Note the head movement of the SAR Tech while spinning. As he's spinning left, he's rapidly turning his head all the way to the left and then "untwists" it as he continues to spin, keeping his head (and eyesight) pointed in one direction as much as possible before having to turn his head again. This is the exact same technique that dancers and figure skaters use when performing a pirouette or other kind of rapid spinning move in order to avoid getting dizzy. This is how he can recover so quickly before having another go.
SAR Techs are not human. They are Super Humans and do things many normal individuals could not comprehend. Bravo to the SAR Techs and of course to the Flight Crew Too !! I'll give a thumbs up to that FE too :) God Job all around .
@@richardbates4120 Richard, do you wanna know something? I’m sure you do, you seem like a thoughtful person. I had the great fortune to have been raised on a military base in Summerside PEI in the 70s and 80’s. My father, who, happily is still with us, was an aircraft maintenance technician in 413 T&R Squadron at that time, served our country, making sure equipment, similar to this could answer these same calls The entire, community, we were brought up in, had a stake in this work. I was only a kid, but my family, 3 brothers and sisters and me, along with Mom and Dad, lived in a DND operated subdivision, with schools, fire protection, and recreation programs provided. It was a fantastic childhood. Some of my friends Dads , were military men who drove trucks, others were firefighters, some were aircraft mechanics, like my father.. others had dads who jumped outta Buffalos to save lost fishermen. We all lived together.. in this .. community. With basically a similar income, and a similar standard of living. My father, who is quite a senior gentleman, recalls fondly, this piece of his long service to our country. So I am very thankful, for the fantastic childhood, the CF has given me.
Definitely like the longer videos with the radio transmissions, but even these are excellent. Please keep them coming if you can. Thank you for doing what you guys do.
always knew SAR techs were the most badass guys and gals in the CAF. Props to y'all from all of us land based gunslingers for doing the jobs we couldn't fathom.
They can’t pay these SARTECs enough for what they do on this job. I know it’s not about the money and they love their job but what they do is extraordinary.
These videos are so cool. Thanks for uploading them, and thanks for what you do. I remember watching the Cormorant demo when it was a new platform here. It is a beast!
I can't swim, this scares the living daylights out of me, my admiration and thanks to the heroes who call this their day job, they should be honored with the all bells and whistles that can be mustered.
Nicely done .Question-- Why didn't you guys do the extraction from the left side of the boat ,there is no crane there ,I find that to be safer place to be ?
Spectacular camera work, and great job everyone. I am lucky enough to heve been lowered out of a RAF Sea king onto a RAF rescue launch and back up, fantastic experience. One question though why it the helicopter going backwards why not just go from the other side?
It has to do with having visual references with the boat. The Cormorant is quite large. The distance between where the pilot sits and where the hoist is is not insignificant. So when over to of the target you want the pilot to still be able to see the boat. The pilot also cannot look straight down due to the design of the cockpit, only at a right and downward angle. So if we were to do as you suggested when the helicopter was over target all they would see is ocean. Or, if they move back the tail would be close to the bridge and thus would have to be higher. The higher you are the less references the pilot has. The ideal spot is usually the back left corner on smaller boats for this reason. You're not the first person to ask the question. Maybe I will make a video better explaining it with a some models.
@mattfrom103 follow up question. What's the max speed the helicopter can fly backwards before it tries to weathvane and point in the direction of travel
@@martenkerkhoff6600 Not overly sure. In post maintenance test flying we have to go backwards at 20kts and it does fine with that. I've never really felt the need to go backwards faster.
Had to land the S76 once on a ship and the only way to do it was to land while the ship was moving forward but we were actually moving backwards facing 180 degrees away from the bow. Crazy the visual cues that you have to disregard in order not to get disoriented. I did loads of landing on moving vessels here for the offshore industry including supply vessels as well as seismic ones. The seismic moving ones are super challenging but landing "backwards" on that ship was indeed a handful lol
Hey there! I'm a fan from mainland China. I noticed the white rope you're using has this super cool, pro knotting or organizing technique that keeps it smooth and tangle-free when you pull it apart. I'm curious how that works. Thanks for checking out my comment, much appreciated!
