E94 NHA Aircrew of the Year

[00:00:16] Speaker A: That was a longer intro song than usual, man. Just jamming. [00:00:18] Speaker B: I know. I just didn't want to smash the button to stop it. I was liking it. [00:00:23] Speaker A: Happy Friday, bud. [00:00:24] Speaker B: Happy Friday, bud. [00:00:25] Speaker A: Dude, you know why I'm pumped about this podcast is we're just gonna get into a sar case right away and talk about it. [00:00:31] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:00:31] Speaker A: This is gonna be a good one. [00:00:32] Speaker B: Yeah. So we've been. We've been sharing a lot of different episodes about. We had the women in aviation conference. The Heli expo. [00:00:40] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:00:40] Speaker B: Vertical Aviation International. [00:00:41] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:00:42] Speaker B: Now, and let's see, we had a couple other episodes in there, but we have been lacking on the star cases. [00:00:48] Speaker A: Yeah. I think we're gonna have, like, a bunch of star cases coming up, so. Yeah, this would be a good one. [00:00:54] Speaker B: I think these are my favorite to do. [00:00:55] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:00:56] Speaker B: You know? [00:00:56] Speaker A: Yeah. There's not much effort on our part. [00:00:58] Speaker B: Well, a little less talking. You know what I mean? For us. But we get to hear the stories of the other folks out there doing things that I think you and I probably miss doing. [00:01:05] Speaker A: Yeah. And get jealous. [00:01:06] Speaker B: Yeah. I. I do miss standing duty and doing some sar. [00:01:09] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Absolutely. [00:01:11] Speaker B: Except there is SAr here sometimes. [00:01:13] Speaker A: Sometimes. But we're never on it. [00:01:15] Speaker B: Nope. [00:01:15] Speaker A: No. It's always we tay. [00:01:16] Speaker B: Yep. Congrats. We tay. [00:01:18] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:01:18] Speaker B: Would they pull off. Pull a couple guys out of the water. [00:01:21] Speaker A: Boat overturned or just flying on a rescue or on a trainer. And then I think four people flipped their boat in the water. They came, scooped them up, came back to home plate. Ambulance was here. Gentlemen. Sar. [00:01:32] Speaker B: It was probably daytime. Yeah, the weather was probably nice. [00:01:34] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:01:35] Speaker B: Gosh, that's nice, dude. That's how it should be 100% of the time. But it's always not. [00:01:41] Speaker A: And we're about to find out it's not, because apparently this is a pretty gnarly case, too. [00:01:44] Speaker B: I know. So, yeah, we got Detroit. [00:01:47] Speaker A: Detroit. [00:01:48] Speaker B: Aircrew from Detroit. And they recognized by the Naval Helicopter association. Right. [00:01:54] Speaker A: They are the non aircrew of the year. Non deployed. [00:01:57] Speaker B: Okay, nice. [00:01:58] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:01:59] Speaker B: Yeah. So, quick little background on the NHA. So if you were graduate of Navy flight school, you probably heard of it, at least you should have. I think they always gave somebody, like a graduate of flight school, like a year. [00:02:11] Speaker A: I think they give membership our wings, don't they? Like, I think on the back of the wings that you get when you graduate, say NhA on them. [00:02:17] Speaker B: Oh, they might. [00:02:18] Speaker A: Yeah, they do. [00:02:19] Speaker B: Okay. I did not know that. [00:02:20] Speaker A: Yeah. Donators. [00:02:21] Speaker B: Okay, well, that's cool. Mandy. I think I took the freebie year for the NHA. And I can't say for certain that I have rejoined or renewed my membership, but great organization. They don't only recognize air crews, but they do individual pilots, instructors, maintainers, and, of course, rescue swimmers. And then on top of that, they have, like, the annual awardees, but they also award folks at different districts. So kind of like how the coast guard's broken up into different districts. They have their own districts that they recognize people in, which is pretty cool, too. [00:02:54] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:02:54] Speaker B: And then I want to say, if you're like the, like the awardee for whatever air crew, rescue swimmer, whatever it is. Yeah, I think they have. You come out to their symposium. [00:03:05] Speaker A: Yep. It's in Pensacola, I believe. [00:03:07] Speaker B: Okay. They might shift that around, too. [00:03:10] Speaker A: I may not. I may or may not have been in awardee at a time. [00:03:13] Speaker B: Oh, shoot. [00:03:14] Speaker C: Really? [00:03:14] Speaker A: Covid canceled the trip? No, we were super bummed. [00:03:17] Speaker B: Okay. [00:03:17] Speaker A: Yeah, I know. That was going to be like. We take