The phone has been ringing off the hook at ASTREA base since Sunday morning, with news reporters from around the county trying to get their hands, or their cameras, on any breathing deputy involved in the dramatic rescue of two rock climbers on Saturday afternoon.  In reality there were more than just 2 people rescued from a sudden raging wildfire that broke out near the south base of El Cajon Mountain at around 1:30 pm. 

Just to remind readers, the San Diego Sheriff's Department, in addition to operating 5 law enforcement patrol helicopters, operate 2 medium lift Fire/Rescue helicopters in conjunction with Cal-Fire, (formerly California Department of Forestry.)  What this means is the two Bell 205++ (Huey) helicopters are owned by the County of San Diego, piloted by sworn deputy sheriff pilots, with a Cal-Fire Captain occupying the left front seat, and a full Cal-Fire Heli-attack crew in the back, (on one of the ships).  It is a joint operation that has proven to be not only harmonious, but a very effective fire fighting asset. 

To set the stage;  El Cajon Mountain, (also known to many locals as El Capitan Mountain) lies just about 5 miles east of Lakeside California.  It is bordered on one side by El Capitan Reservoir, the obvious source for the confusion of whether it is El Cajon Mountain or simply "El Cap."  The mountain rises to a height of roughly 3,675' with a distinct rock face on the south side which is very popular in the rock climbing community.  In fact "El Cap" is one of the most recognizable mountains all of San Diego County often serving as a navigational landmark for those return flights to ASTREA Base from east county, particularly when flying at night on NVGs.  

When the call of a "vegetation" fire came over the fire radios, Deputies Dave Weldon and Gene Palos responded with their Cal-Fire counterparts in Copters 10 & 12.  At about the same time, the Sheriff's patrol helicopter crew, Deputies Scott Bligh and Gary Kneeshaw were advised of two rock climbers who were on the side of El Cajon Mountain.  The two climbers, a male and a female, had called 911 on their cell phone and advised that they were on the rock face above the fire, and were OK for now, but they wanted authorities to know they were there.  Deputies Weldon and Palos, en-route in their fire helicopters also received this information.  

Due to the amount of fire aircraft that would soon be flooding into the area, and the fact that the 2 rock climbers indicated they were OK for now, the ASTREA patrol helicopter crew elected to stay out of the area and monitor the radio traffic.  

Fire Pilots Palos and Weldon were some of the first fire fighting aircraft to arrive in the area.  As they sized up the fire they received another report of 8 people on a ranch on top of El Cajon Mountain who were afraid that they were going to soon be trapped by the fire.  Deputy Weldon pointed his Bell 205 helicopter toward the ranch which sets on a grassy and beautiful plateau on the south east side of El Cajon Mountain.  As Weldon touched down on the ranch he noticed that the group consisted largley of younger children, and older adults.  He got the feeling that there were a few grandparents and grandkids in the group.  Weldon loaded the first 4 people on and headed for El Monte Campground at the south base of the mountain.  

At some point during the short flight Deputy Weldon asked the communications center to check on the 2 rock climbers, and see if they were OK.  Monte Vista Fire dispatch came up on the air and advised that they had just received a call from the two climbers, who advised that they were now in fear of being overrun by the fire.  Weldon dropped off the first 4 people at the camp ground and started the flight back for the next 4 people waiting at the ranch.  The climbers originally advised that they were 3/4 of the way up the mountain, in the rocks.  On the return flight, Weldon and his Cal-Fire partner Tim Stevenson looked for the two climbers, but did not see them on the vast south face of the mountain.  Weldon began prodding the Comm. Center to see if a lat & long was recorded on any of the 911 calls that the climbers had made.  Many cell phones today are equipped with the technology to provide latitude and longitude coordinates to authorities or to the cell phone company.  Deputy Weldon remained persistent at requesting coordinates from the cell phone.  Eventually, one of the dispatch centers, possibly Monte Vista advised that they did in fact have some possible coordinates for the phone. 

