Searching for ... nothing

Sometimes the search and rescue centre will receive a call when there is really no one in distress. This happened to a pilot friend of mine who flies the Herc out of Trenton. Since he was on call he received a call to show up and search for "something" over the lake Ontario. A boat 10 miles south off shore saw flares to the north. After flying the search pattern in the middle of the night and not finding anything the team determined that probably what the boat saw were fireworks and not flares :)

Still an interesting mission if you take away being awaken in the middle of the night and going back to bed at 4:30 in the morning.

Flying the Royals

Recently a friend of mine, who is now a Cormorant helicopter pilot, was selected to participate in the chopper demo for the Royals.

They did a Search and Rescue (SAR) demo which consisted of 7 people in the water. The coast guard rescued 6 of them then the Cormorant came in and hoisted the last one out.
Then they flew to the Summerside airport, shutdown and waited for the royals to arrive by car. This is when they were able to take a group shot and shake their hands.

What was also cool is that Kate flew the helicopter. One of the pics show her in the pilot's seat. Here is more on the story from the Air Force web site.

http://www.airforce.forces.gc.ca/14w-14e/nr-sp/index-eng.asp?id=11943