that, you know, it was a really good crew and a really good case. We're going to go out to Pensacola and then Covid. [00:03:24] Speaker B: So that sucks. [00:03:25] Speaker A: I hope these guys get to. I don't know if they've gone out. We can ask them, but it. Yeah, they. They wine and dine you. [00:03:29] Speaker B: That's cool, man. Yeah. I think I remember hearing in years past San Diego. Yep. They usually pick pretty solid locations, so. Yeah, man. Without anything further. Yeah, let's do it. [00:03:41] Speaker A: Let's get them on the line. [00:03:42] Speaker B: You all right? [00:04:00] Speaker A: We're back. Yeah, we are back with Detroit. They're on the line. This is gonna be great. We thought we're gonna have to call the rescue swimmer Ben back, but he got out of the lake after wrestling a couple Sturgeons, so how long was that sturgeon, Ben? [00:04:14] Speaker D: Yeah, that was a pretty big one. [00:04:16] Speaker A: Yeah, of course it was. Yeah, we got. We got the. The. And I am. Am I saying this correctly? The National Helicopter association air crew of the year non deployed? Is that it? Yeah, 2024. Nice job, guys. If you want to go down the line, Keith, you want to kick it off for us? Tell you who. Tell us who you are, where you're from, what you're flying, where you're going. [00:04:38] Speaker C: Sure. So, Lieutenant Keith Cracker. I was born in Michigan, raised in Michigan. I am an army ROTC graduate who did eight and a half years flying for the army in Korea and Hawaii. And then the coast guard was kind enough to let me come on over and start flying their helicopters. So I've been at air station Detroit for four and a half years now. And in two weeks, three weeks now, I'm heading over to air station barber. [00:05:00] Speaker A: Lucky duck. [00:05:01] Speaker B: That's awesome. [00:05:02] Speaker A: Yeah. Cold, warm. What'd you fly in the army, Keith? Ah, nice. [00:05:07] Speaker B: Yeah, there's a couple Apache pilots out there that decided to jump ship and join the coast guard. [00:05:12] Speaker A: Maybe we should get a couple Apaches. [00:05:14] Speaker B: Over in the coast guard, dude, the new auf ship. [00:05:17] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, no. Launch life race. Yeah, you can just, like, drop life rafts, you know, launch them out of the rocket pod. [00:05:24] Speaker B: Yeah. What color are we painting it? [00:05:26] Speaker A: It's definitely orange. [00:05:27] Speaker B: Okay. [00:05:27] Speaker A: Yeah, it'll just replace 65. [00:05:29] Speaker B: Done. [00:05:29] Speaker A: We figured it out. Sweet. [00:05:31] Speaker B: Welcome, Keith. Good to have you, man. [00:05:33] Speaker A: Kyla, what's going on? [00:05:35] Speaker E: Hey, how's it going? Thanks for having us. Lieutenant Kylie Hughley here. Born and raised in up to New Jersey, Jersey shore girl all the way. [00:05:43] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:05:46] Speaker E: After graduating the academy, 2019, went to flight school, got my number one choice, 65, in Detroit. Atlantic City was on the list, but wanted to try out Detroit, and so far I'm loving it. We did the delta to echo transition back in October, so now I'm an echo pilot, and. Yeah, that's about it. Favorite color is greenhouse. [00:06:12] Speaker B: That's one of my favorite colors. [00:06:13] Speaker A: I think that's one of my favorite colors, too. [00:06:15] Speaker B: Greens is a great color in between green and blue. [00:06:16] Speaker A: Yeah. Really? [00:06:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:06:18] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:06:18] Speaker B: How's the old echo treating you up there in Detroit? [00:06:22] Speaker E: That goes great. You know, everyone's still working out some of the kinks with some of the little gremlins, but other than that, I love it. It's like getting a new iPhone upgrade. [00:06:31] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:06:32] Speaker B: Oh, gosh. Yeah. [00:06:33] Speaker A: I think it took me about eight months before I was like, really? Like, oh, okay. I'm comfortable with this aircraft now. Yeah, it's so. It's so similar, but so different. [00:06:42] Speaker B: Yeah, I think I'm going on about a year, maybe more. It's always, always learning things about the. The fantastic echo. [00:06:50] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:06:50] Speaker B: Well, thanks. [00:06:51] Speaker A: Well, thanks for coming on, Danny boy. What's going on, man? [00:06:54] Speaker F: Hey, I'm. It's going well. So I'm Daniel Brown, avionics electrical technician, third class here at air station Detroit. Also a flat mechanic. I was born in Fort Worth, Texas, and honestly, I spent a lot more time living in near Portland, Oregon, southern Washington, and I ended up graduating boot camp around 2020 in the height of COVID So that was fun. [00:07:23] Speaker A: Oh, wow. [00:07:24] Speaker