In the mean time Weldon picked up the second group of four people from the ranch and flew them down to El Monte Park.  They now plugged the lat and long coordinates into the Aero Computers Moving Map on board the helicopter, and instantly had a promising location for the climbers 2 1/2 miles north east of El Monte Park.  Weldon and Stephenson knew that the distance and heading to the lat & long coordinates would put them directly on the south face of the mountain, and strong indication that the coordinates were valid!    

While Weldon and his partner were working to pinpoint the position of the two trapped climbers, the crew of ASTREA 1, Pilot Scott Bligh and TFO Gary Kneeshaw, elected to launch and do what they could to assist.  Both Bligh and Kneeshaw knew that their smaller MD530F helicopter could perform "toe in" or "one skid" rescues in areas where the larger fire/rescue helicopter could not get into.  The added benefit is that they could also do this much quicker than performing a full on hoist rescue using the larger aircraft.

Weldon and Stephenson flew directly to the lat and long coordinated pinpointed on their Aero Computers moving map and almost immediately located the to trapped climbers on a rock ledge, with the fire moving toward them.  Over the fire aircraft radios Weldon called a halt to fire fighting efforts, declared an emergency on the fire frequencies, and cleared the immediate area of all other aircraft.  He then positioned his helicopter into a high hover directly over the two climbers.  Weldon now communicated his position and the position of the hikers to the crew of ASTREA 1. 

Deputy Bligh wasted no time in performing a toe in landing near the two climbers, allowing Kneeshaw to exit the helicopter and place the female climber in the right front seat that he just vacated.  While the smaller MD500s are perfect for this type of work, the only drawback is that the people being rescued often have to be flown out one at a time.  This is due to both weight and balance issues, and most often the fact that the front seat is the only seat accessible to load a passenger when the helicopter is performing a toe in landing, (as the back of the skids are generally hanging off the side of the mountain or rock face.)

This is an untouched photo of Bligh performing the first toe in to pick up the female climber. Look closly for the helicopter near the black dot.Deputy Bligh backed away from the rock face and began following the mountainous terrain through the smoke toward, El Monte Park, to drop off his passenger.  Back in the air he began to make his way through the smoky haze to the spot where Deputy Kneeshaw and the male hiker waited to be picked up.  It is around this point in time when the rescue operation made a dramatic turn from being an above average-difficult rescue, to being a true life threatening- almost near death experience for the three remaining participants, Bligh, Kneeshaw, and the male rock climber.

While Bligh had been dropping of the female climber, the fire below Kneeshaw and the remaining climber began to roll up the mountain face very rapidly, whipped by westerly winds.  Kneeshaw, fearing that he was about to be overrun by the flames, began transmitting the emergency over the regional air frequency.  Deputy Kneeshaw and the rock climber, now partners in survival began to make their way laterally across the face of the mountain to try to out manuveur the fire, but could only move a short distance before their path became blocked by the rugged terrain.  Deputy Bligh navigated his way toward Kneeshaw's location as rapidly as his helicopter's turbine engine and the reduced visibility would allow, while Deputy Weldon and Cal-Fire Capt. Stephenson attempted to throw Kneeshaw a lifeline in the form of where best to take shelter if being overrun by the fire.  Weldon also began calling for other Fire Fighting helicopters to make water drops on the fire immediately below Kneeshaw's position.  Deputy Gene Palos was moving into position to make the first water drop when Bligh announced over the air that he had Kneeshaw and the male climber in sight.  Deputy Palos aborted his water drop and moved out of the area to allow Bligh to move in for another toe in landing. 

By this time Deputy Weldon has lost sight of Kneeshaw on the rock ledge as the smoke from the advancing fire had rolled over the top of their location. 

Deputy Kneeshaw looked up to finally see a yellow light coming toward him through the smoky haze.  It was the landing light on the front of his patrol helicopter coming back to get him. 

