Mountain Safety & Search & Rescue

An evening to look forward to, presented by a qualified Mountain Leader and a SAR Helicopter Winchman.

Date	Course / Event Name	Location	Duration	Price	Spaces
TBC

To book on any of the listed events please complete the booking form HERE

Are you new to hills and mountains? Are you already familiar with them? Are you interested in how the UK Search & Rescue system operates? Whichever category you fit into, especially the first two, there are some key things that you should be aware of before you set off for the mountains.

We will cover in detail what kit to take, how to understand the weather using synoptic charts, weather fronts, winds and clouds. Perhaps crucially we will also discuss warning signs you may encounter in the mountains and when to turn back, thereby avoiding the potential need to require Search and Rescue (SAR).

With that in mind, the presentation will also include our guest speaker, an experienced helicopter winchman, who will add to the presentation by recounting some of his experiences while working in the hills and mountains in that capacity.

Paul Trethewey, AFM, is an ex-Royal Air Force winchman with over 38 years of continuous flying experience.

This included the familiar Chinook helicopter as well as many others.

He has been awarded several times while performing in the SAR role, being involved in 430 rescue missions. He is now employed in the civilian sector and teaches foreign students worldwide, drawing on his wide ranging background of support helicopter, fixed wing and Search and Rescue (SAR) experience. He has accumulated well in excess of 7500 helicopter hours and spent 3 years during this time flying in the SAR role in Scotland.

The key message we hope to convey is that you should not get into the situation where you may need to rely on the services on Mountain Rescue or even SAR resources, because should it reach that stage it is likely to be serious.

Search and Rescue was handled by the Royal Air Force but in March 2013 the Department for Transport announced that it had signed a contract with Bristow Helicopters Ltd to provide search and rescue helicopter services in the UK with operations commencing progressively from 2015. The new service was fully operational across the United Kingdom by May 2019. If you are a visitor to our mountain areas you will be familiar with the new red and white helicopters which have replaced the yellow Sea King’s which the RAF had used previously.

The primary roles of the SAR Force was military search and rescue, and the provision of rescue for civilian aircraft in distress under the 1948 Chicago Convention. The military role involved the rescuing of aircrew who had ejected or parachuted from, or crash-landed their aircraft but most SAR operational missions are to this day spent in its secondary role, conducting civil search and rescue. This entails the rescue of civilians from the sea, on mountains, from flooded regions or other locations on land.

For enquiries about availability please send a message on the enquiry form below: