o s Haval operations, off of [Misc pelbs] OCLC: 1048357 D OOO VT MOON UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY HELICOPTER RESCUE SENSE 64 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGES JUL 13 1954 LIBRARY COVT. PUBS, RODA NAVAER 00-800-42 HELICOPTER RESCUE SENSE Hea t6 NE ESTIMATE puts the number of lives saved by helicopters in the Korean fighting at more than 7,000. Some of these rescues have been routine, some exciting; some of them have been accomplished in a matter of minutes and others have taken days of thought and planning. But, for the helicopter rescue pilots, business—the life- saving business—has been good. The stump jumpers have been hard at work. Like all people who want to do their jobs well, the helicopter people are not satisfied. That is why they are forever experimenting with new rescue techniques, dreaming up different equipment, and brooding about the fellows likely to require help. Helicopter pilots Pure camoflage 3 and their crewmen are in a very good position to observe the very thin margin that sometimes separates the saved and the unsaved. Too many lives have been needlessly lost because the man in trouble does not know how to help save himself. He does not Break out the ice cream! Dilbert 0 . ! ment. understand how to attract attention. He throws away useful equip- He does not take proper care of himself. He does not know enough about the limitations of helicopters to put himself in the best position for rescue. All this is particularly true of the fellow down there alone, with nothing between him and big trouble but pararaft and survival kit. Survivors in groups can spell one another, figure out the smartest 4 THE FORWARD LOOKER In survival and rescue, the percentage always favors the man who has figured out some of the answers beforehand. This is what the rescue people mean by anticipate. And, like most figuring, it begins with a session on the books. 2+2=4 not -1. The first item is to survive the crash, bail-out, or ditching. Dunking Sense, NAVAER 00-800-2, with the word on what to do all the way from before a ditching through a voyage aboard a raft, is recommended anticipation reading to prepare you for emergencies at sea. Another book with good information about staying alive on sea, land, and sea ice is Air Force Manual 64-5, Survival. A few copies of this are available from your aeronautical publication supply point. Fuller treatment is found in the Naval Aviation Physical Training Manual, How to Survive on Land and Sea, NAVAER 00–808–56, a particularly good book on the problem of obtaining food at sea or ashore. The squadron survival officer should make these available. Another useful little number is NAVAER 00–8022-42 (Revised 1953), First Aid for Air Crews. Printed on waterproof paper and small enough to be tucked into a shirt pocket, this handy folder may also be kept in the First Aid Kit. 6 A thoughtful look at these publications will show you what some of the problems of staying alive are and will help you prepare for them. SURVIVAL How To SURVIVE LAND and SEA DEN NG SHOE A RAFT OF GOOD READING Another part of anticipation is knowing the survival gear you'll be carrying around with you. The people in BuАer, most of them old hands at the business of staying alive through aviation emergen- cies, have included in the PK pararaft kit as many helpful items as Live Learn TS / M you can conveniently carry around. Break down the kit and have a look at what is there. Learn how you can use it. 7 A current recommendation, therefore, is that a man wearing one of the buoyant anti-exposure suits ought to squeeze all the air possible out of the pants before fastening the straps of his harness. That's a fair way to guarantee being able to keep your head above water. 04 Lakehurst! You must also anticipate making the quick change from wing- man to RESCAP pilot. Do you know how to keep a downed man in sight? Nothing is easier in a modern, high-speed jer than to miss practically any object down below. By the time you've turned around, your buddy is gone. And this can happen on land as well 10 When several aircraft are Aying RESCAP, one pilot can go up high for effective transmission. Just be sure that someone is keeping that raft in plain sight. PLANE view! And when the helicopter appears, give it plenty of air room. Stay away from it whether you are clearing the area or leading the whirly in. Prop wash or disturbed air in the wake of a jet can be very troublesome indeed when the stump jumper is trying to concen- trate on his rescue. Follow MET 1 19 Never. Not when you're down at sea, not when you're down ashore. Never count this chicken till he's catched! D The rescue detail will do everything in its power to bring you safely home as soon as possible. Count on that. But prepare for the wait anyway. Long time no see! While you're waiting, run over the briefing you've had on escape and evasion. Reason out your situation. Nine times out of ten it's Do I move or stay with it? 22 better to stay in the vicinity of the crashed plane because that is the object the rescuers are most likely to spot from the air. But you must figure, too, in enemy territory, that the same crashed plane is the first object the foe will investigate. Think before you throw away any article from your survival kit. You can't always be sure of just what will come in handy. Keep a close eye on your physical condition. If you find it de- sirable to make tracks away from the scene of the crash, your best bet is to make haste slowly, taking care not to wear yourself out in frantic flight over rough terrain. A mile a day made by a fellow who takes reasonable precautions is better than 20 miles made by a man who attracts so much attention the enemy tracks him down the second day. Or who moves so fast that he exhausts his strength too soon. In general, the best formula for moving through enemy territory is to do your traveling in easy stages, bringing along as much survival gear as you can but not weighing yourself down unduly. Creeks and streams lead to rivers. Rivers lead to the sea. The sea is where our forces are likely to be in charge; so that's the place to head for. But don't forget that settlements are usually located where rivers run into the ocean and these places may control. Circle around settlements and try to find your way to a section of deserted beach. Sooner or later our people will fly over and you'll want to be ready with whatever signalling device you have man- aged to keep with you—mirror, smoke flare, or whatever. The safest be under enemy M What's going on here? 23 device is the mirror. It can be spotted only from the sky but the smoke flare, used prematurely, may be a dead giveaway of your loca- tion to the enemy on the ground. But these are matters covered very fully in your safety and sur- vival briefings. The point here is a simple one: if you go down, never assume you will be rescued within the next 5 or 10 minutes. Always prepare for