Deputy Bligh fought through the smoke, tearing-burning eyes, and embers hitting his face to effect the toe in landing.   But the wildfire environment had not played it's final card.  As Bligh made his approach to the rock ledge he was hit with a powerful gust of wind most likely created by the fire itself.  The wind turned the helicopter almost a full 180 degrees demanding the addition of power and the application of tons of left pedal (which also demands even more power) in order to control the aircraft.  The sudden application of that much power caused a condition known as "rotor droop" where the rotor rpm droops.  This droop in rpm sets off warning bells and whistles in the cockpit know as the "engine out" or "low rotor rpm" warning light and audible tone.  In a nutshell it sends a message to the pilot that you may have just lost your engine and are about to crash.  Under normal flight conditions this warning light and tone is enough to make one's heart skip a beat.   But under the circumstances Deputy Bligh was faced with it would take all of his mental focus and determination to maintian his situational awareness, control the helicopter, and make the determination that he still had a working engine and an airworthy helicopter. 

Deputy Bligh placed the front of the helicopter's skids against the face of the mountain while Deputy Kneeshaw shoved the rock climber into the empty TFO seat.  Kneeshaw took up a standing position on the right skid abeam the opened cockpit door, securing himself by holding onto the external and internal hand holds.  Not wanting to be left behind again he shouted at Bligh to "Go!"  The now rescued rock climber further secured Kneeshaw to the helicopter by grasping on to the front of his gunbelt.  Once again Bligh backed the 530F away from the rock face and used the mountain terrain to guide his way through the smoke and to the safety of El Monte Park and solid ground. 

In aircraft accident investigations it is common to identify numerous "links"  in the chain of events that led up to the accident.  But the same is also true when a challenging and very difficult rescue such as this is performed without injury and without damage to equipment.  There were many things in the chain of events that led to a positive outcome and a successful rescue in this situation.  It had the potential to be much worse for everyone involved. 

It is sometimes easy to think that being a member of a law enforcement or fire/rescue helicopter crew is all fun and games.  I think Deputies Bligh and Kneeshaw would beg to differ.  

Outstanding job by everyone involved!    

Interred on this day at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetary, Point Loma (San Diego) California.

In a previous post I promised an article on the "Final Flight of Rocky Laws."  I can assure you I have not forgotten.  Everything in it's own time.  Rest in Peace Rocky.

The report only shows our Bell 205 Fire/Rescue helicopters, but plenty of rescues are still conduced in our unit with the smaller MD500 Ships as well.  Good job Tony!

http://www.10news.com/video/24528561/

Net full of marijuana being hauled away by helicopter. Tony Webber photo.

With his biker beard and the occasional mention of marijuana in a song or two, he can certainly give the impression of a hell raising outlaw musician.  But then anyone who can write and perform a song such as "In Color", a tribute to Grandfathers, War Vets, and even Marriage, can't be all bad.  In fact on GAC's Jamey Johnson bio page the performer is described as having the "looks of a hellraiser but the heart of a poet."  It is true that Jamey Johnson's first performances were in small country churches along side his father.  And while he may have had a deep woods upbringing, he is a formally trained musician. 

If you are still not sure who Jamey Johnson is, then perhaps you might recognize the CMA and ACM 2007 Song of The Year that he co-wrote, "Give it Away" recorded by George Straight.  But that is not the first or the last song Jamey has written or co-written for country musicians.  You can add Trace Adkins' "Ladies Love Country Boys" to that list. 

So San Diego's Viejas Casino Dreamcatcher Lounge seemed like the perfect close up venue to see Jamey Johnson perfom "In Color".  Sure there were plenty of biker beards on display in the audience, but in all honesty I had been in worse crowds at the grocery store.  Even when the first lyric about smoking pot in the church parking lot flows from the stage, the context is about how "the high cost of living is nothing like the cost of living high."  Not particularly glorifying the use of marijuana.  Oh, and seeing Jamey Johnson perfom In Color-live, lived up to all of it's expectations. 

Finally, when Jamey began singing a song about growing weed out behind the house, cheers of approval rose from the audience.  What did I do?  I just smiled, because the following morning I would be earning time and a half while "slinging dope" in our local mountains: Doing my part to help those suffering from the Cost of Living High! 

Deputy D. Weldon flying by vertical reference while performing marijuana long line operations. Photo by T. Webber. 

