RANKIN
2012 June 12
Three overdue
hunters out of Rankin
Inlet reported as
missing June 12
SOMETIMES IT SEEMS THAT NOTHING EVER HAPPENS...
It’s true, there just are not many calls for searching for lost or downed aircraft in Central Saskatchewan!
By David Balcaen Saskatoon Saskatchewan
We train and train, waiting for the
day when we get a call. Really it is all
about being prepared as none of us
know when the request will come.
Somebody is lost, overdue, or God
forbid, an aviation accident. 9:20 PM
June 12 Our zone received a call from
JRCC (Joint Rescue Coordination
Centre), I got the call at 9:30pm June
12 asking if I was available to act as
Spotter on a SAR mission. The infor-
mation we received, was that the Her-
cules was on the ground at YXE (Sas-
katoon Airport) and ready to go in
roughly 35 minutes. I said YES! and
then proceeded to rush around toss-
ing a few last items into my “run” bag
and headed out for the airport.
Arriving at the airport you could
hear the APU powering the Hercules
Local CASARA
called to assist
Four of Saskatoon’s
CASARA volunteers
assist in Arctic search
mission.
(a C130H) sitting on the ramp at YXE.
Four of us from the Saskatoon
CASARA (Civil Aviation Search and
Rescue Association) volunteer organi-
zation were on hand. Frank Richter,
Brett Koshman, myself (David Balcaen)
and our Zone Commander, Kyle Scott.
The Hercules, designation RESCUE
337, was ready to go and the fuel
truck was pulling away. The Pilot,
Capt Chris Jacobson, navigator Capt
Kristjan Raths, engineer Sgt Bill John-
son and co-pilot Capt Darius Mirza
were wrapping up the flight planning
and logistics with JRCC. We got the C-130 Hercules ‘H’ version
word, let’s go! Takeoff and departure V1 was 115 knots, we had
were uneventful and two of us got to roughly 11 hours of fuel on
ride “up front” on the flight deck. It board. Cruising speed of 290
knots/hour.
was quite a treat to watch the crew
work together on the flight to Rankin.
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MIDNIGHT SUN
Saskatoon to Rankin, Direct
2:30 time enroute to the
search area. The Naviga-
tor drafted out the search
pattern while managing the
navigation and communica-
tion of the flight. He was
also nursing a sick
weather radar system.
Busy. In the end the map
got handed to the pilot,
and then it was time to
leave the flight deck and
prepare for spotting.
The two and a half hours went by
very quickly. Personally I was occu-
pied with studying the nav instruments
and the plotting the navigator was do-
ing. It was very familiar to me as he
was doing exactly what we do on our
training and real missions. The crew
had been on a training mission all day
when they were re-tasked. Curiously,
their aircraft are no different than any-
one else’s. Comm one radio crapped
out, no transmit. The weather RADAR
required several “pull the breaker” re-
starts and never did perform reliably.
Also, it appeared that during start up,
the navigation power buss dropped
voltage, and the navigator groaned as
he would have to lay in the information
again. Like I said, no different than
any other aircraft, things quit and you
have to make the best of it. Agility,
creativity and flexibility are obviously
key to working with an older aircraft.
This crew worked exceptionally well
[2]
together . Half an hour from the target
we were outfitted with inflatable life
jackets and were given our rotation list
for the spotting.
We descended to the search
height of 1000 feet with only minor
turbulence and the crew worked away
at opening the back doors and locking
the Plexiglas view panels into place.
The seat for the observer looked like
something out of a Buck Rogers movie
with a bizarre riveted pyramidal base.
We then descended to what looked
like 500 feet above the sea level.
The spotters worked on 20
minute rotations. The SAR
TECHS went first, then the
Casara spotters.
The information we had was that three
hunters were overdue a day and one
half on a hunt. They had snowmobiled
to open water, then launched their
$150,000 of
Jet A takes you
to Rankin rtn.
 aluminum skiff. Ground crews had Herc circled around to allow a better
found the parked snow machines. The look. Two SAR TECHS leaned over

FOUND! expectation was that they had chosen

a safe place to wait out the storm that
was over the area. The search area
Frank as he pointed out what he had
seen. A makeshift hut was visible, the
boat matched the information we had.
was east of Rankin, and included the We did a couple of more passes and
island just visible to on one of them you
the west of the could see some fel-
information block lows walking outside
on the map in- of the hut. We had
serted here. woken them up, ob-
The first activ- viously, at 2:30am. It
ity was to fly a is looking like the
shore crawl search is to have a
around the island, happy ending. We
taking the ice into then began many
account. Sitting in passes over the site.
the back of the Loadmaster MCpl
Herc, all you could Brian Perry began
do is wonder what readying a radio to
was next! It handles like a giant Super drop to the hunters.
Cub. The tail of the craft simply hurtled The SAR technicians expertly
from side to side as we continually tossed a two way radio to the chaps
banked 45 degrees following the below. We could very quickly hear
shoreline. Then we lined up for the them saying “We are all okay” but
CLA’s first line. On the second path of they did not seem to hear the question
the CLA Frank spotted a boat. The over the radio of “what are your

Boat

Hut

Quite a ride at 500’ ASL

There is no fooling around
with 159,000 pounds of
metal flying at 140 knots,
pulling tight turns at 45
degree bank to maintain
the search pattern. We
were flying a Creeping
Line Ahead, with one mile Frank spotted
spacing. First we did a
shore crawl around a large
the boat, then
island in the search area, the hut
then onto the pattern.
Target spotted on second
CLA line.

