Hi all

I have been known to write of incidents that happen here in British Canadia 
that strike me as strange or humorous but that just seem to be taken as 
everyday life by the locals.


Last Saturday a group was overdue from a 5 day hike involving some tricky 
navigation through the high alpine.

As Search and Rescue, we were alerted and we set off to find them.  Rebecca 
went in the helicopter with one other team member and I stayed with our 2 
little people and acted as 'base' for communications.

They flew the route the group were supposed to be taking but couldn't find 
them initially.  On flying back they spotted 3 hikers about 8 kms up a 
logging road - on which we knew the car of the lost folk was parked.

The folks in the helicopter wanted to know if this was likely the lost 
party or not.

There was no-where to land, and shouting from a helicopter doesn't work!

So they wrapped a VHF 2-way radio up in a coat, got the pilot to hover as 
low as he could over the dirt road and lowered the coat with the radio in 
it on a short line and then let it drop the remaining 10-15 feet or so.

They returned to a safer height.

The hiker on the ground, picked up the coat as the folks in the aircraft 
signalled him to do.

He then just kept walking -didn't open it - just carried on as if this were 
an everyday occurence that someone drops a wrapped up coat from a 
helicopter in front of him.

'oh another coat from the sky, fancy that?'

So, Rebecca spoke on the radio.........apparently he nearly jumped out of 
his skin, threw the coat up in the air and looked stunned as the coat began 
to 'talk'.

To add to the fun, when he was asked over the radio whether his was the 
group they were looking for (daft question to ask, but hey, they were 
trying not to fall out of the helicopter laughing :)  - the guy said 'yes' 
  - but he couldn't possibly have known that they were.


Oh well, just some Friday fun :)

Cheers all
-- 
Jel