Here is a thought though.  I am a huge fan of cargo pants.  But trying to find good looking cargo pants at a reasonable price is almost a full time job.  Perhaps I sould start looking for tactical pants instead of cargo pants? 

Here is a link to the interview at the Tactical Pants Blog. 

July 6th 2010 will be remembered as the day that our dear friend and fellow ASTREA pilot Rocky Laws, departed this world for a place in the heavens above.  It is a day we will not soon forget.  Losing Rocky was like losing a favorite uncle.  As a unit we are still in disbelief that his voice, his wisdom and his person will no longer grace the hallways of the Emergency Services Building at Gillespie Field.   

On the very next day, July 7th 2010, the host of Police Helicopter Pilot.com was notified by the Sheriff of San Diego County that he was being promoted to the rank of Sergeant.  In short this means that I will be leaving the air unit for a period of time to take a position as a rookie sergeant in either the courts or patrol. 

While there are no guarantees in life, I certainly hope & plan on returning to the air unit when the next sergeant position comes open, sometime in the not too distant future.  But no worries, in the mean time my love for aviation, helicopters, and law enforcement flying shall not be impeded I assure you! 

Up to now this site has been tightly focused on Law Enforcement Aviation, along with encouraging and teaching others about the profession of policing from the air.  But like many things in life we must re-evaluate from time to time to ensure we are moving forward, and not stuck in the doldrums.   To shake it up even more, it's summertime and the back yard projects don't care that I write a blog about flying law enforcement helicopters.  They want me!   

If you are a loyal reader, (I think I have 2) you may have detected that the information flow here is at times sporadic.  Now perhaps that has something to do with the fact that I do most of my writing on cold, rainy,winter days, and the rainy season in Southern California has given way to the dry but moderately cool months of May Gray and June Gloom.  Perfect weather for working outside.  No more excuses to sit in the house and write for 2-3 hours at a time. 

Just in case that was not enough to ponder, the whole point of writing a blog or building a website is for people to read it.  If no one reads your blog then you might as well be the tree that falls in the forest but no one hears.  On the internet, every writer and blogger lives by the number of "unique visitors" who happen upon their site every day, and every month.  Bloggers by their very nature must conduct experiments in "building traffic."  If something doesn't increase your traffic, you stop doing it and try something different. 

The "Police Helicopter News Page" and the "Police/Sheriff Helicopter Blotter" are what I would call experiments.  After many months of writing the News Page, and testing various formats of the Blotter, overall traffic at Police Helicopter Pilot.com is noticeably down.  Now there is a possible technical explanation for this, true.  It is highly likely that Google and other search engines treat updates to a static page differently than an actual blog post, such as the one I am writing now.  Each new blog post is treated as a new page, and tiny news flashes get sent out to all the search engines telling them that a new page was just added to your site.  So for now, the News Page and the Blotter are being pushed aside, while I focus on writing new and fresh blog posts. 

If you have smartly deduced that everything in this post up to now is the set up, and I am about to deliver the punch line, then you would be correct.  The point is that some changes are in order, and it is time for me to re-think the format of this website.  Nothing dramatic of course.  Helicopters and flying law enforcement helicopters will always be the primary focus of this site.  But the format as of now will be a  more relaxed, open format.    Ok, so what does that mean?

That means that I write about pretty much anything I wish to write about!  How much more could I screw it up right?  Seriously though, I am a one person show and good or bad, it is I who gets the blame. 

In addition to being more open and relaxed, I think a more candid approach is also in order.  This post is a perfect example:  We have touch on everything from the loss of a dear friend, to Southern California Weather, to blogging and search engines.  Yeah, something like that.......

If it is a subject matter that I believe I can contribute to in a positive way, and someone else on the internet can benefit from it, then It will be given consideration on this site.  Police Helicopter Pilot on politics?  Police Helicopter Pilot on exercise?  Crazy perhaps, but not inconceavable. 

