In its April Edition, Popular Mechanics gives its readers an inside look into the USCG’s Advanced Helicopter Rescue School by enrolling one of its authors to attend the course along with 16 other students. The school, located in Astoria Oregon, is where Coast Guard helicopter pilots and crews receive training in conducting rescues in heavy weather and heavy surf conditions. The course was started to provide specialized skills to Aviation Survival Technicians when dealing with the challenges of cold water, high seas and cliff rescue work.
The one-week course is held eight times a year in the mouth of the Columbia River – an area commonly known as the Graveyard of the Pacific. In order provide the most effective training possible, the timing of the courses – generally in the Spring and Fall – are chosen to take advantage of the most hazardous conditions this region can produce.
Here is a video provided by USCG Imagery of a typical “classroom” excersise:
Read the article by Popular Mechanics
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The U.S. Coast Guard’s icebreaker Healy will not carry out its planned high-latitude Arctic mission this summer following a serious engineering casualty in July, a spokesperson said. The statement provides the clearest indication yet of the impact of the incident on the Coast Guard’s key icebreaker.
U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Healy suffered a significant engineering casualty during post-refit sea trials off the Washington coast before being towed back to Seattle on July 13 for an investigation and major repairs, the Coast Guard told gCaptain.
The U.S. Coast Guard’s troubled Polar Security Cutter program faces further delays with a new government watchdog report projecting delivery of the first heavy icebreaker in March 2033, almost a decade later than originally planned.
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