Red Deer search & rescue team looking for volunteers to save lives from the sky

Red Deer Zone Training Officer Jim Thoreson organized the event which includes 62 participants and 13 aircrafts. A former RCMP officer of 23 years and an Air Force pilot for six, Thoreson has volunteered with the association for over 30 years.

While he enjoys flying, Thoreson dedicates his time to CASARA because he likes to help people. One of his most memorable and enlightening experiences, he says, was during a night in January 1995 when he was called to search for a missing plane. West of Rocky Mountain House, his crew found the crashed plane that got caught in a valley. Although badly injured, all five passengers were found alive.

With clear skies this Friday morning, he and his team conducted a routine training exercise. After planning their search area on a map, they hopped into their C-FFDC Cherokee Six aircraft, and away they went 1,000 feet in the air.

CASARA conducts a training exercise on Friday, August 19, 2022 at the Red Deer Regional Airport. (rdnewsNOW/Alessia Proietti)

“Full blown teamwork; that’s as best as you could say it. Everybody has their job and we all work together. I drive the plane, the navigator tells me where to go, and the spotters, if we come onto a target, they’re our eyes. At that point, it’s their plane; they control us,” he said.

Antennas underneath the plane are to catch signals from emergency locator transmitters (ELTs), placed in every aircraft in case of a crash.

The navigator uses a portable direction finding (DF) receiver to track the plane’s location in the air in relation to the ELT signal on the ground. Upon catching a signal, the DF will make a beeping sound, like a heartbeat, gradually increasing in speed the closer the plane gets to an ELT.

Navigator Melissa Gerlinsky followed the directions given by the DF receiver, advising Thoreson to continue southeast of Red Deer past Pine Lake.

Melissa Gerlinsky using the Little L-Per direction finding receiver by L-tronics. (rdnewsNOW/Alessia Proietti)

Flying from 16 years old in the air cadets and earning her private pilot license, Gerlinsky began volunteering nine years ago while working full-time as a Database Processing Coordinator for the Red Deer Regional Health Foundation.

“We definitely help to find some people along the river,” she said. “There have been a few where they found them [people] in the mountains, [plane] crashes or just lost hikers. It’s not often, but when we’re needed, we’re needed.”

With the plane hovering over the ELT, it was Peter Wakefield, the Spotter, who discovered the tin foil target, a mock silver aircraft, down near the bushes. Across the Red Deer Zone, Thoreson says 11 of these targets are used for training purposes.

Tin foil target of a mock silver aircraft used for training purposes, located within the black box, southeast of Red Deer. (rdnewsNOW/Alessia Proietti)

Wakefield, Red Deer Zone commander and recently named the Provincial Secretary for CASARA, began volunteering 10 years ago after retiring from his career in Toronto.

“When you’re in the air, everything else goes out the window. You’re concentrating on what you’re doing and there aren’t any other worries that you have to be concerned about,” he said.

At 79 years young with practically 20/20 vision, he says the CASARA associations not only help the RCMP and Air Force in starting their search efforts faster, but also offer a great place of camaraderie for volunteers.

The Red Deer Zone currently has 29 volunteers with four pilots who offer use of their personal planes with financial support from the Air Force.

They’re always looking for volunteers starting from 18 years of age, offering flexible hours with roughly one training session per month.

by Alessia Proietti

Red Deer search & rescue team looking for volunteers to save lives from the sky

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