Yes. The guideline being coiled up. I'll see if I can get a video of someone putting one together and using one. Might be a big of a delay as we are on holidays right now.
It's not that simple. Every year the Squadron is alloted a certain number of hours to fly. We either fly those hours doing training or conducting missions. So, had we not flown this mission we would instead have spent the hours doing training. Does that make sense? Now it cost the ship a bit of money. They had to stop fishing and immediately sail towards the closest port. That's a bunch of fuel and time spent not sailing. I'm sure they are not worried about it and that is the cost of doing business. I'm sure for them the well being of their crewmember comes first.
Here is what I wrote in another comment. Hopefully it helps. Okay. So few key pieces of information: 1) The hoist is on the right side. Hoisting is always flown by the right seat pilot. 2)The distance between the hoist(winch) and where the pilot sits is considerable. 20 feet probably. 3) The visibility downwards and to the right is limited from the pilot's seat. They can only see about 45 degrees down and maybe 60 degrees to the right. 4) To be able to steer and maintain a heading a ship needs to be moving. When you combine those two pieces information it means has to be a lot of forward and right of where the hoist location is for the pilot to see. Our default is the port side either midships or aft. This allows the pilot to maintain visual with the superstructure or bow of the ship. If that part of the ship is obstructed by rigging, junk on deck, cranes, superstruction..etc we must pick a different spot. In this case the bow was relatively clear. For us to hoist to the bow the helicopter must be positioned in such a way that when the pilot looks forward and right out their window they can see the ship. The only way to do this over the bow is if the helicopter is on the starboard side of the ship and pointing roughly the opposite way of the ship as you see in the video. If the helicopter was on the port side and facing foward the pilot would only be looking at water and have no reference with the ship. Does this make sense? It's hard to explain just with words
I'm curious why you didn't work on the port side of the trawler, it seems like there were less obstructions over there? Also that would have allowed the helicopter to fly in a forward direction.
Saw the other comments about 3x STs, but why is 2x STs the norm on all hoists? Certainly some of the basket hoists and elementary cases could manage with 1? Additionally, is there a reason you generally do not double up a hoist? i.e. ST + litter, or 2x STs, etc. I've seen you do it on some operations (especially when hoisting someone in a sling, etc) but doesn't appear to be the normal SOP. I hope replying to UA-cam comments counts as R&R on your holidays...
Yes, in theory you could manage with one ST on the boat and one in the helicopter to receive the patient. But STs love to work in pairs so they normally both go down. Usually 2 are needed to deal with the medical scenario and everything else going on. Regardless of what is reported by the ship you never really know the situation on the ship until you are there. Thus it is always better to go with 2. I have done it with only one going down but that was a rather unusual set of circumstances. Double ups are done but it would either be the 2 STs or the ST + patient. Seldom is a patient on a boat in fit enough condition to go up via double, usually it is only lost people in the woods that get doubled up. We do not double with stokes or basket. I know other agencies do, we do not. I suppose in this case we could have doubled up the last 2 STs but 2 singles just seemed like a better idea. Awfully bold of you to assume that I am on 'R&R' or holidays. Actually I am on call right now. There is a nasty cold going around town and a lot of the pilots are down hard. I one of only ones left still functional.
@@mattfrom103 Appreciate all that - thank you! Apologies - didn't mean to assume, I read on another comment that you were on holidays but looking back that was from 11 days ago. Thanks for all you do.
Sorry. I've meaning to make a video explaining it. H They provide 'top cover'. Which includes but is not limited to: 1) Get to the boat first and give them a brief as to what is about to happen. Tell them to prepare their deck which could take time. 2) Find the boat for us and give us an exact position. 3) At night they will drop flares which can help create a horizon. 4) If something goes wrong (i.e. we end up in the water) they will be there to take charge of the scene and begin rescue operations. 5) If the vessel is taking on water or sinking they can drop supplies, pumps, or rafts. 6) If the medical scenario is dire and we are still hours away they can dispatch their SAR Techs via parachute to the boat to begin medical intervention. There's more but I am forgetting some of it.