F: I've been here at air station Detroit for about two years now. [00:07:27] Speaker A: Nice, man. How you liking it? [00:07:29] Speaker F: Oh, I'm loving it so far. First, my first air station, and I probably couldn't have asked for a better one. [00:07:34] Speaker B: That's awesome, man. And when you have to PCs from there, are you trying to go back to the northwest, you think? [00:07:40] Speaker F: I think so. I'm going to try for North Bend, I think. Or for Angeles, one of the two. But it might be a little bit hectic because I'm also trying to work out, get in shape and put my name in the hat list for summer school as well. [00:07:57] Speaker B: Oh, nice, dude. [00:07:58] Speaker F: Might be jumping ship, trying to. [00:08:02] Speaker B: My. [00:08:03] Speaker F: Hand in the ring. [00:08:03] Speaker A: That's awesome, man. [00:08:04] Speaker B: Very cool. [00:08:05] Speaker A: I wish you the best of luck with that. [00:08:06] Speaker B: Yep. You know, that's, um, not too, too common to go from like one of the at or AmT rates and go ast. [00:08:14] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:08:15] Speaker B: Usually the other way around. [00:08:16] Speaker A: Yeah. But that's awesome, dude. I hope you crush it, man. Ben, other than wrestling fish in a lake up in Detroit, what else? Is it new? [00:08:25] Speaker D: That's about it. I'm Benji Woodward from North Carolina. I've been on the coast for about six and a half years. I joined her after high school. My first station was a small bus station in Cape Charles, Virginia. I was there for about a year, then went to rescue summer school at East City. And I went through twice, so I passed in second time through. [00:08:42] Speaker A: Nice. [00:08:43] Speaker D: And then it's my first unit eleven to hear so far. [00:08:47] Speaker B: It's awesome, man. So you squeaked out of East City before the roof started collapsing on the pool? [00:08:52] Speaker D: Oh, yeah, I got the good pool. [00:08:54] Speaker B: Good. That's awesome, man. Welcome. [00:08:57] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Thanks for coming on, guys. Um, so, yeah, we want to hear it, man. Uh, we want to hear, you know why you guys are the most. This is a mouthful. Why you guys are the 2024 Naval Helicopter association, aircrew of the year, non deployed. [00:09:14] Speaker B: Good job, bud. [00:09:15] Speaker A: Thank you. That's tough. All the hamsters are working on the wheel for that one. Not all at once. Guys. [00:09:25] Speaker C: I can take it from the top if you guys would like, and then we can go in from there. [00:09:29] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. But before you kick it off, did you guys fly out to a cool city to receive your award? [00:09:37] Speaker C: We did. Got to go spend a couple days in San Diego. [00:09:41] Speaker A: Nice. [00:09:43] Speaker B: That's awesome. We were talking about that before we called you guys. Like, where the NHA annual, I think they called a symposium. Is that right? [00:09:51] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:09:52] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah. And I feel like they. I feel like they have it in San Diego a lot, but I know it hops around. [00:09:56] Speaker A: So was it in like the dead of winter in Detroit? So you all got a little San Diegan vacation? [00:10:01] Speaker C: Not quite, but still nice to get out there. [00:10:03] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:10:03] Speaker B: Okay. [00:10:04] Speaker A: Awesome. [00:10:04] Speaker B: Sweet, man. So, yeah, tell us a little bit about why you guys were the recipients and, of course, all the details. Juicy ness of the case. [00:10:14] Speaker C: Yeah. So we were kind of the off run duty crew, the afternoon off going, and we got a call for a possible PMW, vicinity of ashtabula, Ohio, and getting blown offshore in a kayak, some offshore winds. [00:10:32] Speaker F: And so we started getting the crew. [00:10:33] Speaker C: Together, headed down there, did our typical transition across Canada, and just as we were getting deep, wet, and leaky area, about halfway into our flight, it was about a 40. We had a good sailing, about a 40, 45 minutes flight. But, hey, we now have four Piws. [00:10:48] Speaker A: Stranded at the base of the. Oh, nice. [00:10:52] Speaker C: How do we go from one, one lady in a kayak to four people at the base of a cliff? So the typical star case confusion, what's going on, different sources of recording and whatnot. And we showed up there. I had given Kyla the right seat, so I was sitting in the left seat. We had some good winds coming out of the west. They pulled up there, pulled up along the cliff, and I could see a bunch of different people down on the cliff line. Once we got there, station Erie had their small boat, but he's not getting close enough to shore because it was too shallow. And so we're