My next blog entry will be about the final flight one Bolitha "Rocky" Laws.  It will be an awesome story on the impromptu gathering of 50 or so friends and co-workers, who came together to meet Rocky on his final journey.  I think I will title it, "ON A ROTOR-WING AND A PRAYER, THE FINAL FLIGHT OF ROCKY LAWS". 

I can assure you it is not about search engines or traffic, but my personal account of the passing of great human being.  Rest in peace Rock, you did good.

The canyon in San Diego's vast east county where this rescue took place, now referred to as "Lucky Bastard Canyon."

View From Above
ASTREA by Scott Bligh

The Luckiest Man Alive

This incident begins with the ASTREA fire/rescue helicopter fighting a brush fire in the eastern part of San Diego County near the Carrizo Wash.  While transitioning between the fire and their water source several miles away, the helicopter crew noticed something on the ground near the base of a palm tree.  Moving in for a closer look they first noticed a back pack and then noticed something similar in color to a fire fighter’s protective clothing, (possibly left behind from a previous fire fighting effort.)  Upon closer inspection, the protective clothing wasn’t clothing at all, but the remains of a human body.  There really wasn’t much left actually and it’s amazing the crew could even see it.  The scene was little reminiscent of the Pirates of the Caribbean only without the ocean.

This guy was obviously not the luckiest man alive but if not for him, the real luckiest man alive may not be alive today.  Read on.

As is always the case with a found body, a deputy assumes the death investigation, notifies the medical examiner investigator who comes out to look at the body and scene before it can be recovered.  It was too late in the day to round up all the players and get this done before dark so the decision was made to get the ball rolling early the next day.

The next morning, Medical Examiner Investigator Mark Malamatos arrived at ASTREA base, ready for his flight into the canyon where the body lay.  We found the canyon easy enough.  It was the one that was obviously charred from the previous day’s fire.  The GPS coordinates didn’t hurt either.  We then began the search for the grove of palms where the unlucky guy made his last stand.

We were flying down the canyon, later determined to be in the wrong direction, when Mark said, “I think there’s a guy down there who needs rescuing.”  I thought, “Great he found the body” and started to figure out a way to get us turned around in the narrow canyon.  Mark explained, “No, there’s a guy down there who’s still alive.”  Huh?

We slowly worked our way back up the canyon until coming to a bunch of tall reeds.  There wasn’t much wind in the canyon yet, but a few of those reeds were shaking like crazy.  We flew over the top of the wildly shaking reeds and there he was.  An international traveler flat on his back on the canyon floor shaking those reeds for all he was worth.  What are the odds?  A fire happens.  A helicopter crew arrives to put out the fire.  They just so happen to see a backpack.  A body happens to be next to the backpack.  A crew returns the next day with a medical examiner investigator and the helicopter crew searches for the body in the wrong location.  While searching in the wrong location, the medical examiner investigator looks out his window and sees wildly shaking reeds followed by a guy flat on his back.  Sweet Jesus, this guy needs to start playing the lottery.

So our “business as usual” body recovery via 100 foot cable and cargo net had turned into a rescue mission.

Step 1; kick out the M.E. Investigator-Mark at the bottom of the canyon and wish him well in the 100 degree heat with no shade.  We did, however, have the decency to leave Mark next to one of those water stations set up to assist the illegal immigrants in their quest to circumvent our immigration laws.  There was at least 20 gallons of store bought Borrego Springs drinking water there.  Good stuff.  I digress.

Step 2; drop Deputy Kaupe, hereafter referred to as Alan, on the canyon wall next to the “Lucky Guy.”  Alan determined Lucky was in no shape to make his way anywhere under his own power.  He had been flat on his back, where he lay, for the last 2 days, and had a barely detectable pulse of 166 beats per minute.  Lucky was running on fumes.  

Step 3; get Sheriff’s Copter 10, one of the Bell 205 fire rescue/helicopters, and the sheriff’s fuel truck heading this way for the only recourse, a hoist rescue.

