Louisiana Regional Airport in Gonzales was a buzz with activity on Saturday morning as 9 Civil Air Patrol aircraft were arriving with members aiming to attend the Flight Ops Clinic hosted by the Civil Air Ascension Composite Squadron. Col. Mickey Marchand and Col. Harry Stafford, both long time members of the Civil Air Patrol and pilots themselves, organized and conducted the clinic with the classroom portion conducted at the Gonzales Public Safety Center and the flight portion out of LA Regional Airport. The clinic was designed to train pilots and none pilots alike, on the procedures and responsibilities of each member of the Flight Crew. Whether mission pilot, Observer or Scanner, all must work together as a team to accomplish the mission. “The Pilot needs to focus on flying the plane; he or she must depend on the Observer who is responsible for navigation and communications and Scanner is responsible for scanning for targets, takes photos, uploads them onto a laptop and keeps a log on photo information. Each person must be well trained to work interchangeably with any other crew member they are teamed up with. According to numerous reports from visitng air crews, Ascension Composite did an all around excellent job.