trying to figure out what's going on. We're trying to pick up a swamp zodiac at the base of a cliff with a bunch of firefighters and someone down there. We'll take it on a stretcher. All right, so we got the people we need in sight. We got to hover, start assessing the situation. And a couple minutes communications were spotty. Just trying to figure out how we talked to people on the ground. We never actually did get comms with them. We determined our best bet was to get Benji down there. He could call us up on the radio, let us know what the situation was, and figure out any details. [00:11:53] Speaker E: Just due to the wind coming out of the west and the cliff on our left hand side, after doing a few recon passes and seeing what the conditions were, Keith asked if, you know, what everyone thought about what we were seeing, how we can tackle this safely and appropriately. And I thought that day was going to be my big day of getting my first live right to the hoist. But again, just because of the conditions, and there are a few trees as well as the cliff and the rocks on the left hand side, it just made more sense for lieutenant cracker to just take the hoist. So we were able to safely facilitate that. We did put our summer Benji down a few yards just north because it was around less tree. So he was able to walk up to the survivor and just do an overall look at what was going on. And, like Lieutenant Cracker mentioned, the individual was already in a litter. So I got a sneak preview on kind of like, what advanced starboard question would be how to deal with that. So that was awesome. And then I don't know if Benji wants to chime in and just kind of speak on what he saw once he walked over to the individual. [00:13:09] Speaker A: Sweet. So, yeah, so you got. You guys rolled on scene with the initial report of only one person. And then you got. And then in route, you heard that there was four, but there only turned out to be one person at the base of this base of this cliff. [00:13:25] Speaker E: Yes. If I recall correctly, the fire department in that vicinity, they were trying to rappel down to the victim. Yeah, but I think so. I think that's what a confusion was. Those individuals attempting to get down. They had saw that and reported that, but, yeah, it was just one victim. [00:13:45] Speaker A: Sweet. And just before I get to Ben, Dan, when you guys are rolling up, you are not vert surface quality either, correct? [00:13:53] Speaker F: Yeah, that's negative. I was not officially, no. [00:13:56] Speaker A: So you're rolling up. What kind of conversations are you having in the pilot as far as, like, hoisting area and what you're seeing initially from where the winds are and where you're planning on putting Ben? [00:14:08] Speaker F: Yeah, so we were getting a little bit closer, and we started looking at where exactly we could put our swimmer down. And we noticed that the shoreline was rocky. There wasn't very much room, and it was like, pretty much just, I would say, about seven to ten good feet between the water and the actual cliff itself. And then on at the very top of the cliff were an additional trees and tree line that would, you know, make it a little bit more difficult to come in. [00:14:38] Speaker A: Sure. Yeah. Awesome. [00:14:40] Speaker F: And then also with the. The back end wind, I kind of had to, like, look underneath the cabin to try to figure out how far we were from the side of the cliff as we were coming in. [00:14:52] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:14:52] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. That's tricky, huh? Because your door is facing away. [00:14:54] Speaker A: Door away. Yeah. You guys, it's fun. I mean, I don't know if you guys noticed this or learned this after the fact, but you basically did everything that you're supposed to do when you're vert surface called. Right. When you. When the winds are forcing you to have the door away the left seat pilot hoist because they have better visual references and the flight Mac stick in their head outside and underneath the aircraft. So I think we'll probably just route your vert surface letters now. You guys did. You guys crushed it. [00:15:23] Speaker C: That's great. [00:15:24] Speaker A: Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. So, so cool. So, Dan, you're chatting with the pilots. [00:15:28] Speaker B: Any. [00:15:28] Speaker A: Any other considerations? Anything else? What about the height of the hoist? Were you looking at, like, if you had enough cable or. [00:15:35] Speaker F: Yeah, so, um, I was pretty comfortable with a high hoist. I always have been. Uh, we had to send it. I think what they recorded it at was 150 foot flip hoist. [00:15:45] Speaker B: Oh, wow. [00:15:46] Speaker F: So we ended up having to attach two trail lines together. [00:15:50] Speaker A: Nice. [00:15:50] Speaker F: Just to reach the bottom, which