OpsEval in the books:
QuoteTennessee Civil Air Patrol scores "outstanding" in rating by Air Force brass
Lance Coleman
on Sat Jun 07, 2014 21:54 EDT
If disaster should strike East Tennessee, the volunteers with the Civil Air Patrol who take to the skies to assist emergency responders are prepared, Tennessee Wing Commander Bill Lane said Saturday.
Lane said eight officials from Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta, Ga., visited McGhee Tyson Airport and tested 59 of the volunteers in a variety of simulated emergencies or disaster situations.
In one case, there was an earthquake and Civil Air Patrol personnel flew over critical infrastructure such as dams and power plants.
"Our aircraft are capable of making high definition aerial photographs that we send back to headquarters at McGhee Tyson Airport," he said.
The volunteers also were tasked with taking simulated medical supplies to Sevierville, Morristown and other locations within a specific period of time, Lane said.
"It was one hour from the time we were briefed to the time we had to arrive at a given location," he said.
The volunteers also were tested on how they would respond in finding a crashed airplane.
"We had a simulated air crash site with a location transmitter on it and our aircraft honed in on it and located it within a few minutes and began orbiting the site and guided a ground crew of five people in to confirm the location and type of air craft," he said.
Lane said the visitors gave his personnel an overall rating of "outstanding."
"We're still in the air over this," he said.
Lane said the Civil Air Patrol is a not-for-profit corporation based out of Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama and is comprised primarily of volunteers in every state. Each state is considered a wing, he said.
"We're organized according to the lines of the United States Air Force," he said. "When we're assigned a task, we are considered Air Force auxiliary and the missions we fly are funded federally. We also have operations agreements with Tennessee Emergency Management Agency."
BZ!
Excellent! :clap:
I forgot to source that...it was a media report of our Eval from the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
SH!
Did TNWG use its SPOT beacons in the aircraft to track them during the eval?
Mike
Quote from: sardak on June 13, 2014, 12:33:49 AM
Did TNWG use its SPOT beacons in the aircraft to track them during the eval?
Mike
We certainly did.
The standard instruction to one of the pilot to "stop talking on the radio and go land at xxx airport and wait till we call you" was found before he landed...12 minutes after he went "off the grid" comms wise...looked up at the map and said "He's not supposed to be THERE!"