Let me share my interesting afternoon that started with a routine Saturday flight and ended with a satisfying rescue!
I live on a very shallow lake ("Clear lake" - obviously named by a developer!) which is connected to Galveston Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico. When the wind blows strong from the north, as it has for the past 24 hours, the bay empties out, and the lake drains as well, causing very low tides. The little community where I live, and have volunteered as a firefighter for 25 years, is responsible for rescue operations on the water which surrounds us.
As I was returning from the Lufkin Fajita fly-in a little after noon, I came across the lake and saw that the water was just about as low as I have every seen it. Always looking for good pictures to illustrate the shallowest spots (which change), I whipped out the camera and circled a couple of times to see where the latest mud flats were. I also noticed a 20 foot boat that looked to be high and dry out on one of the flats. It isn't uncommon for someone to go aground, but this one wasn't on the edge of a flat - it was in the middle! You can see it as a white spot on the flat coming up from the bottom center of this picture. (you can also see just how shallow all of the waters were today!
I returned to the airport after snapping a few shots, and no sooner had I gotten the plane in the hangar than I received a page from our dispatcher - you guessed it, people stranded on a boat in the lagoon! I heard our guys go enroute with the rescue boat, and immediately got on the horn with them to tell 'em what I had seen from the air. This was important because the route they were going to have to take from the boat launch was not obvious. Knowing the lake well, I also instructed them NOT to try and reach the stranded boat directly, because the mud flats in the lake are like quick sand - if anyone left either boat, they were not only going to be cold and wet, but stuck up to their waste as well! It turned out that three people were stuck on the fishing boat, and had been there since 0900. They had been fishing, they were totally oblivious to the fact that they had anchored in the shallowest spot on the lake,and they were hard aground before they realized they were in danger!
I got back to the city as quick as I could, and we talked over our options. The folks on the stranded boat were cold, but at least they were dry - and we wanted to keep them that way! Teh temperature is predicted to get below freezing tonight, and we knew that there was no way to reach them on the surface. They were a good 200 yards from the nearest firm land. Our boat crew was able to talk with them, but not reach them. Despite the clear blue sky, this was a deceptively dangerous situation. Having seen it all from the air, I knew that we had no choice - the rescue had to come from above. So, we called for the orange cavalry!
No, it wasn't made from one of Van's kits, but you have to admit, it's slow-speed characteristics were more suitable for the job! The crew lifted all three stranded fisherman off in their basket, and whisked them away to warm blankets.
The only problem is that now the Chief wants me to mount a fire department radio in the RV so that we can use it as an airborne command post....
Paul
I live on a very shallow lake ("Clear lake" - obviously named by a developer!) which is connected to Galveston Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico. When the wind blows strong from the north, as it has for the past 24 hours, the bay empties out, and the lake drains as well, causing very low tides. The little community where I live, and have volunteered as a firefighter for 25 years, is responsible for rescue operations on the water which surrounds us.
As I was returning from the Lufkin Fajita fly-in a little after noon, I came across the lake and saw that the water was just about as low as I have every seen it. Always looking for good pictures to illustrate the shallowest spots (which change), I whipped out the camera and circled a couple of times to see where the latest mud flats were. I also noticed a 20 foot boat that looked to be high and dry out on one of the flats. It isn't uncommon for someone to go aground, but this one wasn't on the edge of a flat - it was in the middle! You can see it as a white spot on the flat coming up from the bottom center of this picture. (you can also see just how shallow all of the waters were today!
I returned to the airport after snapping a few shots, and no sooner had I gotten the plane in the hangar than I received a page from our dispatcher - you guessed it, people stranded on a boat in the lagoon! I heard our guys go enroute with the rescue boat, and immediately got on the horn with them to tell 'em what I had seen from the air. This was important because the route they were going to have to take from the boat launch was not obvious. Knowing the lake well, I also instructed them NOT to try and reach the stranded boat directly, because the mud flats in the lake are like quick sand - if anyone left either boat, they were not only going to be cold and wet, but stuck up to their waste as well! It turned out that three people were stuck on the fishing boat, and had been there since 0900. They had been fishing, they were totally oblivious to the fact that they had anchored in the shallowest spot on the lake,and they were hard aground before they realized they were in danger!
I got back to the city as quick as I could, and we talked over our options. The folks on the stranded boat were cold, but at least they were dry - and we wanted to keep them that way! Teh temperature is predicted to get below freezing tonight, and we knew that there was no way to reach them on the surface. They were a good 200 yards from the nearest firm land. Our boat crew was able to talk with them, but not reach them. Despite the clear blue sky, this was a deceptively dangerous situation. Having seen it all from the air, I knew that we had no choice - the rescue had to come from above. So, we called for the orange cavalry!
No, it wasn't made from one of Van's kits, but you have to admit, it's slow-speed characteristics were more suitable for the job! The crew lifted all three stranded fisherman off in their basket, and whisked them away to warm blankets.
The only problem is that now the Chief wants me to mount a fire department radio in the RV so that we can use it as an airborne command post....
Paul
