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I KNOW, TOO LONG...
Feb. 16th, 2005 10:46 amOK, SO I'VE BEEN BUSY! SUE ME!
Wait, this is California, it JUST might happen... No offense to the good lawyers that aren't money grubbin whores.
FUN simulation at the SAREX this weekend. As Logistics Section Chief the resources, food, housing, and medical units were my job. Housing, well we couldn't really make headway there so it was everyone for themselves. Food, I took damn near 35 lunch orders. I had an assistant thank god... Medical unit, usually is a dull assignment, but this time it was different.
LtCol. Ray Peterson decided to throw me a curve ball, at 9am. Thank god I had some coffee first. WELL, wait, lets just talk about the last couple weeks... about 2 weeks ago, ELT on Petaluma, another Mangon Aircraft false alarm. Jeff Iverson and I nailed that one down, and then it was off to work before 9am.
On Sunday the 5th I was in Maxwell looking for an ELT with Lt. Roady. The same night we lost a friend in a plane crash south of Donner Summit. Flew his little SR-22 Cirrus into known icing conditions. That means ice builds up on the wings as you fly, causing your wings to lose lift, and when they lose lift, you fall like a stone into the ground. Bad choice to fly that day, and he paid for it with his life. We were on stand by for that mission.
Back to my mission with Charles- In Maxwell, the damn signal reflected right into the heart of a swamp. We really thought we might have a downed plane in the marshland. After local sheriffs deputies took us around, we discovered the true source, a plane parked in a private hangar at a small dirt, private airstrip 1 mile away. There was NO way to find this signal without their help. I got ripped for not having the DF sticks, but they don't work so it's pointless to bring them. ANYWAY, we shut it down at 3am, so far I have a headache, a ticket for an illegal U-Turn, and a long drive home to Rohnert Park. That's when it happened.
*GRIND GRIND GRIND, VIBRATIONS....* POPPED TIRE AT 70mph on I-5 just south of Maxwell. After Charles and I take 15 minutes to replace my flat, it's 55 MPH all the way back to RP. I got home at 7am. I went to bed. FUCK WORK, I went to bed. THEN, up at 10:30 to get a new book for class since all my shit was stolen and my truck window smashed 2 weeks ago, and then off to Petaluma to replace my blown tire. Good news, it was covered by my warranty and it cost only $15. Sweet. Now I'm out fuel because the machine wouldn't print a receipt, $15 for the tire, and the $170 for a U-Turn that wasn't a U-Turn. The CHiP made an illegal U-Turn a minute before, and he dares to ticket me for one? OH HELL NO, I'm having a word with his Watch Commander later today about that. He's in deep shit with me and his ass, is mine. You don't EVER give me a ticket when YOU just did what you're writing me up for. PERIOD.
4 days later a plane crashes in Petaluma, harsh. Kills the pilot, AND his dog. The next day I'm called to fly a search mission out of Petaluma, and what happens? They tow the bloody wreckage across my runway JUST as we're getting ready to take off. Is that like a black cat walking in front of you or what? It was a nice reminder though... What we do is more dangerous then our regular everyday life. We're mortal, don't forget it or take it for granted.
We track the signal to Sonoma, narrow it down to 1 block at E 8th and E. Napa, get back to Gnoss to lead a UDF team into Sonoma. It's not an emergency, no wreckage, but it needs to be shut down. So we get to Sonoma... Long story short, 4 cars, 4 radios, NOTHING detected. In the hour it took to fly home, land, get my truck in Petaluma, get to Sonoma, someone shut off the ELT transmitter. Bastards! 4 hours lost to driving around ALL of Sonoma, but it was fun to see everyone and have dinner after with Doug. Chill time is cool.
SO, that brings us to Friday, when we're scheduled to go to Auburn for the Search and Rescue Exercise (SAREX). I get a page at 3pm, Woodland area ELT. I call the IC, tell him we're going to be in the area and we'll take it. Long story short, Rob takes damn near an hour to get the plane ready, landed here 30 minutes late, and then we get taken OFF the mission because of the delay. SO, we file our flight plan, and take off at 5:30pm. At that time we're put BACK on the mission because LtCol. Peterson, who's already in the area flying to Auburn for the SAREX, he can't nail it down close enough. SO we fly into the area, nail it down northeast of Watts-Woodland airport, and continue to Auburn. Ray buys us dinner, that was nice of him! We get conformation later that we put the UDF team within 1 mile of the signal. I get my first Air find, and I'm happy going into Saturday.
