For our training this month we tried something a bit different. We teamed up with our local FD and held a joint rescue swimmer training session. We have the helocopter, they have the rescue training and gear.
We spent the morning in the pool, getting accustomed to the safety gear and being harassed by the more experienced fire guys. We ran rescue drills, practiced for our afternoon missions, and swam. And Swam. And before we got released for lunch we did a bit of swimming, with a nice race to cool down.
After lunch, we put together what we had learned in the morning, and headed out to the harbor. After a presentation by Winslow Liferaft on deploying their LEEP units from the air, we launched two victims from boat, the helo was dispatched, and dropped the LEEP nearby, while the boat returned to deploy two rescue swimmers, who recovered the victims into the boat. We did three drops in this manner with teammates rotating roles.
The next exercise was helocasting, where we deployed two rescue swimmers from our helo. On landing (after the ok), the swimmers became victims, and two rescue swimmers were dispached by boat to retrieve them.
The best news is that both the Chief and Sheriff are very much behind this effort, and it looks like we will be training together bi-monthly during the warmer months of the year. This is a win for everyone, I think. We get to have a lot of fun, learn new skills and build interdepartment communication and cooperation. The citizents of this county will have, as we progress in our training, one additional tool in our effort to keep our waterways safe.
We spent the morning in the pool, getting accustomed to the safety gear and being harassed by the more experienced fire guys. We ran rescue drills, practiced for our afternoon missions, and swam. And Swam. And before we got released for lunch we did a bit of swimming, with a nice race to cool down.
After lunch, we put together what we had learned in the morning, and headed out to the harbor. After a presentation by Winslow Liferaft on deploying their LEEP units from the air, we launched two victims from boat, the helo was dispatched, and dropped the LEEP nearby, while the boat returned to deploy two rescue swimmers, who recovered the victims into the boat. We did three drops in this manner with teammates rotating roles.
The next exercise was helocasting, where we deployed two rescue swimmers from our helo. On landing (after the ok), the swimmers became victims, and two rescue swimmers were dispached by boat to retrieve them.
The best news is that both the Chief and Sheriff are very much behind this effort, and it looks like we will be training together bi-monthly during the warmer months of the year. This is a win for everyone, I think. We get to have a lot of fun, learn new skills and build interdepartment communication and cooperation. The citizents of this county will have, as we progress in our training, one additional tool in our effort to keep our waterways safe.
