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MAY 20, 2012 DENTON, TX — Cadets and senior members of the Civil Air Patrol squadrons in Denton and Wichita Falls headed to Bishop Field, just west of Denton, for an the opportunity to fly without power during a Glider Orientation Weekend.

On Friday the tow pilots and glider pilots conducted their annual check rides to get ready for the Cadets to arrive on Saturday.

When they arrived that Saturday morning, the cadets were given a briefing by the squadron’s Deputy Commander, Lt.Col Bryce Herkert and by 9:15, the gliders began to soar in the warm, Texas sky.

For several of the cadets this was the first time flying at the controls of a glider, and for some, their first time ever in the sky.  In all, 17 cadets received orientation flights in gliders provided by CAP and Lt Col Tom Bishop, the owner of Bishop Field.

“The Cadets learned a lot about teamwork and situational awareness, safety and getting along with others,” said Major Steve Robertson, the Commander of the Denton squadron and one of the tow pilots.

Captain Robert Pohlmann drove down from Wichita Falls to bring two cadets from his squadron. He summed up the chance for cadets to fly in gliders with a single adjective: “Awesome!”

The Nighthawk Composite Squadron is located at the Denton Municipal Airport and it’s over 100 volunteers provide air search and rescue services and disaster response to local, state, and federal agencies.  The squadron has a large and active cadet program which offers those 12 – 18 are introduced to aviation through aerospace education, leadership training, physical fitness and character development.

“Civil Air Patrol, the official auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, is a nonprofit organization with more than 60,000 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 has been credited by the AFRCC with saving more than 100 lives this fiscal year. Its volunteers also perform homeland security, disaster relief and counterdrug missions at the request of federal, state and local agencies. The members play a leading role in aerospace education and serve as mentors to over 25,000 young people currently participating in CAP cadet programs. CAP has been performing missions for America for more than 70 years. For more information on CAP, visit gocivilairpatrol.com.”

On the web at www.goCivilAirPatrol.com and www.dentoncap.org