had to have open heart surgery. Alice
personally has 3,000 hours in her log book.

Carl Wehhring passed away in the mid-1980s. That hasn’t stopped

Alice. She loves life and lives it to the fullest; living on her own, taking
care of her home and mowing the lawn.

These days Alice owns a home in Florida, but comes home to

Cheektowaga every year before hurricane season starts.

“The hurricanes dance around down there…,” she noted, indicating

she didn’t like the storms one bit!

Alice is a musician and plays seven instruments. She speaks

English and French. Ever the educator, she continues to work in a child
day care center, combining her love of music with humor in a little band
with children and “old people.”

She laughed when noting the “old people” think she’s younger than
they are because she knows so many old people jokes.

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CONGRATULATIONS – To Capt. Tom Baldwin, Niagara Cadet
Squadron 1, named New York Wing and Northeast Region’s Aerospace
Education Officer of the Year; Maj. Randy Anger, TAK Composite
Squadron and WNY Group Finance Officer, awarded the Meritorious
Service Award, for his devotion to duty as Wing Encampment
Commander over three consecutive years; Lt. Col. Janet Schachner and
Capt. Michael Johnson, TAK Composite Squadron, awarded the
Commander’s Commendation Award for meritorious Service; Maj. Larry
Skerker, WNY Group Commander, decorated with the Achievement
Award for his service with the NYW Group Commander’s Course; C/Lt.
Col. Elizabeth Anger, TAK Composite Squadron; recipient of the 2008
National Cadet Scholarship; Capt. Carolynn Fillgrove, WNY Group
Public Affairs Officer; the Gen. Benjamin O. Davis and Grove Loening
Awards.
-----

REGION STAFF COLLEGE -- As you start thinking about

your plans for this summer, consider the North East Region Staff College
(NERSC). This Level 4 senior member professional development course is
again being offered at McGuire AFB, NJ. Students arrive on Saturday,
11 July 2009 at 1400 hours and depart on Saturday 18 July 2009 by
lunch-time.

Students must have completed Level 3 however waivers are

available. Registration does not require a CAP Form 17 but is done on-
line, to include the fee payment of $70 at the NERSC website:
http://nhplm.org/_nersc1/

The fee includes all materials, an official 2009 NERSC knit short-
sleeve shirt, the opening mixer, the picnic and the dining-out.
Additionally, you must have sufficient and complete uniforms (Service
Dress w/o blouse and/or corporate equivalent, no BDUs or flight suits)
for each day. You will wear Mess Dress, Service Dress or civilian
equivalent to attend the required dinning-out. You will be billeted on
base in a private BOQ room with bath at your own expense (about $39
per day) and are responsible for your own transportation and meals.

This is a wonderful course, well worth your time and expense. You
will meet and work with CAP senior members and USAF personnel from
throughout the region.

Please make this information available to ALL senior members in

your organization and feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

More information may be obtained from Lt. Col. William S.

Bernfeld, NY Wing Professional Development Assistant, Post Office Box
310, Yorktown Heights, NY 10598-0310. You may reach Lieutenant
Colonel Bernfeld at 914-962-4536; FAX 914-940-6365; or e-mail him at
colonelzig@gmail.com

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NY AVIATION JOBS ACT -- A bill to make permanent a

sales tax exemption on maintenance and repair of aircraft and
remove the sales and use tax on the purchase of GA aircraft is
gaining support in the New York legislature.

AOPA worked with legislators to create the sales tax exemption for
aviation parts and maintenance in 2004. The next year, the state saw an
increase in taxable income from businesses involved in aviation
maintenance and repair and a three-percent jump in employment in the
sector, according to a report from the state’s Department of Taxation and
Finance. Department surveys indicated a 17-percent increase in
revenues over that year.

Still, the state could soon lose the economic benefits of aircraft-
related businesses, because the tax exemption is set to expire on Dec. 1.

The New York Aviation Jobs Act would make the tax exemption
permanent and add an exemption for the purchase of GA aircraft. In a
letter to Speaker of the State Assembly Sheldon Silver that is still gaining
co-signers, Assemblyman Robin Schimminger wrote that the current
sales tax on aircraft is driving business out of New York into neighboring
states.

Considering the boom to New York’s aviation maintenance industry

and the resulting growth in taxable business caused by the 2004
exemption, the legislators wrote, “[w]e are confident that further aviation
sales tax relief will succeed in attracting additional basing of aircraft in
New York.”

