On the final weekend of August, clear skies greeted members of Civil Air Patrol's Cortez Senior Squadron for honing their aerial search and rescue skills.
The local squadron hosted a base in their hangar at the Cortez airport, which allowed regional, group and squadron staff to train and renew skills in aerial search, operating radios and planning emergency response missions. By Saturday afternoon, the group had flown seven sorties, including flights from squadrons in Grand Junction and Montrose. Grand Junction also held ground team missions.
The Cortez Senior squadron, including members from Cortez, Mancos and Durango, were assigned three missions at the start of the exercise - a route search for a simulated missing aircraft, a photo mission of a radio and fire tower, and an Emergency Locator Transmitter search.
The exercise also offered a chance for squadron members to work with officers from other units. "It was a great team-building exercise," said senior member Michael D'Anna. "It's a great way to get introduced to flying and get into general aviation."