SEBRING, Fla. -- For the sixth consecutive year, members of the Civil Air Patrol have played a key role in the Sebring Light Sports Aviation Expo. During the four-day event, held January 20 -24th at the Sebring Airport, CAP members from across the Florida Wing’s Group Five area provided both educational and safety resources for the event.

The CAP members hosted a display booth, educated the public about CAP, and displayed a CAP aircraft. Emergency Services members shuttled pilots/guests to and from the flightline and maintained the safe ground operation by marshalling the aircraft to designated parking areas. Saturday was the busiest with over 450 aircraft checked-in to the flightline.

The Highlands County Senior Squadron based in Sebring was assisted by cadets from SRQ Composite Squadron and Lee County Cadet Squadron. Members of the Lee County Cadet Squadron bivouacked Saturday night to be on hand to assist again on Sunday. Mark Whitehurst, Ground Operations Director for the Expo commented that the “commitment of the CAP members” added to the event, and “having the CAP here certainly made the whole operation go without incident”.

During the event, a “Ramp Check” was requested by the Federal Aviation Administration for an aircraft that was over an hour late in closing its flight plan. The ground team comprised of: Major Lea Ann Curry, C/2ndLt Taylor Allen, C/Amn Priscilla Galambos, C/Amn Steven Laporte successfully completed the ramp check with a “find”. This was an added bonus for the cadets to be able to learn first hand about the important roles that CAP plays in search-and-rescue efforts.

For CAP members, the Expo was a real-life classroom for continuing their aerospace education. The event has become popular with vendors and visitor from all over the world. This gave the cadets and senior members the opportunity to talk with vendors, pilots and aviation enthusiasts while learning about aircraft, propellers, engines, aircraft design, avionics and much more.

Paul O’Brien, of Piper Aircraft, commented that “we never see the CAP at other events like this – it is good to see them and especially the cadets being involved in aviation.  We would love to see the CAP at other events”.

The event continues to grow and even more resources will be needed next year. The Highlands County Senior Squadron has already committed to participate in the 2011 Light Sports Aviation Expo and encourages other CAP squadrons to mark the event on their calendar and join in providing support for next year’s event.