Saturday- for SAREX's and real life, EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED. Rumor has it Ray was the person that decided to test the Medical Unit at the SAREX and have a simulated, bloody, nicely done wound make-up complete with blood caplets in the mouth to simulate a bloody airway, CAP cadet with Prop Strike injuries come in and collapse during the SAREX at the tail end of the 8:30AM full pilot and staff briefing. Thanks to Rob Grehan for gloving up and assisting, Mike from Sqd. 157, and 2Lt. Olsen (I think) also from 157 for assisting during the lion's share of the simulated medical emergency. We all received major compliments for having our patient stabilized as mush as we could in less then 4 minutes. Prop strike is when you walk into or are hit by a spinning airplane propeller, in case you didn't figure that out! If you survive, you were probably caught right as the engine starts, LOW R.P.M level. Otherwise an engine will take your face CLEAN off you. That's right, rip your entire face off, crush your skull, and knock your brains all over the ground in chunks.
The 4 minutes to complete a Trauma assessment included C-Spine management/manual stabilization, ABC's [(A)irway management, (B)reathing/tidal volume, (C)irculation/bleeding control], vital signs, simulated Strip/Flip (cut away outer clothes) to look for additional injuries, sensory/motor function testing, LOC evaluation, and background medical interview with patient and asking for witnesses (how did this happen, who, what, when, where, time, past medical history, allergies, height, weight, etc). And then after 15 minutes and continued re-eval of the unstable patient, CPR simulation as his pressure bottomed out on us and went into full arrest. There was no ambulance to assist us. As an EMT, I have Basic Life Support (BLS) skills. Trauma needs Advanced Life Support (ALS injuries and moderate or worse BLS injuries = 911!!!) Our rating according to the RN that was evaluating us, PERFECT RESPONSE. GO US!
SUNDAY- On the way home Saturday we heard ANOTHER ELT going off... We couldn't track it because we were nearing the end of our legal duty day. In otherwords, we had to land in less then one hour or break CAP regs and not be legal to fly, risk being reprimanded for breaking the rules that are rather important.
SO, we report the ELT and offer our services for the following morning if needed. It was needed lol. We took off at 8am, headed out to the SAC valley area, tracked the signal to University Airport in Davis where we found the signal on a C-210 parked in visitor parking. Pat popped the window open, hit the door lock, and we shut down the ELT. We ran into some Coast Guard people in the gas pump area. We saw men in flight suits, they saw ours, we both were like, "Who the hell are they?" So I went to talk to them. They were going on patrol to count whales. YES, WHALE WATCHING. Oh, what a duty to pull. They needed a count of whales going down the coast for the marine life researchers. What a cush assignment!
AND THAT, MY FRIENDS, concludes the general update. Like the pics? lol
I'm tired, need rest, do I look tired to you??
Wait, this is California, it JUST might happen... No offense to the good lawyers that aren't money grubbin whores.
FUN simulation at the SAREX this weekend. As Logistics Section Chief the resources, food, housing, and medical units were my job. Housing, well we couldn't really make headway there so it was everyone for themselves. Food, I took damn near 35 lunch orders. I had an assistant thank god... Medical unit, usually is a dull assignment, but this time it was different.
LtCol. Ray Peterson decided to throw me a curve ball, at 9am. Thank god I had some coffee first. WELL, wait, lets just talk about the last couple weeks... about 2 weeks ago, ELT on Petaluma, another Mangon Aircraft false alarm. Jeff Iverson and I nailed that one down, and then it was off to work before 9am.
On Sunday the 5th I was in Maxwell looking for an ELT with Lt. Roady. The same night we lost a friend in a plane crash south of Donner Summit. Flew his little SR-22 Cirrus into known icing conditions. That means ice builds up on the wings as you fly, causing your wings to lose lift, and when they lose lift, you fall like a stone into the ground. Bad choice to fly that day, and he paid for it with his life. We were on stand by for that mission.
Back to my mission with Charles- In Maxwell, the damn signal reflected right into the heart of a swamp. We really thought we might have a downed plane in the marshland. After local sheriffs deputies took us around, we discovered the true source, a plane parked in a private hangar at a small dirt, private airstrip 1 mile away. There was NO way to find this signal without their help. I got ripped for not having the DF sticks, but they don't work so it's pointless to bring them. ANYWAY, we shut it down at 3am, so far I have a headache, a ticket for an illegal U-Turn, and a long drive home to Rohnert Park. That's when it happened.
*GRIND GRIND GRIND, VIBRATIONS....* POPPED TIRE AT 70mph on I-5 just south of Maxwell. After Charles and I take 15 minutes to replace my flat, it's 55 MPH all the way back to RP. I got home at 7am. I went to bed. FUCK WORK, I went to bed. THEN, up at 10:30 to get a new book for class since all my shit was stolen and my truck window smashed 2 weeks ago, and then off to Petaluma to replace my blown tire. Good news, it was covered by my warranty and it cost only $15. Sweet. Now I'm out fuel because the machine wouldn't print a receipt, $15 for the tire, and the $170 for a U-Turn that wasn't a U-Turn. The CHiP made an illegal U-Turn a minute before, and he dares to ticket me for one? OH HELL NO, I'm having a word with his Watch Commander later today about that. He's in deep shit with me and his ass, is mine. You don't EVER give me a ticket when YOU just did what you're writing me up for. PERIOD.
