Mother/Daughter Checkride Qualifies New York Engineer For CAP

Appropriately, it was March 8, International Women’s Day, when Leslie Hull, 24, of Avon, New York, completed her checkride as a Civil Air Patrol (CAP) pilot. What made the flight even more significant was that her mother, Capt. Martha “Mother Goose” Pickard, was her check pilot.

Pickard, a flight instructor at Scottsville, New York-based Rochester Air Center, said, “I can’t tell you how awesome it is to crew an airplane with her. She’s really good and always impresses me.” The checkride qualifies Hull, employed as a systems engineer at nearby L3 Harris, as a qualified Civil Air Patrol pilot eligible to fly maintenance missions and transport equipment. After some upcoming prerequisites, she would qualify as a mission pilot, able to fly search-and-rescue missions for downed aircraft or missing persons.

After earning her private pilot certificate in summer 2021, Hull and her mother visited Alaska in September 2021 to qualify for her seaplane rating. After returning from Alaska, she began training toward her instrument rating, which she received in December.

Two months ago, Hull joined the Civil Air Patrol and initiated onboarding training (learning the CAP computer software and mission profiles), another qualification within the squadron.

Lt. Col. Franklin Birt, assistant public relations officer and government relations advisor for the New York Wing of the Civil Air Patrol, said, “That Leslie was able to take that flight with her mother is really cool.”