Angel Flight Command Pilot...and an overall great flying day today

I emailed Angel Flight Central concerning the Command Pilot designation and
they informed me that they do not use the Command Pilot designation and do
not require any orientation. Once you register with Angel Flight Central
you are able to fly missions.

And that is as it should be.

Angel Flight South Central used to be that way. I flew my first
mission with no orientation whatsoever. They sent me the handbook, and
that was that. Those were the good old days, when we treated pilots
like adults.

Now we have mandatory orientations. Why? Beats me. It's all in the
book. But now we have a whole bureaucracy to support those mandatory
orientations. I would rather those people were out flying missions.

The important thing to remember is that these things are all political.
There is no reason to have any of these minimum requirements,
orientations, flight checks, or any of that crap. If it were up to me,
any private pilot could sign up and fly a mission - period. We've had
such an excellent safety record because everyone understands this is
important and uses good judgment. Rules can only hurt that.

Michael

Michael wrote
And that is as it should be

Michael,
I guess I"m a bit torn. I 100% agree that we should reduce procedures
for the purpose of procedures. However, as an former AF checkpilot in
west wing we did see some pilots that had trouble with landings and
some even required the checkpilot to grab the controls. Perhaps the new
minimum hours is good enough to take care of that. The idea is that
when a person shows up to receive an AF flight, they have no way to
determine the ability of the pilot other than the fact that he's
wearing an AF ID card on his shirt. The feeling was that if we were be
given that responsibility, we should ensure pilots were ok. The rides
were NEVER intended to be an FAA checkride, a BFR, an IPC or any of the
horror stories I've heard. It was supposed to be just a quick check
around the pattern. I actually don't have a problem with accepting any
PPL with miminum hours, my problem was AF asking me, as a CFI, to sign
an orientation paper stating that I found the applicant to have good
flying judgement based on a reading of his log book.

-Robert, CFI

Can you tell me the difference between an AF Command Pilot and a "regular" pilot?

Jim, just like everything else (CAP, FSDO ,etc) EVERYTHING is different
in California. In fact, we used to actually require a flight check of
pilots. Now it is prohibited to ask a pilot to perform a flight check
on an orientation.

-Robert, former AF check pilot

Jack,
I used to be an Angel Pilot checkpilot instructor back when we actually
did a brief flight check. The lawyers finally decided there was too
much liability in that and decided to move the liability over to the
check pilots by asknig us to sign that the pilot has good judgement
based on a reading of his log book. In any case, Angel Flight is a
great organization and I continue to donate to them.

-Robert, cameron park