Thought I'd share one of the many weird things you see in this job and some nice photos too.

 

We got tasked while in transit towards skye to a cliffhanger, I've not had many proper cliff hangers so got my heart going a bit. Long story short we got a wiggle on and were there in 12 mins and searched the bowl they were in. We learned they were deer stalkers and on the third pass I spotted a waving hand. They were dressed in tweed and that real tree cammo and it bloody works. There were 3 of them on a 70 or 80 degree slope at the back of the bowl. The highest was genuinely precarious pretty much clinging to a birds nest with his face.

picture taken as we flew away it doesn't look much but they were about 850 foot up the back of it just on the edge of the area in shadow.

 

Was a bit tricky we stayed fairly high so as not to blow them off (steady) and had about 150 foot of cable out with the tail 15 foot from the rocks. With the cliffhanger rescued quickly we slowed it down and got his mates along with their gay carved walking sticks and rifles. The winchman performed a manoeuvre only I was witness to but with a kick of his legs swung in a graceful arc, hung upside down to snatch up a walking stick and then landed legs astride the second stalker. What a ninja.

 

As we left the bowl the cliffhanger (surname Smyth-Oswold) broke out a sandwich and got stuck in as we dropped them at their land rover. We gave them some parting words like "carry an orange bit of sheet to flap at rescuers in future." "Don't be ****ing stupid." And "so the deer won today then lads"

 

Good fun, more pictures to follow.

Ben Nevis

Spot the lunatics on tower ridge

Scotland is amazing

nice work m8 alwsys enjoy the views when we kadge a lift lol beats walking.

nice work m8 alwsys enjoy the views when we kadge a lift lol beats walking.

Ya lazy git.......lol..... But you deserve a lift....... Elmer fudd is a bit differwent when twacking deer..... ooooh datttt wabbit....... Hat's off to another good Job Tom...........:bow:

Great scenery Tom :thumbup1:

As a guy who owns the planet earth box set on blue ray I fly round Scotland with my mouth open. It is stunning.

 

Got tasked out of tea yesterday after that job for a mountain biker at Torroden nr Skye with a broken pelvis. Fairly straight forward job, but at Lossiemouth we drive a 50/50 transit from the flight, across the airfield to the aircraft and I had left the lights on! So when we got back at 11pm we had to bump start it haha. Luckily enough I have a bit of practice and had the pilots pushing the van with me holding a snapped head torch in my teeth driving.

 

Comedy sar, comedy sar...

Cool - great pics (and story) Tom.... Thanks for sharing!!

 

Richard:bow:

Fantastic pics, love these threads, well done on another fantastic job and another few lives saved.

It's been a while I haven't had many jobs that stick in my mind but thought I'd share a few pictures.

 

 

Proving the old ones are the best, two machines very close to my heart.

 

The job the other day with the car crash wasn't the sort of job you take pictures of but this one was...

 

 

"Waves as big as houses" etc etc... It wasn't my biggest or roughest night deck but it was still a challenge. Understandably one of the sailors had fallen over, he had either broken his collarbone or dislocated his arm and had it go back in; the problem was that it had cut off the circulation to his arm and it was going numb. We got him in from about 150 miles out in a couple of hours rather than, however long it takes a boat, 15kts perhaps, in that sea, he would have been having a crap time anyway so we got him off.

 

I am trying to take more pictures because I will never have another job as good as this and It is a piece of history, but whenever things get 'interesting' it is not appropriate to start taking photos.

 

I hope you enjoy them there will be more to come I am sure, I just hope I don't hear "RESCUE 137 THIS IS KINLOSS RESCUE... TASKING... 300ZX... UP A TREE... NEAR INVERNESS... OVER!"

I've worked at sea for almost 15 years, and I can't even begin to explain the gratitude I feel towards people like yourself from around the world.

I've been unlucky enough to witness 3 major injuries onboard vessels when miles from land. Each time there has been a helicopter rescue in less than ideal conditions completed with the utmost professionalism and speed.

 

I hope to Christ I never have to be one of the folks who gets winched up, but it's nice to know in the UK that we have yourselves and the RNLI available to come to the rescue when needed.

 

 

It's also pretty cool to see you guys in action on exercise. When I worked for SFPA we used to do winching exercises with the Stornoway Sea King, and I've also done a couple of exercises with you guys since I have worked on tugs (apparently tugs make nice practice).

Stolen from Marine Traffic, but this is my old boat working with you (or one of your colleagues!)

 

Those are some very kind words mate thanks, but we do enjoy doing it 99% of the time. I think that is an RAF Valley cab because it has the 70 years of life saving thing on the side, it's a cool picture. That would be a good boat to train with, the back end looks quite short so we would be quite high to clear that mast, make things a bit more challenging but there are no nasty Winchman impaling devices on it, unlike this thing for example

 

 

What is it that you do exactly Lexx?

I'm Chief Officer of a tug at Hound Point on the river Forth.

Previous to that I did 9 years deep sea on containerships and tankers, and then a year with SFPA, a year as Chief Officer on a cross channel ferry, and then on tugs around the UK as Chief Officer or Skipper.

 

If you're ever up around the Forth in your yellow taxi then seek us out. I'll give you a wave.

With more advanced notice, I could probably arrange one of the boats for you to play with.

Well the only time I have been on boats has been via a helicopter and it always immediately makes me want to stare at the horizon and hold my breath! The problem with Edinburgh is that it is in the middle of Boulmer and Lossiemouth, you're not really well placed for being rescued. We never go that far from base so that we can go off in any direction quickly and aren't far from fuel if we need it. But if your'e ever in the Moray firth I'll come down with some SAR Force ice scrapers and other media gizzets for you lol

 

I once did a job on the isle of May flying from Boulmer, a 28 stone, 5 foot 5 inch German woman, "She vos looking at ze puu-fins. Ven she fell uhver, unt shattered her feee-mur!" She was carried to the aircraft in a sheep trailer behind a quad bike. Again an inappropriate photo opportunity.

