Memorial Day weekend marked the unofficial beginning of the summer camping and recreation season around Foster Lake, and it was a perfect day for a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter crew to practice and demonstrate its water rescue capabilities.
A small crowd gathered at Shea Point Saturday morning to observe the exercise before the crew landed the helicopter at Sunnyside Park for lunch.
The crew repeatedly dropped a dummy into the lake. The helicopter moved into position, and a rescue swimmer jumped into the water to recover the dummy.
“Today we’re doing a recreational boating safety awareness exercise,” said Mel Chaput, Coast Guard Auxiliary Division Six commander. The division covers the coast from Gray’s Harbor, Wash., to Lincoln City and extends inland to Central Oregon.
The exercise coincided with Recreational Boating Safety Week, Chaput noted, and the Coast Guard worked with Oregon State Police, Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District and Linn County Sheriff’s Office to run the exercise.
The exercise also provided an opportunity for the public to look at the helicopter and equipment and to talk to the pilots and swimmers, and a crowd emerged quickly to observe the landing and gather around the helicopter.
The Coast Guard not only works at sea and along the coast, Chaput said, it also works inland when necessary.
“It’s happening more and more as situations require,” he said. Typically, the Air National Guard responds to inland emergencies, but the Air National Guard is not available as often in recent years.
The Coast Guard most often works with larger vessels, usually large fishing vessels that get into trouble, Chaput said. Inland, the Coast Guard must work with small recreational boats, which can be blown around a lot by the rotors. Inland exercises give the crews the chance to practice.
The helicopter carries a crew of four normally, including two pilots, a flight mechanic and a rescue swimmer, said pilot John Anderson.
The Coast Guard’s duties are widely varied, including search and rescue, law enforcement and homeland security monitoring of “high-interest sites” along rivers, said Anderson, a lieutenant. Helicopter crews board cargo vessels, flying over and lowering a five- or six-man boarding team to inspect for drugs and illegal immigrants.
The Astoria station responds to two or three search-and-rescue calls each week, mostly along the Columbia River and the coast, Anderson said. The Coast Guard recently responded to a mountain rescue call on Mount Adams.
The station’s response area ranges from Pacific City to Queets River in Washington. It also will send helicopters up to 300 miles inland.
The helicopter is a Coast Guard AH60-J Jayhawk, Anderson said. Built on the same frame as the Army Blackhawk, it has a maximum speed of 180 knots, approximately 207 mph, and a ceiling of approximately 10,000 feet. It can fly and hover at an altitude of 1 foot.
Unlike jets, the helicopter can fly low and slow over trees and other terrain, he said. Flying in the hills, forests and mountains is a little different from coastal missions, he said, but it’s “pretty basic when you know the rules.”
On a search-and-rescue call, “on the way in, we’ll do basic checks of our equipment,” Anderson said. “The swimmers will get dressed out.”
As the helicopter reaches the emergency location, the pilots will do one or two passes to observe potential hazards and see what the wind is doing, he said. They look for a safe direction to fly away and develop a plan to leave the scene in case something goes wrong.
The helicopter goes into a hover, and the crew completes a search-and-rescue checklist, Anderson said. Crew members will hold a quick discussion to go over what they observed on the flyover and make sure everyone is on the same page.
Next, the rescue swimmer is either lowered into the water or free falls into the water. Once there, he gives a hand signal to tell the crew how he wants to recover survivors, either in a basket or a rescue sling. With the rescue sling, the rescue swimmer can hold the survivor close and protect the survivor from the rotor wash. The swimmer also has a radio he can use to relay information about conditions in the water.
The flight mechanic and rescue swimmer direct the pilots for necessary adjustments because the pilots cannot see directly below the helicopter, he said.
Anderson said he enjoys his job.
“I love working with the crew. The pilots €“ we drive the bus. I drive the ambulance of the air. It’s fun to fly, fun to drive.”
Anderson, 27, graduated from college as an electrical engineer. He attended the Coast Guard Academy and then went to work on the Coast Guard cutter Steadfast as an engineer and officer in training.
That’s a typical career path for a pilot, he said. Almost everyone is required to put two years in on a ship. After that, they can attend flight school.
He graduated from flight school about seven months ago, he said.
He grew up in Gresham, he said. On visits to the coast, he would see the Coast Guard helicopters fly by.
“I thought that’d be a cool job,” he said. “I love to help people. Out of all the military services, the Coast Guard fits me, and I wanted to try to fly. The Coast Guard has a lot more opportunities for folks than other military services.”
In addition to domestic services, the Coast Guard is also at work in Iraq, providing port security on waterways and protecting oil refineries.