Monday 3 September 2012

Thank You 'A' Flight Squadron 22: 6000 Missions and Counting.

Three cheers and many heartfelt thanks go out to the Search and Rescue helicopter crews at RAF Chivenor on flying their 6000 mission. It turns out that they have been particularly busy this year and from my Twitter feed I see that the other day they were called out on three jobs. Surely this is a further justification,  if any were needed which unfortunately it may be if policy makers have their way,  of the essential role that this outfit plays in our community. To my mind their role should be safeguarded, ring-fenced I believe is the term politicians like to use, at all costs and any attempts to meddle with it in the terms of unfathomable management gobbledygook should be ardently resisted.
One of the old crates.
The canary yellow whirly gigs of 22 Squadron stand for so much more than just a diversion in the skies while you are enjoying an afternoon on the beach or having a tramp out to Baggy. If they were to be outsourced, privatised or redeployed elsewhere I would miss them immensely and I think the people of North Devon would be to put it mildly, bleddy sorry to see them go. I say this even as a neighbour whose sleep has been disturbed on many occasions by their rather alarming mechanical racket, like a barrel of spanners thrown down some steps, as they hover overhead at all times of the day and night. Over the years I have got to know many of the crew personally and just this morning I got a great big wave from the winch person, lovely maid she is, as she flew low up the river and back to base.
These days as I'm getting on a bit I find it a great comfort to know that should I get into any scrapes out on the estuary, be whisked out by freakish tides over the bar never to be seen again, get dazed and confused on Braunton burrows or have all fall off of the rocks while prawning down at Rockham they will always be at hand to literally pull me out of trouble. I stress that I am not a reckless person but as any local can tell you these things do happen from time to time and I do realise especially in these straightened times that their services are costly and resources are scarce. And I don't like to cause a fuss.
To be honest and surprising as it may seem I have only had cause to avail myself of their services just the once. It was a few years ago now when I was sailing back from Cork in an old tug boat that the Old Boy's mate Dicky Diamond had bought and was intending to restore at a berth in Appledore. Due to my experience on the dredgers and having worked both in Cork Bay and Barnstaple Bay I was signed on for the trip as first mate and pilot. Dicky was the skipper and his boy Nathan was the engineer seeing as he worked down at Central Garages. We were just getting into the Lundy roads when Nathan was seized by agonizing stomach pains. So, suspecting appendicitis and with the tide against us and realsing that it would be several hours before we would be able to make it over the bar and upriver to safe harbour on the Torridge we set off a flare which I gather was seen by the Lundy boat the Polar Bear who radioed for assistance. Within the hour the chopper boys had hove into view and we were able to get Nathan winched off up, up and away to the NDI where the vestigial appendage was whipped out in the nick of time. Saved his life they did.
Kamikaze mission?
       In this markedly significant year for the Squadron a couple of cases have been highlighted in the local press where the deployment of the whirlygig has been questioned. The most infamous episode to date concerned a model aircraft enthusiast who had to be winched out of a gorse bush after tumbling into it while flying his model plane off Morte Point. This poor blokes plight was rather simplified n the local press and subsequently a right old hullabaloo kicked off people were outraged that the SAR crew had been called out to what they were led to believe was a relatively minor incident. There were calls for him to pay the money back and the unfortunate chap received some rather forthright comments on the web forums calling him in no uncertain terms a silly sod. However, my Step-nephew Denzil who you may recall is himself a model plane enthusiast was able to expand upon the matter and there was a bit more to the story than folk were originally led to believe. It turns out that the remote aviator had indeed fallen down the cliff into a gorse bush but he tumbled headfirst some fifteen foot into the furse and was discovered hanging upside down, trapped. It was a particularly warm day and even though his mates had tried in vain to retrieve him eventually and in desperation, fearing dehydration was setting they called out the helicopter. To be fair initially the chap had shown some social responsibility as he had been trying to salvage his plane which was a £300 1/32 scale Mitsubishi Zero (maybe it took on a life of it's own and went on a kamikaze mission. Who knows?) with an apparently inflammable battery and with the aviation fuel thrown into the mix fearing a potential gorse fire he had acted somewhat impulsively and ended up in such a hazardous predicament. Besides, what else were they supposed to do? Leave him there like hanging prone like one of those deceased sheep, just fleece and bones, you come across whose remains lie entangled in the branches to become dessicated by the windy salty sea air. He would have caused a bit of a stink after a while. Good job too we don't have vultures in this country as they'd have had him. Not forgetting the fact that the bush could burst into flames at any moment immolating him and turning the whole of Morte Point into an inferno. That would caused a lot more fuss.
I admit that this rescue was not one of the most heroic thrilling and historic ever performed by the Squadron as there was no burning oil tanker, lone yachtsman or celebrity chef in distress involved
Still I suspect it was good practice and a potential danger was averted. However, to my mind this incident, as benign as it seems reminds us of the emblematic and essential service that RAF Chivenor provides for our community and for the Nation as a whole. However from time to time we all need to remind ourselves that although our coastline is indeed an area of outstanding natural beauty it can also be deadly. So for everyone's sake be aware and try not to be too daft when you are out on about.

Ted after his cliff fall
Curiously,  a few weeks later Ted a twelve stone dog fell off the cliff down at Hartland and although he was rescued without requiring the services of 22 squadron but instead by several cliff rescue teams, some from as far away as Port Isaac, the story passed with no comment.  There were no claims of a waste of resources or calls for Ben or his owners to repay the money nor any suggestion that they had been foolish to allow the hound to stray near to the cliff edge. It was all portrayed in rather heroic terms. To my mind at the very least someone should have at least asked what the hell was the dog, especially one that size, doing off the lead on the Coast-path in the first place. Funny old world

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