10 minute read
Flexibility is a Capability
Flexibility is a Capability
By LT Joey Curtis, USN
While at HSC-12 on a plane guard flight, a Department Head once asked me, “What does HSC add to the Navy?” While circling on the port side of USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76), I thought for a while and rambled off the first things that came to mind: search and rescue (SAR) and logistics. After the two guesses, he cut me off and confidently said, “flexibility.” At the time, I mildly agreed and didn’t give it much more thought. However, upon reflection, I now know that he was right, and the idea of flexibility gets directly to the heart of what naval helicopter flying is all about. In the Navy, the service that invented the idea of a multi-mission platform, helicopters have taken the concept to its theoretical limit and have become the 33-tool Swiss Army Knife of our Fleet. A single helicopter (HSC or HSM) can move cargo, pull a downed aviator out of the water, reconnoiter a ship, fire a missile, and land on an unprepared spot on a mountain without changing a single component on its airframe and potentially without even refueling.
No other organization in the world can claim such a wide array of capabilities. However, with that flexibility comes the risk of running into hazards that a crew isn't aware existed. So, how do we reduce our overall risk while adapting from one mission set to another? The answer is not to recommend we reduce capabilities. The answer is to double down on organizational learning, train realistically, and train hard. This process is the foundation of how we operate at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island (NASWI) SAR, where we use our daily training operations and support for civil SAR to ensure we are ready to support Growler crews that rely on us to have their backs.
Our inland SAR unit benefits from a focused scope of operations: provide the best possible SAR support for Growler operations. This is in contrast to the myriad of missions for which a deploying HSC or HSM command must prepare. While our primary mission is more simply defined, the environment over which the Growlers operate is the most diverse in North America, but requires the same level of flexibility and proficiency that all other naval helicopter units possess.
The Growlers operating out of Whidbey typically transit either westward over the Olympic Mountains or, more frequently, eastward over the North Cascades for their training. VR-1355, renowned for its dramatic flight sequences in “Top Gun Maverick,” is the most heavily traversed low-level route for Growler aircrews. This route cuts through some of the most challenging and isolated mountain ranges in the Lower 48. The environments along these routes vary from forested valleys with thick tree canopies rising 150-250 feet above the ground to glaciated alpine landscapes soaring to over 10,000 feet. While most VAQ operations remain over land, a portion ventures over water, which has a maximum average monthly temperature of 57 degrees, translating to a survival time of 1 to 6 hours. Routes notwithstanding, the local training ranges that the Growlers use are above both the Olympic and Okanogan Mountain Ranges with peaks over 8,000 feet with only a handful of areas accessible by ground. These ranges cover rain forests, desert mountains, and everything in between.
To support the Growlers, each day at SAR is structured the same. We split the duty between two crews with turnovers at 0800 and roughly sunset. With just 10 pilots, a handful of Aircrewmen, and SAR Medical Technicians (SMTs), and a detachment-sized maintenance department, we are able to fly an average of six training flights per week and 30 to 60 SAR missions per year. All of which we accomplish while holding an alert-30 to alert-15 posture while the Growlers are airborne.
On August 28, 2023, the daytime alert at NASWI SAR was marked by meetings and thunderstorms over the mainland to the east (unusual for Western Washington), and not much else. Then, with a little over an hour remaining until the night crew was to assume the alert, our crew received an approved mission from the NASWI Operations Duty Officer at 1652 for a female with a broken ankle 2 miles northeast of Mount Baker.
As the crew assembled, we studied the area around the survivor using satellite imagery, briefed the mission, and spoke with the SAR Coordination Deputy for the county in which the survivor was located. The deputy passed updated medical information and a cellphone number for a group of hikers on-scene with the survivor. Even though the datum was in a remote area of the Cascades (at 6,000 feet and 6 miles from the nearest road), the crew was able to call the on-scene hikers. During the call, we asked the hikers to turn on any lights they had once our helicopter could be heard, take precautions against rotor wash, and send pictures of the area around them and the skies in all directions.
Our crew reviewed the weather and planned a route out to the mountains while waiting for the pictures from the hikers. We noted a Convective SIGMET in the area with overcast ceilings averaging 1,500 feet and areas of reduced visibility. Once the pictures from the on-scene hikers came through, the crew realized that our plan to follow the Skagit Valley was safe and the weather near the datum was clear, because the storms had pushed north towards the Canadian border and the town of Bellingham. From the pictures, the crew also noted that a hover in ground effect (HIGE) approach could be accomplished for a landing or low hoist to reduce power requirements while inserting the Helicopter Inland Rescue Aircrewman (HIRA) and SMT.
