Shawn's post yesterday in Powderhound's "The day my life changed" thread jogged loose some thoughts....
I work with helicopters as an operations and logistics coordinator for a major oil company. I also have a fairly extensive military background in survival and rescue.
In Powderhound's original post he told of how the Life Flight helo was looking for an avalanche instead of a small group on a ridge. A common enough assumption if you're a pilot looking for snowmobiler in the mountains, but wrong in this case due to poor communications.
The purpose of this post is to provide you with some tips to communicate more clearly in the event you ever need a helicopter in an emergency.
1) First and most important: Calm down. Easy to say but tough to do in a crisis. Most miscommunication is due to the caller being excited, scared or out of breath. If you are alone you must focus, control your breathing and speak slowly and clearly. If you are in a group, such as was the case for Shawn & PH's group, the leader should make the call unless they are rendering first aid. They should assign the next best person to do it.
2) Gather the necessary information BEFORE making the call:
-Nature of emergency
-Number of people in group and number of people injured (start with the most severe injury first)
-Status of most injured people--conscious or not, breathing or not, plus whatever medical treatment is taking place...."We applied a tourniquet" or "We are doing CPR" etc.
-Location: GPS coordinates are great but include your position relative to known landmarks "We are in the open on the south face of XYZ mountain" or "In the timber approximately two miles west of the confluence of ABC creek and 123 river" If you know your elevation give that information too. Don't say "We're by the big rock by a stream" if you don't know where you are. In that case give the best information you can: "We started at the PQR parking lot and went down the 789 trail."
The point here is to give the best common references to help the pilot find your location.
3) Speak S L O W L Y. Slow enough to be clear. E NUN C ATE your words. Aircraft radios suck mostly and there's a good reason pilots talk in choppy slang...it's difficult to follow conversational English over the radio.
3a) DO NOT SPEAK IN FULL SENTANCES and try and train yourself to use radio terms like Affirmative and Negative instead of Yes and No. When relaying numbers say zero not Oh. If relaying distance or elevation don't say "twenty five" miles, say two five, or three five zero zero feet if your elevation is 3,500 ft.
3b)If a dispatcher gives you information repeat it back to them starting with "Copy." For example the dispatcher will typically repeat back to you what information you have given them in order to confirm it--they'll say "I have a group of 5 snowmobilers at Red Pass on the west side of Blue Mountain. One adult male with an open fracture. Lower right leg with possible spine injury. First aid started in the field. Tourniquet has been applied." To that you either say Affirmative or "Say again" if you missed anything, or if there's a mistake you say "Negative. Correction" and give the correction.
3c) When the dispatcher gives you new information like your helicopter is inbound to your location and should arrive in 30 minutes, you say "Copy, helo inbound to Red Pass west of Blue Mountain in three zero minutes."
Familiarize yourself with the phonetic alphabet: Echo Charlie Romeo Foxtrot etc. etc.
4) When the helicopter gets close enough that you hear it think about where it will land and try to position yourself and your injured folks on the edge of the likely landing spot, especially in timbered country. It's natural to get out in the open to be seen but once the helo is coming to you, get out of the way. Get to the upwind side of the landing area if you can do so safely.
5) If you ever have the opportunity to communicate directly with the pilot--some people carry air-to-ground radios, and nowadays a growing number of pilots have their cell phones plugged into their headsets--know how to vector a helicopter.
6) The following tips assume you are in direct communication with the chopper pilot
6a) If you can hear the helo but not see it, and you have a sense of where it's headed--towards you, away from you, left-to-right etc. Say so. "I hear you but do not have you visual."
6b) It's really helpful to know your general, cardinal directions. If you know the chopper is south of you, say "I hear you. You are south of my position".
6c) Eventually you'll see the bird, and usually you will get a visual well before the pilot/crew sees you. In these cases you say "I have you visual. Turn left" (or right or whatever). Once the helo is pointed at you, you say "Roll out. I am 3 miles at your twelve o'clock"...your approximate distance is helpful if you think you can estimate it.
6d) If you're down in the deep timber and the helo is headed your way, once it's overhead or close, you say "MARK" followed by your position relative to the helicopter's position when you call out the mark. For instance if the helo flies by you at 100 yards going right-to-left, you say "MARK. Nine o'clock. One Zero Zero yards." If the chopper is past you by the time you realize it's not getting closer then the same call might be "MARK. Eight o'clock (or seven). One Five Zero yards.
At this point the pilot will turn back and proceed slowly until you mark him overhead. Once that happens you say "MARK. Below you."
Also if you're riding in an area with cell coverage carry ear-buds or hands free set-up if your phone has a jack--most do anyway since their phone is their main MP3 player. Having the speaker right in your ear helps you tremendously.
This isn't everything but it's a start. Just remember, in a crisis, keep your wits about you, gather the needed information, organize your thoughts, focus on the task at hand, and take the time to get the correct information to the folks coming to help you.
