Colorado Resident Down in Calfornia

Smithsonia · April 28, 2009, 12:29:19 AM

We've got a Colorado resident down in the California Sierra Nevada mountains tonight. Go gettem. And thanks for the hard work California Wing. We from Colorado appreciate you!

http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=114592&catid=188

Flying Pig · April 28, 2009, 12:49:24 AM

He went down about 3 days ago. I spent 6 hours searching the Mammoth area yesterday. There were about 10-12 planes up at Merced Castle Airport. Lots of snow, and some gorges that are 2000-3000 ft deep.

flynd94 · April 28, 2009, 01:00:40 AM

You know I was flying over the area on Friday (early afternoon) and, I was depressed. There was ton of cloud cover and the view from FL240 was bad. What was the wx like underneath? Was it okay for a motor glider? Also, where is the base? I overnight at MCE on Wednesday and, would love to come by/say hi to old friends.

Short Field · April 28, 2009, 05:05:03 PM

Nevada Wing is also involved in the search. Officially IAW the ICS structure, it is a Unified Command Structure with a CA IC and a NV IC. CA has the Planning Staff. As of COB yesterday, NV had flown over 35 sorties in the search. NV has mission bases acitivated at Minden and North Las Vegas.

Smithsonia · April 28, 2009, 05:30:02 PM

Thanks to you too, Nevada Wing >from the Colorado Wing.

flyerthom · May 01, 2009, 02:04:48 AM

Quote from: Flying Pig on April 28, 2009, 12:49:24 AM
He went down about 3 days ago. I spent 6 hours searching the Mammoth area yesterday. There were about 10-12 planes up at Merced Castle Airport. Lots of snow, and some gorges that are 2000-3000 ft deep.

The grids I was in were like riding inside a basketball.

Short Field · May 01, 2009, 04:15:22 AM

And your MS was running out of bags really fast.....

Glad I missed that flight.
Weighless followed by 1000' a minute descent - again and again.

The NV aircrews are flying long grueling missions. My hat's off to them.

P.S. And that MS keeps going back up...

Smithsonia · May 01, 2009, 05:21:43 AM

God bless you all. Some of us think we know the downed pilot. Good luck and keep going.

Flying Pig · May 02, 2009, 12:18:24 AM

After a great effort by the CAP and operating under a Unified ICS Command the search has ended.

For Immediate Release
INTERAGENCY EFFORT IN CALIFORNIA MOUNTAIN SEARCH LOCATES AIRCRAFT
For further information contact 1LT. Matthew Scherzi 714-xxx-xxxx
Merced, California-The Civil Air Patrol has ended its participation in the search for an overdue aircraft in the Sierra Mountains in California. Wreckage was spotted in Mono County by a USAF Pavehawk rescue helicopter from Nellis AFB and verified as the aircraft that was the subject of the large-scale search. There were no survivors. The family has been notified.
The couple was reported overdue Friday evening, the 24th of April when they failed to arrive in Modesto, California on a flight from Tonopah, Nevada. The Civil Air Patrol was activated by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center and a full scale search was initiated early Saturday morning.
Over the next week over 200 Civil Air Patrol members from throughout California as well as Nevada flew over 150 missions in support of the search over some of the most dangerous terrain in the United States. They were joined by helicopters from the California National Guard at Moffett Federal Airfield and personnel and aircraft from the 58th and 66th Rescue Squadrons at Nellis AFB.
Flight crews braved high winds, treacherous terrain and altitudes as high as 17,500 feet altitude during the last week. High altitude flight requiring the use of oxygen provided additional operational and logistical challenges.
Mono County Sheriff's Office was involved from the start, as was the California Emergency Management Agency (CALEMA). The Sheriff's Office provided much local knowledge, as well as the use of their Search and Rescue Command Post and deputies. CALEMA was instrumental in marshalling local and state assets for this search.
Incident Commander 1LT. Tolga Tarhan said, "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families at this difficult time."
Other Agency Contacts:
Mono County Sheriff's Office-Shannon Kendall 760-xxx-xxxx
Nellis Air Force Base Charles Ramey 702-xxx-xxxx

Smithsonia · May 02, 2009, 01:59:08 AM

Our compliments to Nevada and California Wings. Our thanks to the Guard. Our gratitude goes with our prayers. Tough mission days, turbulence that turns your brain to a rattle can, shabby weather, terrain that eats aircraft for lunch, and all we've got is each other. Each other is enough. And so our prayer; "may we always be enough, dear Lord."

Gunner C · May 02, 2009, 05:16:03 AM

The searches with no survivors are always the tough ones.

Smithsonia · May 06, 2009, 03:20:26 PM

The Fresno Bee recently ran a long compendium of Sierra Crashes. This is not complete by any means... but it is in depth on some of the more publicized crashes. It is impressive work. http://www.fresnobee.com/967

California Wing take note. This is your heritage.

bosshawk · May 07, 2009, 04:00:11 AM

I worked Air Ops the first two days of that search. Let me tell you, flying grids above 12,000 feet in the Sierra Nevadas is no picnic. As has already been mentioned, tons of snow to look at, turbulence that will make you wish that you didn't have a stomach, updrafts and downdrafts that make you think you are on an elevator, all while sucking on oxygen. Add in no soft spots to put down on in the event of emergency and you have a slight appreciation of flying in these mts. My credibility: about 300 hours of search time in these same or similar grids.

The crews did an incredible job: too bad some of our base staff couldn't make the same statement.

Short Field · May 07, 2009, 04:33:43 AM

PM sent.

Flying Pig · May 07, 2009, 02:56:06 PM

The Fresno Bee is VERY CAP friendly. They have done a couple front page articles on our Sq. Fresno is also the 5th largest city in CA so the Bee has a huge circulation.
Its neat flying at 1000 AGL and still needing to be on O2!

Smithsonia · May 07, 2009, 05:24:54 PM

When we fly in the West, we fly in it's turbulence too. Thunderstorms, wildland fires, the jet stream, common heat, uncommon cold and magnificent mountains -- All make our territory, hostile. It is a blessing - that this is our territory, for this is also our view.

Often after hours of bouncing along, I land and take a breath and think... I am ever so fortunate and ever so tired.

Flying Pig · May 07, 2009, 09:27:29 PM

The jet stream? You fly a lot of searches over 20,000 ft.?

Smithsonia · May 07, 2009, 09:48:20 PM

The mountain tops in Colorado are 14K plus. Well 56 of them are, anyway. The jet stream isn't just at 20K... it effects the winds gathering and sweeping through the mountains. We routinely had 50-80 mph winds at 15K this winter. As these winds crest the tops of mountains they get colder and denser. When they crest the top they roll down hill like bowling balls - speed up and heat up, as they go. This creates mountain rotors that will crush a CAP Plane into the ground. So the jet stream is our tailwind cross country friend that can make a Cessna 182 as fast as a Bonanza... and it also our SAR bedevilment, no matter if we are searching the mountains or the plains, with planes.

Flying Pig · May 07, 2009, 10:15:40 PM

Yup. Same thing happens here in the Sierras. Of course, also resulting in the thunderstorms that are as predictable as an alarm clock every afternoon.

calguy · May 23, 2009, 01:48:45 AM

The crews did an incredible job: too bad some of our base staff couldn't make the same statement.

I agree with Paul that the base staff had alot of problems. Same issues that we had at Truckee and Minden year after year. Nothing will change until CAWG does AARs.

Short Field · May 23, 2009, 04:51:38 AM

Truckee and Minden are in the Nevada Wing. I asked Paul about the problems via PM. Feel free to PM me with the problems on this search.