I haven't. I hadn't done previously because that was my second duty day. First toys. [00:16:01] Speaker A: Wait, that was your second duty day? [00:16:04] Speaker F: Yeah. So my second duty day. [00:16:06] Speaker A: That's. Why does it always happen like that? [00:16:08] Speaker B: And first. And first live voice. [00:16:10] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah. [00:16:11] Speaker F: First live voice, second duty day. I think it was only a couple weeks after I had gotten my fly Mac letter that come in. [00:16:18] Speaker B: That is cool, man. Dude, that's what I tell folks, too. I'm like, hey, there's nothing saying that you're not going to get the big one on your, like, first. You will. [00:16:24] Speaker A: No, there's something. First week, there's something saying that you will. It's almost guaranteed. [00:16:28] Speaker B: I know, right? [00:16:29] Speaker A: Dude, that's awesome. So, obviously, like, yeah, you're. You're looking down, you're thinking, well, I got to put Ben safely down here. So did you guys talk about doing a direct or did you get the trail line in the hand of the firefighters down there? Uh, before putting Ben down, uh, if. [00:16:45] Speaker F: I remember correctly, we got the trail line, uh, to the firefighters just to try to hold him steady as we put them down. And it worked out pretty well. [00:16:55] Speaker A: I don't. [00:16:55] Speaker F: I don't believe they pulled, you know, they were yanking on them too hard, but they were holding it pretty steady. [00:17:03] Speaker A: Nice. And then, ben, as they're doing their recon passes and having conversations, you, were you pitching in at all and tell me what you thought and what you saw initially? [00:17:13] Speaker D: Yeah, for sure. I think the most intricate part of the case was us having to use the fire suite in litter because we didn't have any litter on board. [00:17:19] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:17:20] Speaker D: And when we got the call just to, like, attack or piw, we weren't thinking about any, like, back injuries, of course. So when we got on scene, we found out that she could have, like, I think might have fallen down the cliff or something because the fire king put her in the litter. So we just went with their, like, best view of it and just went with them, kind of keep her in their litter. [00:17:40] Speaker B: Okay. Was it similar to the one that we use or different? [00:17:44] Speaker D: Yeah, I gave it a look over it, just like, the only difference was the cables were made of ropes inside the same two of us in gearing. Oh, okay. [00:17:53] Speaker B: Yeah, that reminds me of, like, what they would carry on some of, like, the motor life boats and stuff like that. [00:17:59] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:18:00] Speaker B: Okay. [00:18:01] Speaker A: So how much of a conversation was that? Like, hey, are we comfortable using these folks as litter? Did you even have a conversation about possibly removing the patient? Or was that just like. You're like, hey, they're in the litter for a reason. We're not gonna. We're not gonna change things? [00:18:13] Speaker D: Yeah, we did talk about that, but it'll be more like a risk to take her out of the litter. She did have a back injury to cause, like, more pain or more injury, so decided to keep her in the litter, keep her safe right there for sure. [00:18:24] Speaker A: And. And how about the hoist for you? What were you thinking? Is there any concerns you brought up, or were they pretty much just, you know, mirroring what you were thinking in the front there? [00:18:32] Speaker D: I think we all had the same mindset going into it. We just did, like, a harness deployment of me about 200 yards away from where they were. [00:18:40] Speaker A: Nice. [00:18:40] Speaker D: It was, like, more open space. And I just made my way over, and there's, like, like, two civilians on scene. Like, I talked to them on the way first. They kind of, like, walk me over, and there was, like, four fire team rescue members already, like, around the patient, like, working on her. And their plan was to hoist, like, have a two man hoist, like, walker up the cliffside, which would have taken, like, over an hour at least. Like, walking pretty slow. Yeah, but, yeah. [00:19:05] Speaker A: So did you get the full story then, when you rolled on scene of what actually happened? [00:19:11] Speaker D: Actually, to this day, I still don't know what exactly happened to her, really. I don't know if she fell down the cliff trying to, like, climb up it, or she just fell down the cliff, or she was just back and got stuck on shore. [00:19:20] Speaker B: Interesting. [00:19:20] Speaker D: I don't. I don't even know. [00:19:22] Speaker B: Yeah, at that point, I guess it doesn't matter too much, right? You're like, okay, somebody needs some medical attention. Let's get him out of