After being an aerial communications relay between all involved and Alan, and noticing the rapidly building thunderstorms coming in from the south, I dropped in to check on Mark and let him know what was going on.  I may have also mentioned to him what I mentioned to Alan.  In case the heavens open up and releases a downpour upon us, start building your ark now.  Or at least move high up on the canyon walls to avoid the inevitable flash flooding.  On the bright side though, there was the non-stop lighting show in all directions which helped keep my mind off the flooding possibility.

Step 4; leave Alan, Mark and Lucky to fend for themselves and head for the McCain Fire Camp at the south end of McCain Valley off I-8 to meet with Copter 10 and prepare for the hoist rescue.  I briefed the hoist rescue with our Cal Fire brothers, who are trained to operate with us, and we made our way back to the canyon in the Bell 205.  Because Lucky was down for the count, we decided to hoist him in a basket as opposed to a harness for somebody who doesn’t resemble a wet noodle.  As soon as he was on board we again waved goodbye to Alan and Mark, wished them well with their arks, and made our way back to the McCain Fire Camp to pass Lucky off to waiting medical folks.

I’m not sure how well Lucky is doing but we did muster up the courage to fight the lightning storm and complete Step 5; the pick up of Alan and Mark.  They did not get washed away and we were not struck by lightning.  Life is good.

I think all involved agree, if the canyon had a name before that day, it has now been changed.  It will now be called “Lucky Bastard Canyon.”

For low level night pilots these lights make up distinct patterns that the brain becomes dependant upon for instantly calculating your altitude, location, and direction of travel, along with the helicopter's instruments of course.  Neighborhoods, mountains, malls, streets, freeways, buildings and towers are illuminated or outlined by lights providing constant feedback to the senses.  All of these lighting cues are then greatly enhanced by donning a pair of night vision goggles.  I have often thought how much more difficult night time navigation would be if there was a total and complete blackout in the area you are flying over. 

Well shortly after midnight last night my partner and I experienced just that when a massive power outage began spreading across San Diego County.  According to SDGE the California Independent System Operator asked them to curtail 310 mega watts of power due to an emergency in the power grid.  The exact emergency was not identified at the time. 

We were working a missing person call over Casa De Oro when I glanced west toward Lemon Grove.  Instead of seeing the familiar lights of Lemon Grove however I saw what my brain told me was New York's Central Park at night time.  A large swath of darkness bordered by lights on all sides.  It takes a couple of seconds to figure out why the view out of the cockpit doesn't look like it is supposed to, or like it did on the last orbit.  We watched as the blackout spread to large parts of Spring Valley, Imperial Beach, Mount Helix, portions of El Cajon, all of downtown Lakeside and parts of La Mesa.  At least those were the communities that we could see were effected, from our vantage point in the helicopter.

While I never lost situational awareness, and there was never a total and complete blackout, the loss of large swaths of ground lights without question demanded slightly greater focus.  A quick check of the altimeter revealed that the helicopter had surreptitiously entered auto climb and I was now flying 300' higher than I was a few minutes ago.  One of the little tricks your brain pulls on you when you start denying it the visual cues it is used to receiving.  It was not all bad as the near full moon and the NVG's revealed plenty of the darkened terrain and city below, just in a different format. 

My TFO partner announced what was without question about to occurr.  The onslaught of commercial burglary alarms that were going to flood into the communications center and out to the field units due to power interruption.  Sure enough, we only had to wait a few minutes for the first bank vault alarm to come in. 

After about 30-40 minutes of monitoring the dark areas and assisting on alarm calls, we watched as the lights came back on one neighborhood at a time.  It was quite a unique show and with the possible exception of the SDPD ABLE helicopter crew, we had the best seat in the house. 

Island Patrol classic design.

Either way, the goal was to create a T-Shirt, or rather a line of Helicopter T-shirts that were quite different than just about any other helicopter T-shirt design out there. 

We started off by not putting the helicopter as front and center in the graphic.  The helicopter is a very important part of the graphic but in a slightly more subtle, "Island art" sort of way.  But you can't have Island art without Geckos, Parrots, or pretty girls, so we threw some of those in there.  Don't get caught in the Islands, or at the Hangar without your Tropical Rotors helicopter T-Shirt.  

More graphics to come!