In Traverse City, there’s a group of volunteers who fly a small plane on search and rescue missions. It’s called the Civil Air Patrol, and it's the civilian arm of the U.S. Air Force.
There are chapters all over northern Michigan, all with the public service and educational mandate of the national organization.
"Retired teachers or accountants or lawyers or ministers or plumbers [who] don't know what to do with themselves, but [who say], ‘I've always wanted to be in an airplane,'" said Jo Hendrix, a lieutenant in the Traverse City chapter. "Well, you can be a scanner and an observer in our Civil Air Patrol plane. We'll train you."
The Traverse City chapter is in the process of building a new home at Cherry Capital Airport. Right now, they have to drive to Cadillac to pick up their plane before setting off on any flights.
Nationally, the Civil Air Patrol flies more than 85% of all search and rescue missions directed by the Air Force.
"We might be looking for a downed plane with beacons and electronic technology, or it might be just visually scanning out to look for a lost person," said the chapter's 1st Lt. Barry Cobbley, who served in the U.S. Air Force during Operation Desert Storm.
He joined the Civil Air Patrol because he missed flying, but says the cadet program, where he trains young people to fly, is the reason he's stayed.
During the pandemic, the Civil Air Patrol flew COVID-19 tests from prisons in the Upper Peninsula down to testing labs in Lansing.
And during the ice storm last year, they helped search for downed communication towers, with cadets on the ground scanning for damage.
But fetching their plane from Cadillac slows them down.
That's why they’ve been raising money to build a hangar location in Grand Traverse County. So far, they've raised almost $300,000 from Cherry Capital Airport, local foundations, and Civil Air Patrol member dues.
The airport gave them a spot on the airfield, and steel for the foundation for a hangar is on its way. The plans include a training center at the front of the new space, open to the public, and a space for the plane at the back.
They're hoping to get the building ready to house their plane later this year.
At their current meeting spot, a room they borrow from Legacy Aviation, Cobbley showed off their flight simulator setup.
With just a few computer monitors, he began a flight over northern Michigan. The simulator paints a geographically accurate picture of the landscape.
Cobbley took off from South Fox Island, pointing out the Manitou Islands and Suttons Bay on the simulator screen.
Cobbley spends a lot of his time with the Civil Air Patrol teaching the group's teenage cadets how to fly. Those cadets, who range from 12 to 17 years old, have a chance to go up in the squadron’s plane and see northern Michigan from the sky.
He let me give the simulator a try, and as I tried to land in Northport, I missed the landing and a cloud of smoke and flames took over the computer screen.
But Cobbley had some reassuring words.
"You would have walked away from that one," he said. "That's no problem."