If the litter for some reason ended up in the sea with a patient in it, would it float? The litter seems to be buttoned up pretty tightly and I guess the patient often isn't capable of freeing themselves from it so I'm curious if this is something that can happen and has been thought of or if it's a risk vs. consequence thing where the risk of something like that happening is negligible?
There are floats attached to it and a bit of a weight at one end where the feet would be to keep the head up. In theory it would float just fine. I've never heard of the litter ending up in the water. The only way that could conceivably happen is if we cut the cable. Again, it’s never happened to my knowledge so, although consequence of it happening is considerable, the probability of it happening seems to be almost negligible which makes the overall risk quite.
Your unit seems to run much larger crews than the American air crews we've dealt with. USCG Dolphins only have one AST on them (much smaller aircraft than the Cormorant though) and Navy Jayhawks I think are 1 or maybe 2. In this video, you had three SARTECHs being hoisted. I can understand having more medical staff on the aircraft if you've got space to assist in patient care once they're onboard, but why hoist all three down to the ship? Running that many hoist cycles increases risk and fuel consumption, so there has to be a benefit to justify it.
The normal procedure is 2 SAR Techs to be on the helicopter. On this particular day we had an extra SAR Tech undergoing training so we decided to hoist them as well. They helped with carrying the stokes litter. Had fuel/time been a concern or had the hoist been more difficult or sketchy we probably would have omitted the third SAR Tech. In this case, once the guildine was established, the hoist was relatively safe and stable.
Please explain why the hoist was done from the starboard side while flying backwards? What was the advantage over doing it form the port side of the vessel and flying forwards? Was it an issue of tail clearance to the superstructure? And even so, why not fly in a right crab and work in a more natural direction? Spray patterns were not indicative of a lot of wind?
Okay. So few key pieces of information: 1) The hoist is on the right side. Hoisting is always flown by the right seat pilot. 2)The distance between the hoist(winch) and where the pilot sits is considerable. 20 feet probably. 3) The visibility downwards and to the right is limited from the pilot's seat. They can only see about 45 degrees down and maybe 60 degrees to the right. 4) To be able to steer and maintain a heading a ship needs to be moving. When you combine those two pieces information it means has to be a lot of forward and right of where the hoist location is for the pilot to see. Our default is the port side either midships or aft. This allows the pilot to maintain visual with the superstructure or bow of the ship. If that part of the ship is obstructed by rigging, junk on deck, cranes, superstruction..etc we must pick a different spot. In this case the bow was relatively clear. For us to hoist to the bow the helicopter must be positioned in such a way that when the pilot looks forward and right out their window they can see the ship. The only way to do this over the bow is if the helicopter is on the starboard side of the ship and pointing roughly the opposite way of the ship as you see in the video. If the helicopter was on the port side and facing foward the pilot would only be looking at water and have no reference with the ship. Does this make sense? It's hard to explain just with words.
@@mattfrom103 Thank you for the very detailed response! It makes perfect sense. I have extensive offshore sailing experience and am also a commercial helicopter pilot (not in your league!) The only issue I wasn't already aware of was how restricted your visibility was toward the rear of the aircraft. With that sort of constraint what seemed inexplicable is now quite clear. However, flying backwards is not easy when the helicopter wants to weathervane 180 degrees! At what combined wind and vessel speed does this become impractical?
The initial spin is not a common occurrence. Most initial insertions go smoothly. The throwing of the guideline to a deck crew member is not standard practice.
Why backwards? Were the winds such that you couldn't hold off the left side of the bow flying forward? Or maybe that would be too hard to maintain reference.
Depends what role. I get motion sick to, don't worry. To be a SAR Tech you must first be in the Canadian Armed Forces(CAF) in another trade. You apply, attend a very grueling selection, and then maybe get selected. Then you go through a long course and if you pass you end up at a line unit. There you will under go more training To be a Flight Engineer(FE) you must be in a 'tech' trade in the CAF, get selected for FE trade, under go training, and get sent off to a unit. That unit may be SAR or it maybe something else like tactical helicopters or maritime patrol aircraft. To be a pilot you can join straight off the street but it is a very competitive trade. You attend aircrew selection which, last time I checked, has a high failure rate, if successful you will go onto pilot training. That, in itself, also has a considerable failure rate. If you get your wings you will be sent off to a line unit. But, like the FE trade, there are no guarantees you will be doing SAR. SAR is very small in the RCAF and chances are you will be flying something else. All the trades are competitive and require a lot of work and some luck to become SAR.