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DROP IN GA AIRCRAFT SALES -- The General Aviation

Manufacturers Association (GAMA) first-quarter 2009 shipment report
posted deliveries of 462 general aviation airplanes. That’s a 41.1-percent
drop from the same period last year, according to GAMA. Billings fell
18.2 percent, to $4.34 billion. The hardest-hit segment was piston-
powered aircraft, which, with 179 deliveries, was down 55.1 percent from
the first quarter of 2008, when 399 airplanes were delivered. Business jet
deliveries, at 191 airplanes, were off 35.7 percent from last year’s first
quarter figure of 297 airplanes. The only gains came in the turboprop
sector, with 92 deliveries. That’s up from last year’s first-quarter
deliveries of 89 airplanes, making for a 3.4-percent increase.“This is an
extremely difficult time for our industry,” said GAMA President and CEO
Pete Bunce. “We are dealing first and foremost with the severe negative
effects of a worldwide economic downturn, but also with unwarranted
criticism focused on the industry. The result has been the cancellation of
orders for new airplanes and the loss of more than 15,000 high-paying
jobs for American workers over the last several months.”
-----
PARADIGM BUSTER -- The Air Force and Lockheed Martin
flew the experimental Advanced Composite Cargo Aircraft for the first
time on Tuesday at the service's Plant 42 in Palmdale, Calif. The initial
demonstration flight lasted about 87 minutes. "The aircraft was a real
pleasure to fly and we experienced absolutely no issues," said Rob Rowe,
Lockheed's lead ACCA test pilot, said in the company's release. The
ACCA is a modified Dornier 328J aircraft on which
Lockheed has replaced the mid/aft fuselage and
empennage with a structure of advanced composite
materials fabricated using novel manufacturing
techniques. It is intended as a proof-of-concept platform
to show the viability of these new manufacturing
techniques to drastically reduce the cost and complexity of building
future airlifters compared to traditional metallic designs. For example,
despite the somewhat larger size of the Dornier after the composite
modifications, the total number of parts was dramatically reduced
relative to the original metallic design (approximately 300 versus 3,000),
as was the number of mechanical fasteners (about 4,000 vs. 30,000).
Barth Shenk, ACCA program manager with the Air Force Research Lab at
Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, called the maiden flight the culmination of
years of teamwork between government and industry "to fundamentally
change" how aircraft are made. (Includes Wright-Patterson report by
Derek Kaufman)
------
NEW REAPER WEAPON –- The U.S. Air Force is working to
clear the GBU-38 Joint Direct Attack Munition, a 500-pound satellite
guidance-aided bomb, around July for operational use on the MQ-9
Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) Air Force officials said the Reaper
has emerged as a critical overhead asset in Iraq and Afghanistan for
finding and attacking ground targets. The Reaper currently carries the
500-pound GBU laser-guided bomb and the AGM Hellfire ground-attack
missile in combat.
------
SILENT EAGLE -– Boeing revealed its new F-15SE “Silent
Eagle” in March. The company claims that this new F-15 variant will
have the level of stealth approved by the U.S. government for release to
international customers. It employs several design changes such as
using conformal pallets for internal carriage of weapons and fuel.,
cantering the vertical fins outward, and applying stealth coatings across
the whole aircraft. Boeing says it is marketing the Silent Eagle to
international customers, especially those who already fly versions of the
F-15.
------
OSPREY IS COMBAT-READY — Air Force Special
Operations Command (AFSOC) leaders cleared the CV-22 tilt-rotor
aircraft for world-wide combat operations in March. The platform, which
replaces the MH-53 helicopter, is designed for long-range infiltration,
extraction and resupply. The first unit, the 8th Special Operations
Squadron at Hurlburt Field, Fla., already has six CV-22s that are
combat-ready. As a run-up to the initial operations milestone, AFSOC
sent four CV-22s to Africa’s Trans-Saharan region in November 2008 to
participate in Operation Flintlock, a multi-national military exercise. The
Air Force plans to purchase 50 CV-22s. The Marine Corps version, the
MV-22, has already served in Iraq and is being considered for duty in
Afghanistan.
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NER SAFETY POLICY — The mission is paramount…and
safety is inextricably linked to mission accomplishment. The
hallmarks of a world-class flying and emergency services
organization are discipline, obedience, and precise execution.
Discipline includes adherence to the law, regulations, standards,
checklists and organizational procedures. Obedience is loyalty to
the organization to its core values. Safety can not be bypassed for
the sake of convenience. Leaders at every level are charged with
enforcing existing standards and ensuring everyone applies sound
risk management in instances not specifically covered by the rules.
Commanders and supervisors will be held accountable for
compliance. LEADERSHIP…ENFORCEMENT…ACCOUNTABILITY.
Established by Col. Robert Diduch, Northeast Region Commander,
this policy is effective immediately and will continue in effect until
further notice. All members must read and understand this policy. It
is to be incorporated into all new members’ Level 1 training. Also, it
must be reviewed with each member when a CAP Vehicle Operator’s
Permit is issued, and when a CAPF 5 and CAPF 91 checkride is
given.

SUBMISSIONS WELCOME – If your squadron has an item of

interest for the group newsletter, please e-mail me at
flyboy@flmtgif.org. Thanks to Col. Robert Diduch, Col. Ken Andreu,
Lt. Col. George Fillgrove, Lt. Col. William S. Bernfeld, the Air Force
Association, AOPA and NASA news services, and NHQ CAP for
contributions to this issue.