here. Yep. [00:19:28] Speaker A: What was her overall state when you arrived on scene? [00:19:32] Speaker D: As soon as she got in the helicopter, like, she was still talkative. She wasn't like in any signs of pain. I was like talking to her, make sure she was okay. And she was like smiling too. [00:19:41] Speaker A: So that's good. Is that she's in a good, is that, um. I remember somebody told me one time, be, be very wary of people who are like in good moods because the state of shock that they could be in might be hiding other injuries. [00:19:55] Speaker D: Yeah, that makes sense. But I could tell she was like pretty. She had like that side of nervousness, nervousness to her because she was like in the first time in a helicopter, like in horses and stuff. And then she also had that like, like still calmness about her too. That was gonna be okay. [00:20:09] Speaker A: Okay. So, so what kind of recovery were you thinking? You're down there and, and then, uh, was, were you just gonna, you know, you know, man the trail line as she was brought back up in the litter, how'd you guys end? Did you bring her back 200 yards where you were deployed? Or did they scooch more towards you guys where you were at to recover the patient? [00:20:28] Speaker D: The spot where we were, we would move her like five or 10ft more to where there's like an open space. She was off the edge of the cliffside on the side of the cliff and it's like sort of like ten to 15ft of open area. We closed at on like the rocks and stuff. So we got to like a open platform and it's like put the two trail lines down, the horse drop from there. [00:20:49] Speaker A: Nice. And then, so you just recovered the litter and then you just did another harness. Just hooked up, bare hook deployment, then hooked up and got brought back in the helicopter after that. [00:20:58] Speaker D: Yep, that's right. [00:21:00] Speaker A: Sweet. Nice. [00:21:01] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:21:01] Speaker A: Man, that sounds like you're running really smooth. [00:21:04] Speaker B: I know, right? [00:21:04] Speaker A: That's awesome. [00:21:05] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:21:06] Speaker A: So then what, uh, yeah, what were you thinking there? And, you know, being there, being the safety pilot, Kyla, about like fuel planning and what was, what was the hospital plan and the, the evac plan at that point? [00:21:18] Speaker E: Yeah, so, um, just kind of, again, it's in our AOR, but we don't typically go to too often, so thinking about fuel, like I mentioned before, we had diverted so obviously we weren't, you know, full on gas and whatnot. We did have a initial consideration of potentially bringing her maybe a few miles, maybe a mile and a half in front of us because we did see like a small beach area that we could bring her to. However, just with all that was going on, there were a lot of people watching, and we didn't ambulance, I believe, in that area, but we figured it was just better to bring her to a hospital. And there were a few hospitals in the area as well. We only flew a few miles to it, so that was just a better choice that it is something that we consider bringing her to the shoreline where the beach was and having her get in a ambulance there. [00:22:14] Speaker B: Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, you're reducing one more, I guess, patient transferred, and, you know, probably takes a little bit longer. Of course, an ambulance, too. Did you guys have to do, like, an elevated pad landing, or is it just a normal surface pad at the hospital? [00:22:29] Speaker E: Yeah, it was actually an elevated pad landing. So Benji was able to help the nurses and the people that came out to assist, and we left him there. We did need gas at that time, so we flew. I don't remember exactly how far it was, but it was a very short ride to the nearby airport that we refueled at. So then once we refueled, we went back, and we were able to go back to the hospital, pick Ben up, and, yeah, so everything ultimately, with the fuel planning, worked out smoothly, but, yeah, we didn't have to do too many calculations in terms of that. [00:23:07] Speaker B: That's cool. Ben, do they treat you pretty good at the hospital? [00:23:11] Speaker D: Yeah, luckily, right when we landed, it would have just been me and danker in the patient to the hospital. [00:23:15] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:23:16] Speaker D: There's, like, two other air rescue teams waiting in, like, the transit lobby, and they're picking back up, and they, like, luckily helped give me a hand and security, like, through the escalator and stuff. [00:23:25] Speaker B: Oh, that's awesome. [00:23:25] Speaker D: Elevator room. [00:23:27] Speaker B: That's all worked out. I've heard horror stories where sometimes the folks at the hospital don't help at all, and you're like, brother, can I