OWL CANYON GLIDERPORT, Colo. (Jun. 22) -- Fourteen-year-old Cheyenne youth Judson McCarty began a 10-day glider camp with the Civil Air Patrol yesterday at Owl Canyon Gliderport near Wellington, Colo. Working with volunteer instructors from the CAP and Soaring Society of America (SSA), Judson and 28 other CAP cadets age 14-16 will learn how to fly powerless aircraft. Getting started yesterday, the young cadets assembled the gliders they will fly from dawn to dusk over the next 10 days.

Cadet Judson McCarty (right), 14, of Cheyenne, assists fellow Civil Air Patrol cadets assemble a glider in preparation for flights this week at the Owl Canyon Gliderport in northern Colorado.

Laramie County Community College (LCCC) in Cheyenne, Wyo., will host all of the cadets during the encampment. The encampment is made possible in part by a 1996 Memorandum of Understanding signed by CAP and SSA. The agreement permits CAP to select promising young cadet members while the SSA offers ground school and glider crew operations – a full exposure to the aviation sport of soaring.

Six Colorado CAP cadets are attending and other participants represent 16 states, including Montana, Virginia, Oregon and Minnesota. Twenty cadets will be attending their first glider camp; the others are returning veterans. Five attending cadets are female.   Nationwide, nearly 400 CAP cadets applied for just 100 slots at five such encampments.

The Owl Canyon Gliderport is a private airport north of Wellington, owned by the Colorado Soaring Association (CSA). It is an ideal training environment, with four marked runways up to 5000’ long and acres of landable prairie between runways. No power traffic is permitted, making it one of the few glider-only facilities in the nation.

Event sponsors include the Colorado Soaring Association, the Black Forest Soaring Society, the Denver Soaring Council, Dunlop Aero of Salida, the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) Young Eagles Program, LCCC, Knauff & Grove Soaring Supplies, and Bob Wander Soaring Books & Supplies.

There are more than 59,000 CAP members nationwide: approximately 25,000 cadets and 34,000 adult volunteers. They wear the Air Force uniform with distinctive CAP emblems and insignia. Members operate more than 5,000 privately-owned aircraft, 530 CAP-owned aircraft and nearly 1,000 vehicles in support of the organizations programs. Civil Air Patrol, the official Air Force auxiliary, is a nonprofit organization. It performs more than 85 percent of inland search and rescue missions in the continental United States. Volunteers also take a leading role in aerospace education and serve as mentors to America’s youth through CAP cadet programs.

MEDIA VISITS during the flight encampment at the Owl Canyon Gliderport near Wellington, Colo. are welcome. For additional information, contact Captain Aaron E. Kornblum, Wyoming CAP Wing PAO and event PAO, (307) 773-4117, or the Owl Canyon Gliderport, (970) 568-SOAR. For more information on-line, visit: http://www.win.net/~greeley/ssay/nge.htm. SEE ALSO today’s article in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle by Paula Glover on page A1.

Captain Aaron E. Kornblum, PAO
Wyoming CAP Wing Headquarters
P.O. Box 9507, Cheyenne, WY 82003-9507
307 / 773-4117 FAX: 307 / 773-4783
highplainspa@juno.com

U.S. Civil Air Patrol cadets assemble gliders at Day 1 of the 1998 National Flight Encampment at Owl Canyon Gliderport, near Wellington, Colo.