CASARA Training Flight

Jacquie and I decided to join CASARA (Civil Aviation Search and Rescue Association).  Last Thursday night (July 26, 2012) we attended the 3 hour in class portion of the training and then yesterday (July 28th) we had our training flight.

The organization trains volunteers to assist with spotting in search and resue situations.  We learned search and spotting techniques and what to look for in certain situations. 
The day was wonderful for a flight;  clear and sunny.  Altogether we were away from Iqaluit for about 5 hours.  We took off and flew south east towards a place called York Sound. 

At the beginning of the flight we saw the ship that has our vehicle on it that we are bringing up on the sea lift.  The ship was 10 days late getting into Iqaluit and as we travelled over Frobisher Bay, we began to understand the issues that the ships were having with the ice and iceburgs.  The ice is packed in certain areas and there are a lot of iceburgs.

During the briefing at the beginning of the flight we were told to look for a white plane with blue trim.  Apparently it's a plane that had gone down many years ago and has been one of the training targets for CASARA for a number of years.  We were also told that the flight would be between 2-4 hours in duration.  Further were were told to yell out any sighting of wildlife like seals, whales, walrus and bears. 

Our flight path was over Frobisher Bay along the shore line.  We flew at 500 to 1000 feet above the bay.  Jacquie and I kept our eye's peeled on the water and shore line and both began to realize how difficult and tiring this job can be.  We went for about an hour without seeing anything but ice, iceburgs and the odd boat. 

Then all of a sudden, Jacquie yelled out " polar bear at 3:00 oclock"  She had spotted a mother polar bear and two baby polar bears swimming.  The plane took a quick full turn and sure enough, there they were 3 beautiful looking polar bears.  It was tremendously exciting seeing polar bears in the wild.  One of the things that I had hoped for when moving to Iqaluit. The other great thing is that there was no danger in seeing them as we were 500 feet above them.  Also I was tremendously proud of Jacquie.  Of the 14 traninee's on board, 7 on each side of the plane, it was Jacquie who spotted the bears.  We flew by them a few times to give everyone a good look and then off we went to look for the fallen plane.

One of the very positive things about seeing the polar bears aside from the obvious amazing experience is it gave Jacquie and I a perspective of the size of things.  Even at 500 feet, the mother bear looked to be 3 inches long with the babies less than half that.  I'm not sure what I was expecting, since I have flown many times and of course when you take off and watch cars, streets, houses, and the like, they get pretty small pretty fast.  Anyway, I was surprised how small the bears were and it gave me an appreciation of how difficult it will be to see a lost person from the air.

As we moved forward, I saw a number of seals in a cluster (interestingly a group of seals can be referred to as a pod, herd, rookery or harem).  We also saw a few single seals.  Seeing these animals, gave us experience calling out our sightings.  The spotters main responsibility is to search for the target and once spotted to take control of the plane by calling out the direction and distance of the sighting, while never taking their eye off what they have spotted and communicate to the pilot to guide him or her to whatever has been sighted. 

By this time over 2 hours had passed and it was time for a break.  So interestingly enough the pilot looked for a place to set down.  At York Sound which looks like a left over gravel field from a recent glacier, the pilot landed.  Now let me make myself clear - there is no landing strip, no wheel tracks, the only evidence that any plane has ever landed there before was some left over barrels.  However there were many rocks, some uneven ground, a river and a number of drop offs.  The pilot flew over the sight at a hight of 10 - 20 feet 4 or 5 times to look for the best landing area.  Then down we went.  It was bumpy, however the twin otter lands and stops in a very short distance.  We had one gutsy and skilled pilot!

The take off was even a little more bumpy, however after a 1/2 hour break off we went, back looking for the white plane with blue trim.  Actually we never did find the downed plane, which again was a great training lesson for us.  Sometimes, you just don't find what your looking for, no matter how hard you try.  On the way home, Jacquie (by this time nicknamed "eagle eye") saw 3 more polar bears, which may have been the same ones again, a single polar bear, which I had the pleasure of spotting too, a pod of wales and a few more seals. 

All in all the rugged beauty was spectacular, seeing all of the animals amazing and other than the fact that we didn't find the plane, the day was a wonderful success.  Jacquie and I are happy we had such an awesome opportunity.  We are now certified CASARA volunteers and with some trepidation look forward to our first real search and rescue call.