get it? Can I get a hand? [00:23:37] Speaker D: That would have been pretty bad if nobody was there. [00:23:39] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. Mandy. [00:23:41] Speaker A: Well, that's awesome, man. It sounds like this case is pretty smooth. Keith, how was the. How was the hoisting? Do you have any kind of turbulence or anything coming over that cliff? [00:23:51] Speaker C: No, honestly, it was a pretty steady wind, probably about 20 knots. We were right on the top end of ETL, which kept things moving pretty good. And good hover references out the left, so it wasn't too hard to keep position. [00:24:03] Speaker B: That's awesome. Were there any other weather considerations, like, I don't know, low ceilings or showers or anything like that? [00:24:11] Speaker C: No, honestly, it was a beautiful day, which, if it been at night, it would have been extremely challenging. Case, thank goodness it was during the day with decent winds. [00:24:19] Speaker B: That's awesome. [00:24:20] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm. I'm really impressed that none of you guys were vert surface qualified and you did everything vert surface perfect. So that's just a testament to, like, I guess, how you guys trained and communicated. Yeah, that's really impressive. [00:24:35] Speaker B: Is there any other, like, gear or training that would have helped you guys out for this specific case? [00:24:43] Speaker D: I think if we brought our own litter, it would have been easier, but since they have a litter there already, it wouldn't have made any difference except that we'd just use their own litter. [00:24:50] Speaker B: Gotcha. Yeah. And then, Ben, did you. Did you feel like you had all the EMT equipment that you needed to kind of like, uh, check her out before you dropped her off? [00:25:02] Speaker D: Yeah, she was already in, like, a good condition. I didn't like one of, like, once we river her whole body, like, checking everything, make sure nothing was, like, bleeding or any obvious injuries. And the hospitals, like, five to ten minutes away. So I was just checking up on her, like, talking to her every couple of minutes and make sure it's fine. That's the camp would have done fine if I needed to use it. [00:25:21] Speaker B: Oh, good. Okay, sweet. [00:25:23] Speaker A: That's awesome. What about up front? Um, you guys think of, uh, doing anything differently? Lessons learned? Um, things you're going to take on in the future for future. Future sar cases? [00:25:33] Speaker C: One thing that I noticed after the fact that we could have definitely done just didn't occur at the time was as we brought both the patient and then later Benji back up to the helo. Hundred percent could have slowly come down and just a little bit right out over the water would have decreased the risk of doing that full 150ft if someone went wrong. [00:25:49] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. Kyle, anything from the right seat, uh, anything you think of that you're going to take on, maybe, uh, internalized for as you're going through your aircraft commander and. And, um, advanced our syllabus, just considering. [00:26:05] Speaker E: That this happened in September. And then we went through the transition course, just kind of. For me, I like to reflect and think about what if I would do anything different now and the echo, because it's pretty similar to the delta. Right. But I do know that we have, like, the hoist camera that we can use. So I probably just would have used things like that to help just, you know, build up that essay and help keep out a little bit more if you needed that. So I've just been reflecting on things like that. [00:26:35] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. Um, those are good things, especially as you continue on. Um, and, you know, showing the more junior pilots, like, hey, listen, I did a cliff rescue case where I wasn't the hoisting pilot. I was in the right seat. This is how I would watch it in the future. That. That's. That knowledge stuff. That's. That's invaluable. And. And you should definitely keep passing that stuff down for sure. [00:26:54] Speaker B: If you were to do that same case in the echo, what, a hover mode would you. Do you think you'd use. [00:27:00] Speaker E: If I were hoisting, I probably would use hug. That's what I typically use during summer work. I like the fact that the pilot monitoring. You can keep it zeroed out if necessary. Yeah. [00:27:14] Speaker B: Big fan. [00:27:15] Speaker E: Yes. I think that might be more helpful. [00:27:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:27:17] Speaker E: But I don't know. What are you guys thinking? What mode would you have used? [00:27:21] Speaker B: I don't know. Yeah. Like, I think sometimes they'll talk about Balt and havog. Balt hog for, like, cliff ops or, like, you know, if you're hoisting to big ships or something