Firstly a big welcome to you all to this first
newsletter of the Coastguard Air Patrol Canterbury. We hope it will
keep you in touch with the happenings of the unit, training opportunities
available, and how to get involved.
The board of the CAPC unit has been extremely busy. We
have become more involved with the local coastguard community, along with
making valuable contacts within the Police, RCC, and other Coastguard Air
Patrol units. Along with this there has also been the continual efforts to
raise funding for the purchase of equipment needed for the tasks.
None
of the above is of any use unless we get you, our valued members trained
up in the skills involved with being a spotter, or the Tactical
Coordinator (TACCO), or the ground crew support to get ourselves
airborne. It was pleasing to see that we had 20 people take part in the
Marine VHF operators Certificate, and also that some members have
continued on with the other modules being offered in the training
regime. It is this dedication that you
show to us that we will then put you up for mission status.
We as a board
love to see people want to get involved! If you feel like you can assist
with any facet of the running (perhaps you have a loose couple of thousand
to donate for some equipment or know someone who has ?), then make contact
with one of the board members.
Finally,
remember to come to the AGM, as we need a good showing to get our required
quorum to pass quite a few items of urgency.
Christopher Hentschel
Acting Chair
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Coastguard Air
Patrol Supporters: |
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So what does search and rescue look
like?
Search
and rescue exercise…. Spot the Kayak!
Well, with this exact same question the board decided
to get involved with the Coastguard Southern Region Search and rescue
exercise this month. Whilst not being recognised as being “operational”,
we gave it a good attempt and the mission for
Canterbury
was an
easy one for the newbie’s on the block. It was only the request to search
the shoreline between Akaroa and
Lyttelton
Harbours
– quite
a little bit of coastline and some tricky inlets to navigate the C172 in!
The weather also played a part – giving us a realistic
day for searching with low cloud, rain and drizzle (just to keep the
pilots honest!). The demisters on board were well utilised, along with the
coffee machine for the now soaking ground crew.
Some
of the team went out in the afternoon with the Kaikoura unit in their 8
seater to get an invaluable view from how they operate and spent over two
hours searching for a kayak and a liferaft lost out in
Pegasus
Bay
– quite a
lot of water to search!
Throughout the day members also spent time discussing search techniques and
the logistics of actual searching, and in general chewing a lot of fat on the
issue.
James Bradford also had the chance of
seeing the madness in the control room for multiple search and rescue
exercises and was thrown in the deep end as being the CAP adviser for the
afternoon.
Overall, the day of exercise
and the proceeding planning involved has been extremely beneficial in working out
exactly how the unit should run.
Watch
this space for the next mission!
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