the worst. Get your mind and equipment in order for the long wait. Hang on to what you can of your survival gear and make haste slowly. Bear in mind that in tests conducted by the RAF of their people's capacity to live off the land and make their way to friendly territory, the best record of all was made by two elderly noncommissioned officers, just about ready to retire. Forced to favor their hearts and bunions, these two venerable men simply took it very easy along the way. When the results were added up, they were found to be in much better condition than any of the younger men who had been through the same ordeal. Quick! ( Miss Where's your Me ? Sick Bay? TA V na Anticipate, communicate, prepare for a wait ... and COOPERATE Of course you'll want to give every assistance to the people risking their necks to save your neck. If cooperation were merely a matter 24 he WHIRLIES OVER WATER Let's assume you have made a successful ditching, inflated your raft, and are hopefully awaiting developments. There you are, a free floater, and the helicopter wings its way toward you. Knowing what just a little surface wind will do to a liferaft, you can easily imagine the effect of the downwash from the rotor blades on your position below the 'copter. You and your raft will be blasted from hither to yon. The whirly pilot will hover, the raft and you won't be able to reach the sling. will move away, What you do then depends largely on your physical condition. If you're strong enough, your best bet is to abandon ship, to leave the raft and take to the water. Then the 'copter pilot can hover a few on your lonely way! 27 feet above you, lower the sling, and have you pulled out of there in jig time. However, an injured or exhausted man may have to stay with his raft. The best way for him to cooperate is to throw out the sea anchor so that the raft will not scoot around so fast. The closer to one place that the raft remains, the better the chance for a successful hover. Watch your parachute. It can blow too. If it's open, the down- wash from the main rotor will billow the 'chute and may cause it to foul the tail rotor of the helicopter. When that happens, maybe Better an OCTOPUS than this! 26 28 nobody gets rescued, including the new arrivals in the drink. The parachute is also heavy. Even unopened, it can cause trouble because it may mean a critical weight difference. The whirlybird pilot can't tell, from his position, whether or not it's still attached to you. If he hoists you a few feet out of the water and realizes you are too heavy, all he can do is 1. drop you or 2. join you. This close to being rescued, you can afford to lighten your load. Get rid of the 'chute before you reach for the sling. Z let go our ma man! So there are the first three ways to cooperate at sea. Make your- self as stationary a target as you can. See that your opened 'chute is out of harm's way and in no danger of fouling the 'copter rotors. Slip out of the 'chute harness before being hoisted so that the lifting strain on the whirly is minimized. Now we'll assume you're in the water, well clear of 'chute and raft, and the sling is lowered for you. How do you get into the sling? 29 Old hands say that in unfriendly territory the best procedure is to show smoke at the last possible moment. Thanks! C That's "Come to Papa" in Winnebago Without a smoke flare, you must improvise. Throw dirt, dried leaves, grass, or anything else into the air and continue to do so until the whirlybird pilot spots you. If the wind is strong enough, hold up 1.7..) MEMAR MESE It must: be some Kind of mating non-serisë? your scarf or other piece of cloth. When the ground is frozen and you have no other means of making like a human windsock, turn your back into whatever wind there is and swing your arms vertically along the side of your body to indicate the wind line. The idea is to help the pilot as much as you can. This is no time to stand around teeth. and pick your 33 Suppose the whirlybird pilot sets out on a rescue mission that takes him into high country. He knows at the start that the higher he goes, the more trouble he is going to have touching down safely and getting off the ground again. In fact, for every 1,000 feet of alti- tude, the gross weight of the HO3S must be reduced by 150 pounds in order to make a safe landing. That's the rule-of-thumb used in the stump-jumping business. 6000 goo 5ood g 600 4000 3000 450 2000 300 1000ft 150 ebo. Now, even without any gasoline at all, the total operating margin of his HO3S is only about 760 pounds—but for his sake and yours, he's got some fuel in there to twirl his rotors. You are the man to be rescued and you are at 6,000 feet. As the whirlybird pilot approaches, he runs through his quick, rule-of-thumb calculation, multiplying his 150 pounds (for every 1,000 feet) by 6. The result is 900 pounds. Not being Dilbert, the 'copter pilot realizes that he cannot hover or touch the ground up there. Not even if he had no fuel weight to consider. He must make a running pickup. 36 a considerable distance aft of the landing gear and only a slight left or right movement of the forward section of the HO3S magnifies its sweep. At high altitudes, the helicopter cannot hover and hoist. It must have more speed to keep from settling to the ground. But if you have chosen your spot with care, if you have allowed enough up-wind, obstruction-free area along the 'copter's flight path you can be pulled out on the run. Nothing is impossible in the rescue business. Dur- ing one running pick-up, a downed pilot shot two enemy soldiers as he ran for the sling and picked off another while he was being hoisted. LET'S FACE IT There are times when the downed man is not up to helping out very much. Not every pilot is lucky enough to come through a bail-out, crash or ditching without some kind of injury. So he may not be able to run and grab. He may need help to get into the sling. The helicopter rescue people have handled such cases too. During cold weather operations, for example, the crewman was lowered into the water to assist an injured pilot into the sling. What's more, he stayed - there in the drink until the 'copter pilot could return for him after disembarking the injured man aboard ship. In another instance, both crewman and pilot have left the 'copter to carry a downed pilot to 38 If you find yourself or your buddy in a tight place, your knowledge of life-saving gear, getting out the word, saving what you can, and the operating qualities of the helicopters is as important as any other aspect of rescue. Read over the helpful books and pamphlets. Be sure you know the proper way to tell the world about your troubles. Always be pre- pared to wait. Hang on to the emergency equipment you know you'll need. Talk to the helicopter pilots about their ways of operat- ing. Be set to help out the fellow who is risking his own neck to help you. van mani U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE:0--1954 40