I saw this...





























To put it into context, it was this close!





The story goes like this: I towed my quad up to Wales behind my Landrover and, staying at the Seven Sisters site, it seemed rude not to go out with 3 friends and enjoy Sarn Helen. As we approached Brecon, having dodged literally hundreds of racing mountain bikes, it occurred to me that The Gap road is open so we made our way there via another couple of lanes and, upon arriving at the summit and climbing some rocky steps I was surprised to discover the Wales air ambulance parked at the top. Somehow it seemed the most unlikely thing to discover there.

About 1/2 mile down the track towards Merthyr I could see the back of a Landrover 110 with a blue light flashing - I know what you are thinking, no not the cave rescue one. A brief discussion with the AA pilot and the medic revealed a need to get the medic, kit and spinal board(?) down to the ambulance so we loaded both onto quads and drove them down to the scene.

It turned out that one of the racing cyclists, on a 110km ride, had fallen and stabbed himself with his own handlebars - nasty. They had tried to land the AA on the track near the scene but it was a non starter and had had to land at the top where we had met them. It then transpired that they were awaiting the arrival of a SeaKing to do an airlift as they did not want to recover the patient all the way back to the AA - too bumpy I guess. We took this as our cue to have lunch and await the arrival of the helecopter.

The SeaKing soon arrived and, as it turned out, we had been advised to wait awfully close to where the pilot decided to drop off the guy on the line. At one point the helecopter was all but hovering above us, no more than 40' or so. Bl00dy awsome! The pics were taken with a mobile phone camera with no zoom, that is how close we were! Incredible skill on the part of the pilot, keeping the helecopter still and stable about 20' above a 30 odd degree slope while the wind gusted from the RH side. At a guess the rotor tips were only about 10' from the slope on the high side. Big respect.

So, there you are. The airlift was made successfully and we then returned 2 medics and kit to the AA by quad before having ringside seats to watch that take off too. I am sure that our small part will never come to public light but it is nice to feel that we made ourselves useful and helped out in an emergency.

Just one thing. Thanks to the two bobble-hatters who, even after being told to wait and why, could not wait for the rescue to take place and insisted on walking right through the scene while the medics were fixing the casualty to the lifting cradle affair. Typical git, bobble hatted, red socked, monkeys.

Cheers

Chris

RAF Mountain Rescue & SAR helo at their best, most likely St Athan MR team & Valley Sea king, did a good job there Chris top marks, surprised by the bobbly hats not waiting shame the helo did blow them over the edge

Very nearly blew us off! ..phnarrr. The downdraught was quite staggering. Blew our lunch everywhere and blew one guy's helmet away.

Chris

A few years ago they were using a helicopter to lift comms equipment on to the top teh University arts tower here in Sheffield.

We were allowed to stand near the bottom of the building while this was going on, truly awesome!

It would have been Central Brecons MRT. St Athan would have taken a bit longer to get there.

I was over that way all weekend myself training up my Search Dog SARDA England

We work with Sea Kings on a regular basis both for deployment of search dogs and for rescues. I am always astounded at the skills of not only the pilot, but all of the crew. You've got to have some faith when hanging 50ft from the bottom of a whirly bird on a winch wire.

Chris - well done for helping out. We have used greenlaners for assistance in the past and are always grateful for the support they give (although we have had to rescue green laners too).

Dave
Member - Buxton MRT

When i drove the gap last year, there was a mountain bike ride, and a chap had fallen off. i gave him a lift down to the ambulance in the 90.


You don't see the rambliars helping otehr members of the public like that do you?


Actually, here's a hypothetical question for ya'll.....

If you were out, say on the Gap, which has been shut for part of the year due to the rambliars antics, and you found an injured bobble-hatter, would you:

a ) tell him/her where to stick their flask and OS map, tell them that thanks to the RA view's we're loosing our RoW's for 4x4's ( and then be chuffed you managed to "sock it to them" and make them feel stupid)

or

B ) ferry the injured person to an awaiting hurse/ambulance, biting your lip for actually having a rambliar in your 4x4, but knowing that you might have helped our "cause" a little bit by doing this godly task?

to be brutally honest Jim, it'd depend on their attitude. if they are well enough to insult & abuse me for darling to drive along a road then they could stay there. why go out of your way to help when you dont get gratitude?


*awaits reaction*

Doesn't matter if they are a rambler or not. We shouldn't lower ourselves to their standards. So always offer assistance.

club them with hilift jack and then bury them... (as you are in the middle of no where.) plus - think how much money it'll cost to save them.. (NHS that is) saving the tax payer millions..


er, if foreign - escort them to the nearest ferry docks or airport for deportation, even if legal..

unless female - about the age of 18 - 25 and really really nice, at which point, do what ever they ask.

Well done & good pics Chris.

Seakings have a radar altitude autopilot for hovering, gives them one less thing to think about trying to keep it stable above 30 foot waves in the Atalantic.

Possible, but I know for fact that the St Athan team spend lots of weekends in that area doing training & travel on Friday afternoon / evenings so possible they may have been in the right place at the right time.

Blimey Chris, we missed all of that being on the site, must get the quad road legal! Bugger!

The rescue was carried out by Brecon MRT. See incident no 39 here

Top job by the boys of Brecon good pic of the helo from the other direction to Chris's photo too