With a plan in place, our crew launched in Rescue 75 at 1735 and began the transit to the datum. We worked together to navigate along the Skagit River, through areas of reduced visibility and lower ceilings due to light precipitation, while pre-briefing power line crossings and inadvertent instrument meteorological condition (IMC) plans. Then, as the hiker’s pictures showed, the ceilings and visibility rapidly improved just south of Mount Baker, and we were able to fly directly north to the survivor's location. The crew spotted the flashing lights of the hikers while still two miles away and arrived on scene at 1801. Once overhead, we assessed the area around the survivor, conducted wind-finding passes, and completed power checks. Together, the crew determined that the safest way to insert the HIRA and SMT was via a one-wheel landing after a HIGE approach, as the nearest place to conduct a full landing was a mile away and a few hundred feet lower.
Rescue 75 completed the HIGE approach, minimizing power requirements, while offsetting from the survivor to mitigate the effects of rotor downwash. Once in a low hover, the Crew Chief determined that a two-wheel landing on a small hill, distinct from the rest of the steeply sloped terrain, would allow a wide safety margin around the rotor head and stable footing for our crewmembers once on deck. With the new plan briefed, the crew conducted a two-wheel insert of the HIRA and SMT at 1811.
While the HIRA and SMT assessed the survivor, Rescue 75 flew to a flat ridgeline one mile away and landed to conserve fuel while maintaining comms with our ground team. The SMT splinted the survivor’s leg, put her on a litter, and determined the most suitable hospital for the patient was St. Joseph’s in Bellingham due to its proximity and level of care. When the ground team requested 10 minutes until extraction, Rescue 75 took off and climbed over a ridgeline to observe the weather in the direction of Bellingham, noting that all the bad weather had moved well clear of the city.
After the 10 minutes passed, Rescue 75 conducted a HIGE approach to the survivor’s location, established a low hover, and recovered the survivor, HIRA, and SMT via a dual-man litter hoist and single-man vest hoist. Rescue 75 navigated VFR through the Western Cascades and landed at St. Joseph’s at 1855 to transfer the patient. After the mission, Rescue 75 returned to base and was hot-seated for follow-on training with the night crew.
This mission marked our unit's 32nd of 2023 and took just over 3 hours to complete, with only 1.6 hours of actual flight time. Throughout the event, our crew was able to be as efficient and safe as possible by remaining flexible and trusting the judgment at each crew position. We made plans before we launched, took our time to assess all that we could, and adapted as conditions changed. Overall, this rescue was neither risky nor sensational. Instead, both our crew and the unit regarded it as a standard operation, largely uneventful for two main reasons.
First, we are a learning organization. We thoroughly debrief after every flight and gather our lessons learned. These lessons are then shared, at a minimum, quarterly with all our flyers, allowing us to collectively benefit from each opportunity. Second, we train realistically for our environment and take each opportunity to hone our craft, whether it is a civil support mission or day-to-day training.
To excel in our role is to make SAR in our area of responsibility routine and safe, and by learning and training we are able to accomplish that aim. On average, each pilot in our unit completes between 100 and 200 one-wheel landings annually, along with hundreds of hoists and rappels. Some of our crew chiefs will log more than 600 live hoists during a tour, while our HIRAs and SMTs will complete over 500 rappels from an aircraft and will be the first responders for over 10 trauma patients per year in every type of environment imaginable. Combine our specialized training with realworld experience from supporting DOD policy in assisting civilian rescues (as long as it doesn't interfere with our primary mission), and the result is a high-performing organization where our flyers are eager to stand duty.
There are hazards inherent with operating in the mountains, and with conducting any real-world SAR mission. However, these hazards, once mitigated through training and sound standard operating procedures, aren't greater than those of night strafe patterns over the open ocean, shipboard landings, or formation flight. Learning organizations, of which both NASWI SAR and HSC-at-large are examples, take operations with numerous hazards, like this rescue, and make them benign through controls, proficiency, and an honest assessment of each unique situation. While there have been some recommendations to reduce risk to naval helicopters by reducing our capabilities and flexibility, to do so would destroy the identity our community is built on, and eliminate those attributes which allow our slow and dated airframes to add to the modern fight. By reinforcing and creating more lessons learned through real and intensive training, we can continue to add flexibility to the Fleet and be prepared for any call, be it SAR, logistics, or more.
