California Wing Earns 2 Saves for PLB Mission

[SARPilotNY]

From: Voron551
To: all@cawg.cap.gov
Sent: 04/09/08 8:25:01 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time
Subj: AFRCC


NCS format for transmission

Search mission 08M0552A was opened 3 April 2008 to assist Riverside
County Sheriff's Department in locating two U.C. Davis wildlife
biologists that had activated their Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) in the
San Jacinito Wilderness.  The two biologists were tracking a mountain
lion that had a transmitter collar that was indicating that the lion was
deceased or the collar had fallen off the lion.  The two had flown the
area and were able to df and localize the area of the collar earlier on
the 2nd and decided to drive back to the area and hike in to check the
status and condition of the transmitter.  They started their hike on the
afternoon of the 2nd underestimating the time it would take to get to the
transmitter.  Late in the afternoon they located the immediate area of
the transmitter however one of the biologist lost his footing and
aggravate an old knee injury.  Due to the time of the day, his injury,
the arrival of a storm front and their lack of foul weather clothing, the
two built a shelter and activated their PLB.  NOAA received the data from
their beacon around 18:30L on the 2nd and telephoned the emergency
contact numbers and confirmed they were hiking in the area of the PLB
signal.  Riverside County Sheriff's activated their search and rescue
unit and received additional assistance from San Bernardino and San Diego
County Sheriff's SAR teams.  The sheriff's SAR teams searched throughout
the night and early morning and were unable to receive the PLB's 121.5
MHz homing signal.  At 0630L on the 3rd, a request for Civil Air Patrol's
assistance was made.  Within 15 minutes, CAP had 3 ground team members en
route and within 45 minutes CF415 was airborne from Palm Springs.  CF415
within 15 minutes of their departure had acquired the 406 and 121.5 MHz
signal and were able to df the signal to a one square mile area above the
clouds in the wilderness.  During this time, the two biologists were able
to hear our aircraft circling above them.  During breaks in the cloud
cover, one biologist was able to identify the aircraft as belonging to
Civil Air Patrol since he is a member of a California squadron.  He knew
than that the PLB would lead rescuer to their location.  Within two
hours, CAP ground assets were able to localize and confirm the
approximate location of the subjects.  About this time it was learned
that the two were attempting to hike back to their car parked at the end
of an old mining road.  Searchers were able to meet up with the two and
assist them back to their vehicle and guild them to the local fire
station where paramedics evaluated their condition. 
Distress find award and 2 saves have been awarded to Frank Tullo, Tom
Charpentier, Shane Terpstra, Bob Keilholtz, Jean Ramirez, Cathy Lavonti and Bob Miller.
Special thanks to Dave Bohem the IC on this mission.
Ron Butts
DO CAWG

[calguy]

This was a great job!  One issue...why does the IC use the same people for all of his missions?  These are the same aircrews and ground teams that get all the missions, finds and saves.  One of the aircrew guys and his aircraft has at least a dozen distress finds and half as many saves.  One of the ground team guys has nearly 100 distress finds and a couple dozen saves.  The others are not too far behind.  Its not fair that they get called for all the missing airplane and PLB missions.  It ruins California Wings moral!

[Al Sayre]

This was a great job!  One issue...why does the IC use the same people for all of his missions?  These are the same aircrews and ground teams that get all the missions, finds and saves.  One of the aircrew guys and his aircraft has at least a dozen distress finds and half as many saves.  One of the ground team guys has nearly 100 distress finds and a couple dozen saves.  The others are not too far behind.  Its not fair that they get called for all the missing airplane and PLB missions.  It ruins California Wings moral!

It is the IC's job to use the most capable and reliable assets he has available in order to minimize the search time when lives are at stake.  If you were the IC, who would you call first, the guys that have a proven track record or the guys that may be well trained but you know nothing about?

That's the one thing that really sucks about ES.  You train and train and never seem to get a real mission.  When you think about it, hoping for a real mission means hoping someone got hurt.  ES is something we train for and hope we never have to do...

BZ to all involved!

[RiverAux]

I call BS on 100 distress finds.  I can easily imagine 100 non-distress finds in a high ELT activity state, but if there is anybody with that many distress finds he should be on the cover of the Volunteer. 

[calguy]

I don't think he has been on the cover of the  Volunteer  Magazine but he has been in it several times that I know of.  Last time it was reported in our Wing publication, he IC'd over 100 missions in a year and was out in the field on a whole bunch too.  Just in April he has been awarded 2 distress finds alone!  He been doing this for years, since he was a cadet.  I suspect he gets a dozen or more distress finds a year, multiply that by 20 or 30 years.  He was the IC on the Fossett search for California and ran the fire missions.  Southern California gets about 200 missions a year and he and his henchmen get all the missions.  Just a few aircrews and udf teams seem to get all the missions.   Just today, traffic went out where he found 3 ELTs on one mission along with his gang.  Many of us try to get involved but we never get called.

[RiverAux]

Man, I'm not flying in CA if one guy is finding a dozen wrecked planes a year.  The odds don't seem good. 

[SARPilotNY]

There good if he and his team is on the mission...otherwise you may have a long wait.  Bring plenty of food and water...

[SARPilotNY]

I think a good lesson that everyone could learn from is the speed that the team was en-route (15 minutes)  to the mission as well as the aircraft.  I hear all the time people thinking it is unfair to not use members because they cannot respond in a rapid and professional fashion.  Looks like the sheriff's teams could not do in 12 hours what the CAP team could do in minutes.  Face it, these guys kicked ass!  They should be praised for their fast and professional response, not criticized. 

