2012-01-16 - 3NEWS - NEW HI TECH SEARCH PLANE WILL HELP SAVE LIVES

Coastguard has a new high-tech aircraft equipped with the latest radio tracking technology to assist in search and rescue operations.

Coastguard volunteers say it will help save lives this summer, but they also warn that too many boaties continue to ignore basic safety rules.

It is the only purpose-built aircraft of its kind in the country, used solely for coastguard search missions.

What makes it different from other planes is the technology inside the cockpit.

"This aircraft configuration is used by the civilian air patrol in the USA and that's funded by the US Air Force," says Steve Couch, air patrol chairman for Coastguard Auckland.

"They use exactly the same technology that we do down to the radio direction finder and the search pattern technology that we use in it."

A radio direction finder detects signals from a vessel's VHF radio, and guides a pilot towards it.

So even if a distress call is made but the caller doesn't know the precise location, coastguard pilots will.

As part of an exercise to demonstrate how it works, Coastguard sent out a vessel that pilots had to find.

Five hundred feet is considered the optimum height for search operations on the water.

You can make out detailed objects like people waving from a vessel or debris on the water.

The vessel was hidden behind an island, but it did not take long for the air patrol to find it.

The new plane can also detect and track the most modern emergency locator beacons.

In the last year, Coastguard was involved in almost 3500 missions, rescuing almost 7000 people.

"The big benefit of the air patrol is that they can search a large area quickly. They do 120 knots we do 20 knots when we are searching," says David Steward, Coastguard rescue vessel master.

The new Cessna cost almost a quarter of a million dollars, paid by sponsors the Lion Foundation.

Ten commercial pilots volunteer their time - our pilot was an Air New Zealand engineer.

"It's given us so much more for situational awareness. Tells us where terrain is, we have visuals on LCD screens [and] it tells us where traffic is," says Coastguard air patrol pilot Mike Penny.

But with all the technology comes a warning to boaties that they shouldn't be complacent.

"The key thing is life jackets. Don't just take them, wear them. The second thing is two forms of communication," says Ray Burge, coastguard operations manager.

The newest air patrol Cessna will operate from Pauanui in the Coromandel to Whangarei, and complement nine other planes around the country.

SOURCE: http://www.3news.co.nz/New-hi-tech-search-plane-will-help-save-lives---Coastg...

Category:

Education

Tags:

• NZ
• New Zealand
• Technology
• Coastguard Volunteers
• Mike Penny
• Ray Burge
• Pauanui
• Coromandel
• Whangarei
• Radio Waves

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