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| Cheeky Kookaburra chilling on the main rotor |
We left base Monday morning and drove to Neerim for the third week of training. Along the way the crew discovered, to their horror, that I had never eaten an authentic Australian meat pie. During our lunch break in Yarragon, Emily bought me my first pie: steak and cheese with tomato sauce. It was pretty good, much like chicken potpies but with a wide variety of filling choices.
Once in Neerim we quickly suited up in our rappel gear and commenced live tie-offs. The third week of training was held at a Christian camp called Forest Edge and we ran our operations on the slope adjacent to the mess hall. All the tie-offs went smoothly and we finished just as the Ovens rappel crew arrived at the camp. During one of the rappels though, while packing the rope bag, a creepy-crawler drew my attention to a fellow's leg bag. Apparently leeches here in Australia live on land, not in the water like back home. The crew took humour in my additional examination for leeches on me during the gear checks. In my defence, leeches are disgusting. I have no shame in looking like a whimp and ensuring no blood sucking monster is attached to me after each rappel into the tall vegetation.Ovens took over the helicopter and began their tie-offs while we (Heyfield) practiced putting on tape harnesses. In Canada and Australia, we practice a procedure called emergency liftouts. This is designed for the possibility of being entrapped by fire and needing the helicopter to lift us out to safety. In Australia though, along with their rappel harnesses, they also carry a tape harness on them at all times in case they can't make it to their rappel gear. This is an extremely rare case, so no need for panic stricken calls or emails.
Prior to dinner, the group gathered and we found out our crews for the summer. The Australian crews run in packs of 8: one crew leader, one deputy, three crew members, two drivers and one dispatcher. My crew makes up Hayfield B crew: Gabe (crew leader, and a previous exchange to Canada), Liam (deputy), Jess (crew member), Shannon (roommate and crew member), Kobi (rookie), Tom (rookie), Adam (dispatcher) and myself. In the process of a fire, five members of the crew will fly out to the fire and be put in by the dispatcher. The five members will always include the crew leader and the deputy and three crew members. The crew members however with rotate between the fire line and being a driver. Because the helicopters here in Victoria don't have hoist capabilities, the crew must walk out from the fire. The drivers are responsible for meeting the crew at a designated time and location to bring them back to base.
With the crews designated, the groups were broken up into saw training and rappel training. Tuesday Heyfield and Ovens B headed out into the bush for saw training, while the A crews headed to Mt. Horsfall for live rappels. I got to practice my saw skills and was shown some new techniques on the Australian hardwood, I even got to fall a few trees. The next day we headed to Mt. Horsfall and got our first rappels into canopy. It felt good to rappel into really vegetation. It is so hard to mimic the experience in a tower or an open field. We were able to deal with different situations in real time that were only simulated back in Altona. I took the opportunity to be first out on the rappel as much as I could. I found it to be a great learning experience as there is higher exposure for the rope to be snagged in trees, having to deal with finding your landing spot without aid, and attending the rope for your fellow rapplers. Mt. Horsfall was a great training site and enjoyed my time there. We got tons of exposure to different situations from high rappels, to thick dogwood vegetation, to messy and overgrown blowdown.
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| Heyfield B Crew's hand guard |
meant to be used. We even went out into the field and played with a bunch of different saws and chains, including their newest saw that isn't out till next year. I took away a lot from the day. Both men were able to answer any question regarding their product and even cleared up many debates among the crews. Once the demonstration was complete, we broke for lunch and got ready for the mock fire scenario. It was pretty basic. The "fire" was outlined in pink ribbon and we were instructed construct a hand guard. Being used to using Pulaskis, it took me a bit to get use to the Mcleod rake. However about a quarter of the way through I go the hang of it and the five of us were able to surround the 0.2ha "fire" quickly. On the way back to camp we stopped off at a historical trestle bridge for a snack.
After a quick morning meeting on Friday regarding aviation operations for the summer, we packed up and headed back to Hayfield. Once all the gear was put away and all the vehicles cleaned, our crew leaders let us return home early to get a head start on the weekend. Emily and I had the house to ourselves this weekend. Both of the boys went home for the weekend so the girls took over for the weekend. Emily took me out to a pub in Sale with some of her friends to watch a local cover band play. They were really good but both of us were tired from our week and went home early in the night. Saturday and Sunday weren't too productive, just some yard work to tidy things up from our absence. While weed whacking I found a baby blue-tongued lizard. It was super cute and much easier to catch than the small skinks that dart back and forth on our walk way.
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| Blue Tongue-Lizard |
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