No. In this case if the ship stopped it would lose the ability to steer. It would eventually come broadside to the swells and start rolling considerably. If it had bow thrusters it could try to keep a heading that way but it usually doesn't work too too well. This is the simplest way to get it done, especially if sometimes there is a bit of a language barrier between the helicopter and the ship.
A ship dead in the water is one of the worst possible situations. If a ship is not moving or has no power, then it is going to be moved all over the place by the waves and wind. Would be next to impossible for the pilots to track and maintain their positioning, making it even more risky for the SAR techs to attempt an insertion. A slow ahead speed on the ship helps to maintain its course against the waves and the wind. A pilot can then keep a relatively steady input to maintain their position next to the ship.
Note the head movement of the SAR Tech while spinning. As he's spinning left, he's rapidly turning his head all the way to the left and then "untwists" it as he continues to spin, keeping his head (and eyesight) pointed in one direction as much as possible before having to turn his head again. This is the exact same technique that dancers and figure skaters use when performing a pirouette or other kind of rapid spinning move in order to avoid getting dizzy. This is how he can recover so quickly before having another go.
SAR Techs are not human.
They are Super Humans and do things many normal individuals could not comprehend.
Bravo to the SAR Techs and of course to the Flight Crew Too !!
I'll give a thumbs up to that FE too :)
God Job all around .
this viedeo is shocking to a mere mortal such as myself. really impressive and i agree 100% with what you said!
@@richardbates4120
Richard, do you wanna know something?
I’m sure you do, you seem like a thoughtful person.
I had the great fortune to have been raised on a military base in Summerside PEI in the 70s and 80’s.
My father, who, happily is still with us, was an aircraft maintenance technician in 413 T&R Squadron at that time, served our country, making sure equipment, similar to this could answer these same calls
The entire, community, we were brought up in, had a stake in this work.
I was only a kid, but my family, 3 brothers and sisters and me, along with Mom and Dad, lived in a DND operated subdivision, with schools, fire protection, and recreation programs provided. It was a fantastic childhood.
Some of my friends Dads , were military men who drove trucks, others were firefighters, some were aircraft mechanics, like my father.. others had dads who jumped outta Buffalos to save lost fishermen. We all lived together.. in this .. community. With basically a similar income, and a similar standard of living.
My father, who is quite a senior gentleman, recalls fondly, this piece of his long service to our country. So I am very thankful, for the fantastic childhood, the CF has given me.
Definitely like the longer videos with the radio transmissions, but even these are excellent. Please keep them coming if you can. Thank you for doing what you guys do.
always knew SAR techs were the most badass guys and gals in the CAF. Props to y'all from all of us land based gunslingers for doing the jobs we couldn't fathom.
They can’t pay these SARTECs enough for what they do on this job. I know it’s not about the money and they love their job but what they do is extraordinary.
Wow !.. total admiration for the teamwork !
You folks are a different breed, sheesh. Great work! Great video!
These videos are so cool. Thanks for uploading them, and thanks for what you do. I remember watching the Cormorant demo when it was a new platform here. It is a beast!
I can't swim, this scares the living daylights out of me, my admiration and thanks to the heroes who call this their day job, they should be honored with the all bells and whistles that can be mustered.
Nicely done .Question-- Why didn't you guys do the extraction from the left side of the boat ,there is no crane there ,I find that to be safer place to be ?
Spectacular camera work, and great job everyone. I am lucky enough to heve been lowered out of a RAF Sea king onto a RAF rescue launch and back up, fantastic experience. One question though why it the helicopter going backwards why not just go from the other side?
It has to do with having visual references with the boat. The Cormorant is quite large. The distance between where the pilot sits and where the hoist is is not insignificant. So when over to of the target you want the pilot to still be able to see the boat. The pilot also cannot look straight down due to the design of the cockpit, only at a right and downward angle. So if we were to do as you suggested when the helicopter was over target all they would see is ocean. Or, if they move back the tail would be close to the bridge and thus would have to be higher. The higher you are the less references the pilot has.
