Page 24 - InterPilot 2019 Issue 3

WHAT WENT RIGHT PAGE 25

“I remember the silence in the CAPTAIN JIM HEDEDAL NIELSEN

helicopter. Just for a split second we Captain Nielsen’s aviation career began in 1999 in the Royal Danish Airforce flying
school. Number one in his class, he chose to fly the army helicopter because he loved
the small craft and the action of flying low. After stints in ATC and as an army officer, he
had to digest what we actually saw.” had the time of his life in a small, tight-knit unit, flying missions from homeland security
to police support and international deployments.

During his time in the military, Nielsen flew freelance a couple of times with Air Green-
land in his free time. This was his first contact with the civilian world. He liked the com-
pany and the way the helicopter was used as an instrument to solve multiple tasks in an
On our way out to the second lift at Viking Sky, we heard a inhospitable area.
second Mayday call on CH16,
Captain Nielsen moved to Norway and began a civilian job with CHC in 2007. A major
transition, to be sure, he cites it as one of the best professional choices he could have
“Mayday-mayday-mayday, this is Hagland Captain, we are cap-
made. He fell in love with the work, the country, and the possibilities for varied tasks of-
sizing.”
fered by a large company, such as civilian SAR.
In the cockpit we looked at each other with disbelief, and the Captain Nielsen still flies with CHC today, in the S92 SAR. He is based in Stavenger, Nor-
first comment was a short “really?” … like, is this really happen- way, and lives in Denmark with his family.
ing? The active role by ATC was very important in this situation
as our situational awareness was split between two very special
cases in such a small area with that many assets both in the air
and in the water.

We could see the vessel so we rerouted and were hovering next
to the second ship within minutes. Hagland Captain wanted to
manually lower the anchor to avoid running onshore. They had
no power and no lights, so we were on standby next to the ship
until we where low on fuel. During this time, we had radio com-
munications with ATC so they could have another helicopter
ready when we left Hagland Captain.

A refueling spot had been established at a nearby school
ground. This was very efficient and a factor that gave us com-
fort so we could focus on the hoist operation. The initial uncer-
tainties and challenges became routine surprisingly fast. That
was an advantage since it was dark now, and the weather with
strong winds and showers of rain and hail made hoisting very
challenging. We completed 2 more lifts. Between them we con-
tacted our Operations center on sat phone to get an update on
our replacement crew. The team at the operations center had
a long night as well, and gave us the support we needed to be
able to concentrate on the mission.

The relief crew were planned to arrive around midnight in Kris-
tiansund. We made the third lift, refueled and returned to Kris-
tiansund to have the helicopter ready for the next crew. After
we landed, we made all the preparations for the next crew, so
they could have the best possible transit into the operation.

So, all in all, we did what we do when we train. We just did it a
lot more, a lot longer, and all at the same time with real people
that needed our help. It pays off to “train hard and fight easy.”