Great pics mate and hat's off to you for your job. Nothing but respect for you dude :)

I can't sleep because my ears are ringing my back is sore and my mind is still going full tilt.

 

We have just finished a 6 hour job that has really blown the cobwebs away after my leave. We were tasked to a car crash but immediately retasked to the Cairngorms where a teenager had fallen down the back of a bowl. He had been stood on what turned out to be a outcrop of snow and ice that protruded beyond the solid rock of the mountain and gave way under his feet. It was just getting dark as we entered the mountains, fortunately while it was only snowing lightly and wasnt dark we got our eye in crawling under the cloud up the Larig Ghru (valley floor) because we did a lot more of it after. As we neared the position (reversing backwards at a walking pace up Ben Mac Duie in the dark squinting into 60mph snow with 20 feet under the tail) it was clear that it would be death or medals if we were to continue up into the freezing cloud base.

 

We spent a few hours ferrying mountain rescue up the hill using the same technique each time. Smash up the valley at 120mph groundspeed doing a 180 quick stop (helicopter handbrake turn) to point into the wind then reverse the last bit. We took 3 groups of 5 plus one SARDA border collie, we winched them all to a flatish area 1km from the casualty.

 

We had to take 2 refuels from remote drumstock, these are scattered in the hills in big iso containers with an intimidating array of pipes and valves for me and the winchman to operate inside, they are more complicated than a starbucks coffee machine!

 

On a run back for fuel we found the lads father and brother walking off the hill and picked them up. I can only imagine how they must have felt as they had no idea what had happened to the lad who fell and were battling down hill in a blizzard (mild blizzard... very windy snow). It was amazing to see their response when I said their son/brother had just been found and was alive.

 

We returned once more into the hills but (im not being dramatic) it was now harry darkers and proper snowing. We couldnt hang about but just as I was checking my winchman who was wearing an avalanche tranciever under his survival jacket I got something in my eyes. The right hand engine had just thrown a load of oil down the side of the aircraft and the pilots were clearly having a hard time hovering in the conditions. I winched out while pouring bottles of highland spring into my face (which is ****ing refreshing in 60mph snow!) And we recovered a MR paramedic and the casualty. We took him to Aberdeen hospital and he should survive.

 

No pictures im afraid but I find it cathartic to write these sometimes and as I have sea king tinutis and engine oil eyeball I cant get to sleep. It was a good job in some ways, a happy ending, challenging experiences but there were a number of nasty frights. We ended up in zero vis pulling G to dodge wind farms and all sorts. I am so grateful to the two pilots who took us safely through it all, only a handful of pilots in the world could have, and they are all RAF SARF pilots.

 

Thanks for reading, be bloody careful, the world is out to kill you lol

We had to take 2 refuels from remote drumstock, these are scattered in the hills in big iso containers with an intimidating array of pipes and valves for me and the winchman to operate inside, they are more complicated than a starbucks coffee machine!

 

We returned once more into the hills but (im not being dramatic) it was now harry darkers and proper snowing. We couldnt hang about but just as I was checking my winchman who was wearing an avalanche tranciever under his survival jacket I got something in my eyes. The right hand engine had just thrown a load of oil down the side of the aircraft and the pilots were clearly having a hard time hovering in the conditions.

 

 

Good job matey, you and the crew! That's a wake up call when returning from leave.

 

What you needed was a Chief Tech Heavy from Valley to help with your refuel and oil leak lol.

 

Glad you all made it safely.

Great work Tom you and the rest of the rescue team are all hero's and people in danger needing help would not be here today if it was not for people like you :bow: Take care Tom.

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-25618878

 

Thanks guys, turns out he was 25, shows what I know, however he was black and blue and I had it turns out 'hydraulic fluid' in my eye. Go to the med centre, directly to the med centre do not pass go lol.

And to think that the MOD are going to let this arm of the Forces, especially the RAF go and instead allow a business to operate SAR! Very sad indeed.

 

It was a Navy SAR crew that picked my team up after a demo/recovery in Iraq, I would like to see a Civilian company do that!

And to think that the MOD are going to let this arm of The the Forces, especially the RAF go and instead allow a business to operate SAR! Very sad indeed.

 

It was a Navy SAR crew that picked my team up after a demo/recovery in Iraq, I would like to see a Civilian company do that!

 

The biggest threat to our forces is our own Government with there cut backs and streamlining of a great Army,Air Force and Navy.

Great pics mate and hat's off to you for your job. Nothing but respect for you dude :)

 

Seconded....:bow:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-25666884

 

The helicopter was not in the wrong area at all, the casualty was in the wrong area (the inside of a freezing cloud). :lol:

Got a short video just for you lot :-)

 

Spent ages trying to keep it in a quiet corner of youtube, don't think I'm doing anything wrong putting it here but dont send it to the sun lol.

 

I have had very few interesting jobs to report recently but here is a bit of secondary role action of me playimg winchman. I always point the camera down and right but it's really hard to catch anything interesting.

 

Proper nearly ate a handrail at the end!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNk7rxTMvbo&noredirect=1

nice video buddy

Good work as usual Tom, but why are you trying to run mate, you're suspended and you're legs flapping like a good'n lol!

 

Only joking! When I fast roped from a Merlin to HMS Ocean it wasn't only my legs that were flapping!!!!

 

Good video mate, "shark watch" ;)