The ideal spot is usually the back left corner on smaller boats for this reason.
You're not the first person to ask the question. Maybe I will make a video better explaining it with a some models.
@mattfrom103 follow up question. What's the max speed the helicopter can fly backwards before it tries to weathvane and point in the direction of travel
@@martenkerkhoff6600 Not overly sure. In post maintenance test flying we have to go backwards at 20kts and it does fine with that. I've never really felt the need to go backwards faster.
Had to land the S76 once on a ship and the only way to do it was to land while the ship was moving forward but we were actually moving backwards facing 180 degrees away from the bow. Crazy the visual cues that you have to disregard in order not to get disoriented. I did loads of landing on moving vessels here for the offshore industry including supply vessels as well as seismic ones. The seismic moving ones are super challenging but landing "backwards" on that ship was indeed a handful lol
fortunately SAR techs are superhuman
Helicopters are the best human invention!
Amazing skill & bravery
Hey there! I'm a fan from mainland China. I noticed the white rope you're using has this super cool, pro knotting or organizing technique that keeps it smooth and tangle-free when you pull it apart. I'm curious how that works. Thanks for checking out my comment, much appreciated!
Yes. The guideline being coiled up. I'll see if I can get a video of someone putting one together and using one. Might be a big of a delay as we are on holidays right now.
@mattfrom103 That's perfectly fine, and we are immensely grateful that you are willing to create videos to share with us.
Awesome job. Well done!
Great work 👏 🙏✌️🤘🇦🇺
love their work
Lol. Yes we do instinctively pull on ropes.
Love these videos... BZ boys.
Crazy and scary, thanks for sharing. That's one big chopper, I wonder what's the cost of that kind of extraction if we count everything. 20k ?
It's not that simple. Every year the Squadron is alloted a certain number of hours to fly. We either fly those hours doing training or conducting missions. So, had we not flown this mission we would instead have spent the hours doing training. Does that make sense?
Now it cost the ship a bit of money. They had to stop fishing and immediately sail towards the closest port. That's a bunch of fuel and time spent not sailing. I'm sure they are not worried about it and that is the cost of doing business. I'm sure for them the well being of their crewmember comes first.
Sartechs are part of the Canadian armed forces and therefore don’t charge people for rescues
Amazing Video! Quick question: why Not fly forward and Board on the other side where there is no crane?
Thanks a lot!
Here is what I wrote in another comment. Hopefully it helps.
Okay. So few key pieces of information:
1) The hoist is on the right side. Hoisting is always flown by the right seat pilot.
2)The distance between the hoist(winch) and where the pilot sits is considerable. 20 feet probably.
3) The visibility downwards and to the right is limited from the pilot's seat. They can only see about 45 degrees down and maybe 60 degrees to the right.
4) To be able to steer and maintain a heading a ship needs to be moving.
When you combine those two pieces information it means has to be a lot of forward and right of where the hoist location is for the pilot to see.
Our default is the port side either midships or aft. This allows the pilot to maintain visual with the superstructure or bow of the ship. If that part of the ship is obstructed by rigging, junk on deck, cranes, superstruction..etc we must pick a different spot. In this case the bow was relatively clear. For us to hoist to the bow the helicopter must be positioned in such a way that when the pilot looks forward and right out their window they can see the ship. The only way to do this over the bow is if the helicopter is on the starboard side of the ship and pointing roughly the opposite way of the ship as you see in the video. If the helicopter was on the port side and facing foward the pilot would only be looking at water and have no reference with the ship.
Does this make sense? It's hard to explain just with words
@ perfectly understood, thanks a lot for the reply
I'm curious why you didn't work on the port side of the trawler, it seems like there were less obstructions over there? Also that would have allowed the helicopter to fly in a forward direction.
That is the ideal spot. It was in this case full of obstructions.
Amazing
How do you coil the guy line like that? Never seen anything like it.
Saw the other comments about 3x STs, but why is 2x STs the norm on all hoists? Certainly some of the basket hoists and elementary cases could manage with 1? Additionally, is there a reason you generally do not double up a hoist? i.e. ST + litter, or 2x STs, etc. I've seen you do it on some operations (especially when hoisting someone in a sling, etc) but doesn't appear to be the normal SOP.
