I've more or less stopped posting Pine reports because they're all pretty much the same. Nice crew, get up high in light smooth air, boat around for a few hours in ridiculously pretty scenery, and go home happy. We had a bit of an adventure last night so I'll post the details as a learning experience for everyone.
Arrived at launch around 4:25, solid cycles coming through and decreasing by the minute so we knew it would glass-off nicely again. Neal Michaelis was first off, being the senior pilot. I would go last to make sure everyone got away clean. He had a decent glide to the spine, and decided to push past it to the West relatively low. Neal is a big boy and has flown Pine before but I reminded him that it rarely works West and low. After a few minutes we saw him returning low below the former Bonsai tree, now Faoro's Point, and eventually disappearing below it. Some seconds later we got a radio call: "I've crashed". There was a moment of "wtf, seriously?" He sounded good but a little surprised on the radio. Apparently he had taken a low 100% deflation on 1/2 bar which re-inflated, with a bit of a turn that swung him into the hillside. Rescue plans swung into action and he pushed the OK button on his SPOT which sent a txt to his wife, whom I was able to get coordinates from by walking up above launch. The map showed him very close to the trail so George and Stan started down Chorro Grande, while Ottis and Chris K elected to go do recon from the air and get a better line on Neal. Ottis ended up the closest and flew right over Neal and elected to land on a trail 1/4 mile SE. Once down Neal's condition seemed to be declining so Ottis left his glider and started up the trail. Despite being VERY close neither George nor Ottis could find him and Neal was no longer so stoked about having to walk out. Ottis made the decision to get S&R to send the chopper. I called S&R but their office hours were 9-5. 911 was next but because of my location it went to LA dispatch. LA transferred me to VT dispatch, which transferred me to the VT Sheriff Dept, which transferred to Oxnard Fire. At that point the call dropped so I had to go through the process 3 more times before I was finally able to give Oxn Fire coordinates and frequencies. Less than 30 minutes later the chopper plucked Neal out of the bushes. Neal refused transport to a hospital after the medic checked him out so they dropped him with Chris K at the Sandpile and headed out. Meanwhile I headed down the road and ran into 3 Sheriffs and an ambulance out of Lockwood valley who had gotten the alert. One of the Sheriffs we had met earlier last year and had a nice conversation with at the Sandpile so we were all on familiar terms. They followed me to the Sandpile where Neal was looking a little limpy but otherwise casual and in no hurry to go anywhere. We piled him into Robin's car with a few others and sent him down the road to the Ojai hospital to get checked out. The ambulance staff had checked him out as well and gave him the thumbs up.
Ottis was supposedly hiking out but reported coming to a dead end at the East end of the trail. It became clear that he was on the old Gypsum mine road that crosses Chorro Grande. We directed him back West where we would intersect the trail and be able to continue out. A short while later we get a cryptic message indicating that he cannot continue on the Gypsum road. It becomes clear that he's trapped behind an active and new pot farm and doesn't want to risk getting shot. Seemed reasonable though we knew having to call the chopper again was not going to be fun. He was good and stuck and there was no other way out other than through and Ottis is former Sheriff's dept and current Fire crew, so figured he'd adequately assessed the situation. He made the call again for a chopper. However, we were now at the Sandpile with 0 chance of cell reception. This is where we separate the DeLorme InReach locators from the SPOTs. With the DeLorme we were able to get a TXT out to OJ who called S&R and was able to confirm that they were on the way. About an hour later, no chopper but 2 Sheriffs, back from Lockwood valley showed up. One was REALLY upset to be back at Pine until we explained that Ottis was trapped behind an active farm. He was much more understanding after that and explained that those farms are well tended and often by guys armed with deer rifles. However, knowing that the active grow was so close to Ottis, the chopper pilots had to decide whether they wanted to drop in so close and risk taking fire. Apparently there was some debate at HQ as to how to proceed. Ottis had walked about a mile East on the trail which they felt somewhat better about and at 11PM the helicopter departed. By 11:45 Ottis was back on the ground at the Sandpile. Turns out he knew both the pilots so they caught up briefly before we finally got out of Pine.
Neal finally got himself to the ER, after a casual dinner, and discovered he had a collapsed lung, but hasn't reported any other injuries.
What started as a relatively easy extraction for an injured pilot turned into a bit of an ordeal. Ottis made the hero sacrifice by trying to land near Neal, and if anyone was going to go in for him Ottis would be my first choice. However, he had no way of knowing at the time that he'd be trapped behind enemy lines and end up needing extraction himself.
Lessons from the day in chronological order:
•Speed-bar at low altitude in thermic conditions might make for a big deflation that's unrecoverable before the terrain gets ya.
•SPOTS were the default locator of choice back in the day but the InReach is WAY better. If we had not had cell reception at the top of Pine we'd have had no way to get Neal's coordinates and no way to get a txt out to OJ for the second chopper. DeLorme even does a $50 trade-in for pilots, through Fly Above All, if they surrender their old SPOTS. Hit me up, I have DeLorme's in stock.
•In an emergency, unless the pilot is ON the trail, the chopper can often get to them faster than you can. It's easy to become another victim in the wilderness.
•If you didn't walk in, you may not be able to walk out. There are lots of dead-end deer trails.
•CARRY AN EMERGENCY KIT. Extra water, flashlight, multitool, GPS that doesn't need cell reception, InReach, small first-aid kit, etc.