COPA Quadrant

COPA Flight 6

COPA FLIGHT 6

Flight Captain (President) Rob Shemilt

Co-Captain (Vice President) Allan Rempel

Navigator (Treasurer) Art Reitsma

The February 4 meeting of COPA Flight 6 featured Major Kevin Howe, commanding officer of the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre, where all our ELT calls end up, and often our Spot and Garmin Inreach maydays. Major Howe is an RCAF pilot on CF-18 and Search and Rescue aircraft, as well as a helicopter pilot and a GA pilot, having recently sold a Debonair. He talked about JRCC Victoria and how it fits in to Canada's Search and Rescue system.

The Joint Rescue Coordination Centre Victoria (JRCC Victoria) is a rescue coordination centre operated by the 1 Canadian Air Division (Canadian Armed Forces) and manned by personnel of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG).

JRCC Victoria is responsible for coordinating the Search and Rescue (SAR) response to air and marine incidents within the Victoria Search and Rescue Region (SRR).

One of the most useful tools for the Canadian SAR system is the Cospas-Sarsat satellite surveillance system that was jointly founded in 1981 by Canada, USA, France and

Right: VFC alumna Jessica James and her partner BJ. From Jessica: BJ and I met while I was working on the front counter at VFC as a dispatcher. We have been together now for six years. There have been many miles near and far between us, small town commutes, learning from each other; but he will easily always be one of my greatest ongoing adventures.

(Stay tuned in the March Patrician for more about Jessica and her amazing job at Harbour Air Seaplanes as First Officer!) the USSR. At present 18 countries participate. The Canadian system uses three earth stations (LUT's) –Edmonton, Churchill and Goose Bay, to monitor satellites in polar orbit. These satellites detect and locate air and marine emergency beacons, referred to as Electronic Location Transmitters (ELTs), Electronic Position Indicating Radio Beacons (EPIRBs), and Personal Locating Beacons (PLB's) which transmit on 121.5, 243.0 and 406.0 MHz. The resultant distress signal is then routed to the appropriate JRCC for action.

The next meeting of COPA Flight 6 will be on Tuesday March 3 at 7pm at the Victoria Flying Club. All are welcome. Allan Rempel will be giving a presentation on his trip to Oshkosh in 2004 and the various adventures along the way. Oshkosh is an annual aviation extravaganza with over a half million attendees and 10,000 aircraft flying in from around the world.