I hope replying to UA-cam comments counts as R&R on your holidays...
Yes, in theory you could manage with one ST on the boat and one in the helicopter to receive the patient. But STs love to work in pairs so they normally both go down. Usually 2 are needed to deal with the medical scenario and everything else going on. Regardless of what is reported by the ship you never really know the situation on the ship until you are there. Thus it is always better to go with 2. I have done it with only one going down but that was a rather unusual set of circumstances.
Double ups are done but it would either be the 2 STs or the ST + patient. Seldom is a patient on a boat in fit enough condition to go up via double, usually it is only lost people in the woods that get doubled up. We do not double with stokes or basket. I know other agencies do, we do not. I suppose in this case we could have doubled up the last 2 STs but 2 singles just seemed like a better idea.
Awfully bold of you to assume that I am on 'R&R' or holidays. Actually I am on call right now. There is a nasty cold going around town and a lot of the pilots are down hard. I one of only ones left still functional.
@@mattfrom103 Appreciate all that - thank you! Apologies - didn't mean to assume, I read on another comment that you were on holidays but looking back that was from 11 days ago. Thanks for all you do.
Heros!!!
Watched several of your videos and not clear on the role of the Hercules plane following you?
What is their mission during this?
Sorry. I've meaning to make a video explaining it. H
They provide 'top cover'. Which includes but is not limited to:
1) Get to the boat first and give them a brief as to what is about to happen. Tell them to prepare their deck which could take time.
2) Find the boat for us and give us an exact position.
3) At night they will drop flares which can help create a horizon.
4) If something goes wrong (i.e. we end up in the water) they will be there to take charge of the scene and begin rescue operations.
5) If the vessel is taking on water or sinking they can drop supplies, pumps, or rafts.
6) If the medical scenario is dire and we are still hours away they can dispatch their SAR Techs via parachute to the boat to begin medical intervention.
There's more but I am forgetting some of it.
@@mattfrom103 Thank you for providing more context! Amazing videos!
If the litter for some reason ended up in the sea with a patient in it, would it float? The litter seems to be buttoned up pretty tightly and I guess the patient often isn't capable of freeing themselves from it so I'm curious if this is something that can happen and has been thought of or if it's a risk vs. consequence thing where the risk of something like that happening is negligible?
There are floats attached to it and a bit of a weight at one end where the feet would be to keep the head up. In theory it would float just fine. I've never heard of the litter ending up in the water. The only way that could conceivably happen is if we cut the cable. Again, it’s never happened to my knowledge so, although consequence of it happening is considerable, the probability of it happening seems to be almost negligible which makes the overall risk quite.
Your unit seems to run much larger crews than the American air crews we've dealt with. USCG Dolphins only have one AST on them (much smaller aircraft than the Cormorant though) and Navy Jayhawks I think are 1 or maybe 2. In this video, you had three SARTECHs being hoisted.
I can understand having more medical staff on the aircraft if you've got space to assist in patient care once they're onboard, but why hoist all three down to the ship? Running that many hoist cycles increases risk and fuel consumption, so there has to be a benefit to justify it.
The normal procedure is 2 SAR Techs to be on the helicopter. On this particular day we had an extra SAR Tech undergoing training so we decided to hoist them as well. They helped with carrying the stokes litter.
Had fuel/time been a concern or had the hoist been more difficult or sketchy we probably would have omitted the third SAR Tech. In this case, once the guildine was established, the hoist was relatively safe and stable.
Please explain why the hoist was done from the starboard side while flying backwards? What was the advantage over doing it form the port side of the vessel and flying forwards? Was it an issue of tail clearance to the superstructure? And even so, why not fly in a right crab and work in a more natural direction? Spray patterns were not indicative of a lot of wind?
Okay. So few key pieces of information:
1) The hoist is on the right side. Hoisting is always flown by the right seat pilot.
2)The distance between the hoist(winch) and where the pilot sits is considerable. 20 feet probably.