Hope this helps.
I work with helicopters as an operations and logistics coordinator for a major oil company. I also have a fairly extensive military background in survival and rescue.
In Powderhound's original post he told of how the Life Flight helo was looking for an avalanche instead of a small group on a ridge. A common enough assumption if you're a pilot looking for snowmobiler in the mountains, but wrong in this case due to poor communications.
The purpose of this post is to provide you with some tips to communicate more clearly in the event you ever need a helicopter in an emergency.
1) First and most important: Calm down. Easy to say but tough to do in a crisis. Most miscommunication is due to the caller being excited, scared or out of breath. If you are alone you must focus, control your breathing and speak slowly and clearly. If you are in a group, such as was the case for Shawn & PH's group, the leader should make the call unless they are rendering first aid. They should assign the next best person to do it.
2) Gather the necessary information BEFORE making the call:
-Nature of emergency
-Number of people in group and number of people injured (start with the most severe injury first)
-Status of most injured people--conscious or not, breathing or not, plus whatever medical treatment is taking place...."We applied a tourniquet" or "We are doing CPR" etc.
-Location: GPS coordinates are great but include your position relative to known landmarks "We are in the open on the south face of XYZ mountain" or "In the timber approximately two miles west of the confluence of ABC creek and 123 river" If you know your elevation give that information too. Don't say "We're by the big rock by a stream" if you don't know where you are. In that case give the best information you can: "We started at the PQR parking lot and went down the 789 trail."
The point here is to give the best common references to help the pilot find your location.
3) Speak S L O W L Y. Slow enough to be clear. E NUN C ATE your words. Aircraft radios suck mostly and there's a good reason pilots talk in choppy slang...it's difficult to follow conversational English over the radio.
3a) DO NOT SPEAK IN FULL SENTANCES and try and train yourself to use radio terms like Affirmative and Negative instead of Yes and No. When relaying numbers say zero not Oh. If relaying distance or elevation don't say "twenty five" miles, say two five, or three five zero zero feet if your elevation is 3,500 ft.
3b)If a dispatcher gives you information repeat it back to them starting with "Copy." For example the dispatcher will typically repeat back to you what information you have given them in order to confirm it--they'll say "I have a group of 5 snowmobilers at Red Pass on the west side of Blue Mountain. One adult male with an open fracture. Lower right leg with possible spine injury. First aid started in the field. Tourniquet has been applied." To that you either say Affirmative or "Say again" if you missed anything, or if there's a mistake you say "Negative. Correction" and give the correction.
3c) When the dispatcher gives you new information like your helicopter is inbound to your location and should arrive in 30 minutes, you say "Copy, helo inbound to Red Pass west of Blue Mountain in three zero minutes."
Familiarize yourself with the phonetic alphabet: Echo Charlie Romeo Foxtrot etc. etc.
4) When the helicopter gets close enough that you hear it think about where it will land and try to position yourself and your injured folks on the edge of the likely landing spot, especially in timbered country. It's natural to get out in the open to be seen but once the helo is coming to you, get out of the way. Get to the upwind side of the landing area if you can do so safely.
5) If you ever have the opportunity to communicate directly with the pilot--some people carry air-to-ground radios, and nowadays a growing number of pilots have their cell phones plugged into their headsets--know how to vector a helicopter.
6) The following tips assume you are in direct communication with the chopper pilot
6a) If you can hear the helo but not see it, and you have a sense of where it's headed--towards you, away from you, left-to-right etc. Say so. "I hear you but do not have you visual."
6b) It's really helpful to know your general, cardinal directions. If you know the chopper is south of you, say "I hear you. You are south of my position".
6c) Eventually you'll see the bird, and usually you will get a visual well before the pilot/crew sees you. In these cases you say "I have you visual. Turn left" (or right or whatever). Once the helo is pointed at you, you say "Roll out. I am 3 miles at your twelve o'clock"...your approximate distance is helpful if you think you can estimate it.
6d) If you're down in the deep timber and the helo is headed your way, once it's overhead or close, you say "MARK" followed by your position relative to the helicopter's position when you call out the mark. For instance if the helo flies by you at 100 yards going right-to-left, you say "MARK. Nine o'clock. One Zero Zero yards." If the chopper is past you by the time you realize it's not getting closer then the same call might be "MARK. Eight o'clock (or seven). One Five Zero yards.
At this point the pilot will turn back and proceed slowly until you mark him overhead. Once that happens you say "MARK. Below you."
Also if you're riding in an area with cell coverage carry ear-buds or hands free set-up if your phone has a jack--most do anyway since their phone is their main MP3 player. Having the speaker right in your ear helps you tremendously.
This isn't everything but it's a start. Just remember, in a crisis, keep your wits about you, gather the needed information, organize your thoughts, focus on the task at hand, and take the time to get the correct information to the folks coming to help you.
Hope this helps.
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