[3]
SAFE AND SOUND
The three hunters sought refuge on an island
to wait out a storm. They were just fine.
Getting lined up and ready
to toss a two way radio to
the hunters we found.
SAR TECHS MCpl Fern Bianco
and Sgt Frank Thompson with
Frank Richter looking for
more details of the spotted
hunters.
Mission:
The Civil Air Search and Rescue Asso-
ciation, or CASARA, is a Canada-wide
volunteer aviation association dedi-
cated to the promotion of Aviation
Safety, and to the provision of air
search support services to the Na-
tional Search and Rescue Program.
names?” It was decided there
could be a radio failure so an-
other radio was tossed out the
back. and this time “Oh, I can
hear you now.” The names
were identified, “we have lots
of fuel, lots of food and we The SAR
are just waiting out the
techs started off
storm. Thanks a lot, see you
the search
later!”
IFR clearance via HF worked just fine. HF SSB is
radio from 900 miles away. great, offering more than 1000 mile
So that was it. Mission completed. range most days. While rarely used in
Just like our CASARA missions, the crew this day and age of cellular communica-
started on the NOCAL (a report of what tion and satellite links, it’s fast, inexpen-
was seen and done) and communicated sive and long distance range still make it
this to JRCC via telephone patch on HF a useful tool. All transoceanic flights still
SSB (Single Side Band radio, High Fre- use HF radio for air traffic control and
quency) and the pilot and copilot started position reports.
to figure out their departure procedure,
Continual Training
fuel on board, destination etc. Best I
I was impressed with the pilot’s con-
could determine the HF Auto-patch was
tinual training on the return flight. A true
handled out of Trenton by the military.
leader, he kept everyone engaged in re-
We were below the cloud base, so IFR
view, debrief and general discussion on
had to be filed. This proved a problem
how to refine and improve. All of this
as RANKIN RADIO did not provide this
was done in-between the regular chores
service, and suggested we call ARCTIC
and communication of IFR flight and
RADIO on 126.7. They did not answer.
communication with JRCC a couple of
Hmmm. Back to the HF SSB and a call
times. The entire crew, and even us
to Edmonton to close the previous plan
spotters, were asked and given a
and file a new one. Aside from the
chance to speak. The pilot was em-
Mickey Mouse acoustics of SSB it
phatic at not “pulling rank” in this team
CASARA
Saskatchewan
Contact Frank Schuurmans
http://www.casara.ca/
Saskatoon
Contact Kyle Scott
casarazone5@hotmail.com
[4]
WORKING WITH RISK
TO SERVE OTHERS

effort and requested not to be called “sir” at one point. This

was a vivid demonstration of how to manage a team through
empowerment, all towards never missing anything. Not one
moment was wasted. Safety in aviation is never a one man or
woman show, it takes all eyes at all times.
We were returned to YXE safe and sound at approximately
5:45 AM extremely tired but filled with excitement and ready
to tell anyone who would listen about the night we had just
experienced. The crew while working on a 13 hour day,
quickly off loaded us, made some phone calls and then were
on their way to Edmonton to finish off their shift. Just another
day in the life of Military SAR.
Local readiness showed
The four of us that showed up for the mission were at the
airport in plenty of time. The SAR crew noticed this and
thanked us. We each had our “run bag” with essentials
packed. None of us did anything that needed correction.
(Whew!) It was obvious that we were trained and current. At
the end of the mission the pilot said if he ever needed spotters
again he knew where to come!! The four of us were excited
and privileged to be able to serve fellow Canadians in this
simple manner. This is what CASARA does.

[5]
 SAR techniques universal
CASARA LOCAL MEMBERS Our regular training,
SAREX and search missions

SERVE SAR NATIONALLY

keep us current and ready
to go at a moment’s no-
tice. Sometimes training
can seem a bit slow and
even repetitious but it
is all towards being pre-
pared to work quickly and
safely without question.

Local CASARA regular training and SAREX missions

keep us all in a state of preparedness.
David Balcaen
Download and view a smartphone A bit about the author.
video of the radio drop at: David Balcaen has been a mem-
ber of CASARA for four years.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3366979 He has worked his way to being
4/Rankin-radio-drop-v2.m4v a Navigator and is currently
Training Officer for our local
CASARA group. He is a private
It is 42 MB so be patient when pilot and aficionado of any-
downloading. If you look carefully, you thing AVIATION. All the
will see the boat, hunters and hut. RANKIN images were taken with
Rankin-CASARA-V4-public-HiRes-2012-06-14 copy.pages his iPhone 4. balcaen@me.com

CASARA TRAINING MISSIONS SAFETY OUTREACH

Continual To Serve First Priority Inform

Regular train- Our actions It is every- Plan and exe-
ing exercises are humanitar- one’s respon- cute local
keep us all in ian when we sibility to be presentations
a state of search for safe. All are to promote the
readiness missing air- equal in the Mission of
craft or per- responsibil- CASARA.
sons. ity.

[6]