[isuhawkeye]

Just a quick thought.

If only a dozen individuals can reliably handle 90% of California's ES operations year after year.  That begs the question.....

How large of an ES force does CAP really need??

[SamFranklin]

I call BS on 100 distress finds.  I can easily imagine 100 non-distress finds in a high ELT activity state, but if there is anybody with that many distress finds he should be on the cover of the Volunteer. 

My view is entirely different than RiverAux's.

I say, great job, California! Wow, just think two people are alive today thanks to your volunteer service. Stories like this make me proud to be a CAP member. OUTSTANDING!

[SARPilotNY]

Just a quick thought.

If only a dozen individuals can reliably handle 90% of California's ES operations year after year.  That begs the question.....

How large of an ES force does CAP really need??

Not needs...has.  Out of the 350+ missions CAWG has a year, most are in Southern California and most of those are handled by 3 or 4 ICs, 3 or 4 UDF teams and 2 or 3 aircrews.  Its not an issue of hogging missions, it just only a few care to respond to missions.  All these folks have jobs and I am not aware that any of them that get paid time off to do these missions.  They are just dedicated to the missions of Civil Air Patrol.  They all wear huge targets because people say they take all the missions.  Not true, they page for resources and are the last ones on the IC alert list.  Its just almost everyone else turns missions down.  Seems funny, they even have paged for an aircraft or team for a specific airport only to have a team drive 100 miles away to find the ELT in a CAP aircraft!  Opps?

[isuhawkeye]

THats odd.  I didn't add the frown face. 

Does it add itself Automatically


  LOL I guess it does. 

You learn something new every day

[SarDragon]

This was a great job!  One issue...why does the IC use the same people for all of his missions?  These are the same aircrews and ground teams that get all the missions, finds and saves.  One of the aircrew guys and his aircraft has at least a dozen distress finds and half as many saves.  One of the ground team guys has nearly 100 distress finds and a couple dozen saves.  The others are not too far behind.  Its not fair that they get called for all the missing airplane and PLB missions.  It ruins California Wings moral!

Well, you have me at a disadvantage, since you know who I am, but you have apparently ignored a polite PM to identify yourself.

As I understand the CAWG system, as I have participated in it for the last six years, a page goes out, and the members interested in participating will call the IC to check in.  None of the ICs I have worked with in SoCal call anyone, they get calls from members who want to participate. I have worked with four of the folks on that list, and they are all very good at what they do.

As for the 100 distress finds, he's probably close if he isn't there already. That averages out to about five a year for as long as he's been doing ES. Not unrealistic, given the number of missions we have here in CA each year.

As for the number of aircrews, that will probably increase over the next few months, but the new ones will all be from the same unit, which is getting an aircraft in the next month or so.

[SARPilotNY]

I checked with an olde time historian for CAWG and he recalls when this guy and another were tied with 25 distress finds in the early eighties/late seventies.   This was before there were distress/non distress finds.  He confirms that the numbers look right.  He also noted that this guy had a promotion forced upon him during the Fossett search only to turn it down.  Seems like somebody at NHQ thought it looked bad that a Captain was running the mission in CAWG whereas a  Bird Colonel was running the mission in NVWG.
It was noted that he doesn't even wear his ribbons or wings on his dress uniform.  Odd?  I guess he just wants to get the job done but gets attacked for taking all the missions.

[RiverAux]

Okay, I'll withdraw my flag based on the fact checking above... now we need him on the cover of the Volunteer.

[SamFranklin]

Okay, I'll withdraw my flag based on the fact checking above... now we need him on the cover of the Volunteer.

You forgot to say, "I apologize for my earlier comment. I was out of line."

[RiverAux]

No, I didn't forget. 

[mikeylikey]

Seems to me like this "miracle worker" probably gets the majority of the missions because he gets the majority of the missions.  In other words, everyone knows he is readily available, and will take the mission, so he gets the call.  As far as him wearing decorations or a uniform at all, that says nothing about his service to CAP.  That is a mute point.  You could say, he disregards everything but flying, the way he doesn't care about uniforms or promotions?!?

[SarDragon]

Seems to me like this "miracle worker" probably gets the majority of the missions because he gets the majority of the missions.  In other words, everyone knows he is readily available, and will take the mission, so he gets the call.  As far as him wearing decorations or a uniform at all, that says nothing about his service to CAP.  That is a mute point.  You could say, he disregards everything but flying, the way he doesn't care about uniforms or promotions?!?

The guy's not even a pilot. If he's not an IC on a mission, he's doing GT or UDF, or occasionally Observer. He has his GRW, and a Master rating in Ops. As for uniforms, he wears what he thinks appropriate, and he wears it well. Some of us don't particularly care about promoting past a certain point.

On "getting the call", please reread my post above. The IC "gets the call" from the Wing Mission Alerting Officer, a rotating duty within the wing . He calls ICs until one will take the mission. We have four or five in SoCal who take most of the missions.

The IC puts out a page, and whoever gets a page and wants to participate, calls in to the IC.

[PHall]

It was noted that he doesn't even wear his ribbons or wings on his dress uniform.

I don't even think he even owns an Air Force style uniform.
The last time I saw him in an Air Force style blue uniform was when we were both cadets!