Former N.H. Wing Commander Totals 1,000 IP/CP Sorties

Col. Bill Moran, former New Hampshire Wing commander, flew his 1,000th Civil Air Patrol Instructor Pilot/Check Pilot sortie Nov. 22.despite the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic,

"A big congratulations to one of our own," said Mike Moyer, CAP's senior program manager for standardization and evaluation, who announced the feat and described Moran as "a consummate professional to Civil Air Patrol."

Moran, who once flew bombers for the U.S Air Force, said the milestone wasn’t a personal goal.

"Last January I was totaling my 2019 flight hours/sorties and I saw that I had flown 124 IP/CP sorties in 2019,” he said. “I was surprised by that number and decided to add up all the previous year’s IP/CP sorties, and the total came to 924. 

“I never expected such a big number of sorties, and I didn’t expect to reach 1,000 sorties in 2020 as COVID-19 caused many members to reduce their flying. However, we had to keep pilots trained and qualified for all our missions, and I flew another 80 IP/CP sorties in 2020,” said Moran, now deputy commander of the Mount Washington Flight.

John Desmarais, CAP's director of operations, said reaching 1,000 IP/CP sorties is quite an accomplishment. "Most active IPs and CPs fly 60-65 hours a year for us across all of their flying, with an average sortie being one to 1½ hours, and a lot of that time is for their own flying or missions, too," he said. "Most probably fly 1-2 IP or CP sorties a month, maybe 25 a year."

Moran flew another 17 sorties for aerial photography in 2020 in addition to other missions, totaling 199.

"That number blew me away," he said, contemplating the restrictions in place during the year. "I will continue to fly as pilots request, but I have no number of sorties in mind."