3) The visibility downwards and to the right is limited from the pilot's seat. They can only see about 45 degrees down and maybe 60 degrees to the right.
4) To be able to steer and maintain a heading a ship needs to be moving.
When you combine those two pieces information it means has to be a lot of forward and right of where the hoist location is for the pilot to see.
Our default is the port side either midships or aft. This allows the pilot to maintain visual with the superstructure or bow of the ship. If that part of the ship is obstructed by rigging, junk on deck, cranes, superstruction..etc we must pick a different spot. In this case the bow was relatively clear. For us to hoist to the bow the helicopter must be positioned in such a way that when the pilot looks forward and right out their window they can see the ship. The only way to do this over the bow is if the helicopter is on the starboard side of the ship and pointing roughly the opposite way of the ship as you see in the video. If the helicopter was on the port side and facing foward the pilot would only be looking at water and have no reference with the ship.
Does this make sense? It's hard to explain just with words.
@@mattfrom103 Thank you for the very detailed response! It makes perfect sense. I have extensive offshore sailing experience and am also a commercial helicopter pilot (not in your league!) The only issue I wasn't already aware of was how restricted your visibility was toward the rear of the aircraft. With that sort of constraint what seemed inexplicable is now quite clear.
However, flying backwards is not easy when the helicopter wants to weathervane 180 degrees! At what combined wind and vessel speed does this become impractical?
Would you have been the flight engineer in this video ?
No. The majority of this video is taken from the the flight engineer's helmet cam though. I was the pilot.
Why not use a guideline every time to avoid spin?
The initial spin is not a common occurrence. Most initial insertions go smoothly. The throwing of the guideline to a deck crew member is not standard practice.
Why backwards? Were the winds such that you couldn't hold off the left side of the bow flying forward? Or maybe that would be too hard to maintain reference.
The entire back fo the ship was full of obstructions. Thus the bow was chosen. This is about the only way to do a bow hoist with this helicopter.
Wow that was incredible, I would have been puking my guts up once the spinning started.
I’d imagine this is quite an elite unit. Is it hard to qualify? Looks very interesting but I’m prone to motion sickness.
Depends what role. I get motion sick to, don't worry.
To be a SAR Tech you must first be in the Canadian Armed Forces(CAF) in another trade. You apply, attend a very grueling selection, and then maybe get selected. Then you go through a long course and if you pass you end up at a line unit. There you will under go more training
To be a Flight Engineer(FE) you must be in a 'tech' trade in the CAF, get selected for FE trade, under go training, and get sent off to a unit. That unit may be SAR or it maybe something else like tactical helicopters or maritime patrol aircraft.
To be a pilot you can join straight off the street but it is a very competitive trade. You attend aircrew selection which, last time I checked, has a high failure rate, if successful you will go onto pilot training. That, in itself, also has a considerable failure rate. If you get your wings you will be sent off to a line unit. But, like the FE trade, there are no guarantees you will be doing SAR. SAR is very small in the RCAF and chances are you will be flying something else.
All the trades are competitive and require a lot of work and some luck to become SAR.
Why three techs? From the US, I've never seen seen more than one used in this type of scenario?
Normally we operate with 2, I believe the third was under training. Can't get better training than this. Almost always 2 will go down to the ship.
That is damm scary. You guys are the best, flying heroes.
The winch can't get 2 people? Even de victim and SAR tech?
It's because the procedure standards?
Great job😮
Heroes
give a little wing to these SAR techs, so they can stop the spin 😅
Wouldn't it be easier if the ship would stop?
No. In this case if the ship stopped it would lose the ability to steer. It would eventually come broadside to the swells and start rolling considerably. If it had bow thrusters it could try to keep a heading that way but it usually doesn't work too too well. This is the simplest way to get it done, especially if sometimes there is a bit of a language barrier between the helicopter and the ship.
A ship dead in the water is one of the worst possible situations. If a ship is not moving or has no power, then it is going to be moved all over the place by the waves and wind. Would be next to impossible for the pilots to track and maintain their positioning, making it even more risky for the SAR techs to attempt an insertion.
A slow ahead speed on the ship helps to maintain its course against the waves and the wind. A pilot can then keep a relatively steady input to maintain their position next to the ship.