4 days later a plane crashes in Petaluma, harsh. Kills the pilot, AND his dog. The next day I'm called to fly a search mission out of Petaluma, and what happens? They tow the bloody wreckage across my runway JUST as we're getting ready to take off. Is that like a black cat walking in front of you or what? It was a nice reminder though... What we do is more dangerous then our regular everyday life. We're mortal, don't forget it or take it for granted.
We track the signal to Sonoma, narrow it down to 1 block at E 8th and E. Napa, get back to Gnoss to lead a UDF team into Sonoma. It's not an emergency, no wreckage, but it needs to be shut down. So we get to Sonoma... Long story short, 4 cars, 4 radios, NOTHING detected. In the hour it took to fly home, land, get my truck in Petaluma, get to Sonoma, someone shut off the ELT transmitter. Bastards! 4 hours lost to driving around ALL of Sonoma, but it was fun to see everyone and have dinner after with Doug. Chill time is cool.
SO, that brings us to Friday, when we're scheduled to go to Auburn for the Search and Rescue Exercise (SAREX). I get a page at 3pm, Woodland area ELT. I call the IC, tell him we're going to be in the area and we'll take it. Long story short, Rob takes damn near an hour to get the plane ready, landed here 30 minutes late, and then we get taken OFF the mission because of the delay. SO, we file our flight plan, and take off at 5:30pm. At that time we're put BACK on the mission because LtCol. Peterson, who's already in the area flying to Auburn for the SAREX, he can't nail it down close enough. SO we fly into the area, nail it down northeast of Watts-Woodland airport, and continue to Auburn. Ray buys us dinner, that was nice of him! We get conformation later that we put the UDF team within 1 mile of the signal. I get my first Air find, and I'm happy going into Saturday.
Saturday- for SAREX's and real life, EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED. Rumor has it Ray was the person that decided to test the Medical Unit at the SAREX and have a simulated, bloody, nicely done wound make-up complete with blood caplets in the mouth to simulate a bloody airway, CAP cadet with Prop Strike injuries come in and collapse during the SAREX at the tail end of the 8:30AM full pilot and staff briefing. Thanks to Rob Grehan for gloving up and assisting, Mike from Sqd. 157, and 2Lt. Olsen (I think) also from 157 for assisting during the lion's share of the simulated medical emergency. We all received major compliments for having our patient stabilized as mush as we could in less then 4 minutes. Prop strike is when you walk into or are hit by a spinning airplane propeller, in case you didn't figure that out! If you survive, you were probably caught right as the engine starts, LOW R.P.M level. Otherwise an engine will take your face CLEAN off you. That's right, rip your entire face off, crush your skull, and knock your brains all over the ground in chunks.
The 4 minutes to complete a Trauma assessment included C-Spine management/manual stabilization, ABC's [(A)irway management, (B)reathing/tidal volume, (C)irculation/bleeding control], vital signs, simulated Strip/Flip (cut away outer clothes) to look for additional injuries, sensory/motor function testing, LOC evaluation, and background medical interview with patient and asking for witnesses (how did this happen, who, what, when, where, time, past medical history, allergies, height, weight, etc). And then after 15 minutes and continued re-eval of the unstable patient, CPR simulation as his pressure bottomed out on us and went into full arrest. There was no ambulance to assist us. As an EMT, I have Basic Life Support (BLS) skills. Trauma needs Advanced Life Support (ALS injuries and moderate or worse BLS injuries = 911!!!) Our rating according to the RN that was evaluating us, PERFECT RESPONSE. GO US!
SUNDAY- On the way home Saturday we heard ANOTHER ELT going off... We couldn't track it because we were nearing the end of our legal duty day. In otherwords, we had to land in less then one hour or break CAP regs and not be legal to fly, risk being reprimanded for breaking the rules that are rather important.
SO, we report the ELT and offer our services for the following morning if needed. It was needed lol. We took off at 8am, headed out to the SAC valley area, tracked the signal to University Airport in Davis where we found the signal on a C-210 parked in visitor parking. Pat popped the window open, hit the door lock, and we shut down the ELT. We ran into some Coast Guard people in the gas pump area. We saw men in flight suits, they saw ours, we both were like, "Who the hell are they?" So I went to talk to them. They were going on patrol to count whales. YES, WHALE WATCHING. Oh, what a duty to pull. They needed a count of whales going down the coast for the marine life researchers. What a cush assignment!
AND THAT, MY FRIENDS, concludes the general update. Like the pics? lol
I'm tired, need rest, do I look tired to you??