like that, but only. Only as a. As a tool, I guess, that we have. But most people just probably use Huvog or hub. [00:27:43] Speaker A: Yeah, I think. I think either one of those have probably been pretty good for that case. Yeah. But I do like the fact that they can. The pilot monitor can go in that flight director page and zero out your. Your hover speed. If you need something, need some extra help. Sweet. Well, nice job, guys. That was a man. You're making me jealous. I wish I could go stand some duty and fly some. Sorry. Right now. [00:28:06] Speaker C: I definitely appreciate it. [00:28:07] Speaker A: Yeah, cool. [00:28:09] Speaker B: Keith, you're gonna go get the big one today? Tonight, huh? [00:28:11] Speaker C: Yeah, never know. They've been keeping us busy over here. [00:28:14] Speaker A: Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. Currently, yeah, I guess. Is. Keith, are you the only one on duty right now? [00:28:21] Speaker C: We're actually the air fact duty crew over in walking in Illinois right now. [00:28:25] Speaker B: Okay, cool. What? How long does that go for? A couple weeks. [00:28:28] Speaker C: Yeah, it's a two week duty. We're over here. Just arrived in Waukegan today, a couple hours ago, and we'll be here for through Friday. [00:28:34] Speaker B: Oh, wow. Okay. [00:28:35] Speaker A: Wow. The guardians of the Great Lakes, ladies and gentlemen. [00:28:38] Speaker B: Dang, that's awesome. And that's the only air facility you guys do, right? [00:28:42] Speaker C: We're standing up both Waukegan and Muskegon this year. [00:28:46] Speaker A: All the egans. [00:28:46] Speaker C: It's been interesting trying to do our facts with a single crew, so we're kind of bouncing all over. [00:28:50] Speaker B: Okay, so you do one week at one and then one week at another or something like that. [00:28:54] Speaker C: Essentially the schedule changes a little bit about that. [00:28:57] Speaker B: That sounds like a lot to manage. [00:28:58] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:28:59] Speaker B: Well, good luck with that. [00:29:01] Speaker A: Well, sweet. Um, hey, thanks a lot, guys, for coming on. We really appreciate it. Um, this is a really cool case. I think, uh, I think our, the folks who, uh, um, are going to be listening to this are going to be super pumped for you guys. Congratulations on award. That's a huge deal. And, yeah, thanks a lot. [00:29:19] Speaker E: Yeah, thank you for having us. [00:29:22] Speaker F: Thank you. [00:29:22] Speaker B: Thanks, guys. [00:29:23] Speaker A: See you. Sweet. That was good one, man. Yeah. [00:29:29] Speaker B: Dude, a little unexpected cliff rescue. [00:29:32] Speaker A: Yeah, I do. I think it's pretty cool that they did all the vert sturf it stuff pretty perfectly textbook without being vert surface. [00:29:39] Speaker B: I know, right? And they did it in the delta. [00:29:41] Speaker A: They did. [00:29:41] Speaker B: And I guess in my mind, before we got into it, I was thinking that they were flying the echo. [00:29:46] Speaker A: Yeah, me too. Until she's. Until Kyla said that, I was like, oh, I guess they're not. [00:29:50] Speaker B: That's cool, though. No, that's awesome, man. One last hoorah for the old 65 delta. [00:29:56] Speaker A: Yeah. Seriously, that was great. We really appreciate the crew coming on the podcast. And like we said, we're going to have, I think, the next series, the next episodes be released or just search and rescue stories. Get back to the. Get back to the old, you know, star case. [00:30:12] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:30:12] Speaker B: I love it. We got a San Francisco lined up. [00:30:14] Speaker A: San Francisco? Yep. We got Justin bench coming out with his cool sarcasm. [00:30:18] Speaker B: Big Sar case in North Bend. Yeah. Cool, man. Well, looking forward to hearing them. And of course, any listeners out there at any of our coast Guard air stations, if you have a story you'd like to share, a SAR case or anything significant or unusual, please reach out to us and we'd love to get you on and hear your story and share. [00:30:36] Speaker A: It is the best way to still contact us through the instagrams. [00:30:40] Speaker B: The instagrams is good. Yeah. Flight suit Friday. Miranda's our instagram guru. Or you can just email us. [00:30:48] Speaker A: Yeah, and if you're not in the coast Guard but you fly helicopters and you have a cool story, also hit us up on the instagrams. [00:30:54] Speaker B: Yeah, and if you want to take us flying on joyrides, also hit us up on the instagrams. Anyways, sweet. Enjoyed it. Thanks, guys. Thanks for listening. See ya. [00:31:03] Speaker A: Have a good weekend. [00:31:07] Speaker B: Goodbye. But never let go. We live, we die. Cause you can't save every soul. Gotta take every chance to show that you're the kind of man who. [00:31:40] Speaker E: Can you lose? Everything close.