Posts Tagged ‘Search Training’

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Hampshire Search and Rescue Team Abuse Local MP

January 29th, 2010

Hantsar last night invited a couple of local politicians along to their search training. Here are some of their responses;

After fun eve with hants search and rescue scratched face will recover. Trousers probably won’t! Good stuff. Nice people… Sandra Gidley, MP

and

Great evening training with Hampshire Search and Rescue

Impressed by the friendly atmosphere, teamwork & the technical difficulty of ensuring every area covered at night on rough terrain… Martin Tod

Sounds like a good evening all round, good publicity, good networking and good search training!

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Qualified Search Controllers, Search Managers and Search Trainers

January 24th, 2010

One of the comments made following my piece on getting the search controllers assignment right was that a database of qualified search controllers and managers would be useful to “trainees” [for want of a better word...]

In truth what Johnnie Walker actually said was;

Rob, could you collate and list the qualified Search Controllers within ALSAR, so that people know who to speak to for help? (let’s not discuss whether this is an ALSAR function rather than a Re-search issue; JFDI!) [Read it here ...]

Unfortunately I do not have the time to find e-mail addresses for all the teams and waste time discussing with any of them whether this is a suitable activity, whether this comes under data protection and so on. This is not to say I’m adverse to collating such information – which let’s face it would be extremely useful to so many people and organisations.

So, from today, I will be keeping a database of search controllers, search managers and search trainers/instructors within the UK (or I suppose available in the UK).

If you as an individual wish to be on this database, (or if your team/unit wishes all its qualified members to be on the database), drop me an e-mail with details of your qualifications, courses taken and/or courses you can teach. If you include your contact details (along with which way you prefer to be contacted!) that would be helpful too!

I promise that this information will be kept in the strictest confidence and only released to members of recognised SAR teams/organisations and/or police forces if you agree.

It has been pointed out that my e-mail address is not published on the website anywhere – and I intend it to stay that way! If you do not have my e-mail address, put a comment asking for it and I’ll e-mail you! Anything else?

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Posted in Search Courses, Search Thoughts, Search Training

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Wabi-sabi and the Art of Search

January 20th, 2010

OK – I admit it. I need to get out more.

I read a book a while back on Leonardo da Vinci. It was saying something like we can think like this genius, by putting into practice these six or seven skills. I didn’t take too much notice but it came back to me the other day when reading something else. [I'll soon explain, don't worry.]

One of the skills you need, according to Michael Gelb in his book – How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci [I went and found the reference like a good student!], is Connessione – a recognition and appreciation for inter-connectedness! So, I’m reading one of the books I got for Christmas – Living out LOUD by Keri Smith – when she starts talking about Wabi-sabi. Wabi-sabi, according to the book, is a “Japanese concept that speaks to the art of imperfection, and/or the willingness to accept things as they are.”

Amazingly, given my total distrust of anything even slightly esoteric and my inability to not say something when something is imperfect, I kept reading. Well, it was all about sketching a stick – and how after thirty minutes the “simple stick had become something living, moving and expanding”.

However, it did get me thinking about search – you’ll be glad and unsurprised to hear. It reminded me of something Ian “Max” Maxwell had said during one of his tracking courses and can be found in his book – Animal Tracks ID and Techniques - about Zoning In.

Once you surrender and become part of your surroundings you will have zoned in. You will now be able to hear every movement, every sound, see everything and feel everything around you…

Once you have zoned in for at least twenty minutes you will know the baseline for noises, bird song, activity, motion and insect life. You will also know the baseline for the ground, trees and shrubs in the landscape around you.

It is here that the tracker will detect any variation from the baseline, be it hearing, feeling, seeing, smelling and taste.

The good searcher – whether a tracker or an “ordinary” [although they are no such thing] foot searcher – finds things that are out of place; that shouldn’t be there; like the missing person. How do they do this? By “knowing” the environment they are searching well; knowing what the vegetation is like, knowing what the rubbish should be like, just “knowing” the area and something out of place.

This was what the original SEBEV clue field was all about – before its meaning was lost in time – seeing those things that were out of place.  I’m sure this exercise, or a similar one, does have a place in training. We do NOT search for clues and an excellent trainer would be needed to run this session and not have it slow down to a snail’s pace “searching” for clues. BUT [note the BIG but!), but if we could find a way to expand searcher’s knowledge of what is and isn’t right in the environment this would be a very worthwhile exercise.

What do you think?

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Posted in Search Books, Search Thoughts, Search Training

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ISIS SAR Search Exercise Evaluation

December 16th, 2009

From the way I write you would think that ALSAR is falling apart; I keep saying “one of the things we do badly is…”.
And guess what? Here is yet another thing that I believe ALSAR doesn’t do well at. Sharing knowledge; especially feedback and learning points from search exercise de-briefs and evaluations. But one of the newest ALSAR Units is going to lead the way on this.

Read on…

Rob asked me to provide a write up of the Isis SAR exercise earlier this month.  I’m sorry it took so long to do – university got in the way…

On Sunday 6th December, Isis SAR’s first full search exercise took place.  The RV was at Chinnor Cement works, Oxfordshire, and searchers attending were from WilSAR, Isis SAR, SEBEV and LSDogs.  We also had three guests from Thames Valley Police Service and one from TASR – Technical and Specialist Rescue, who offer Isis training in water access and ropes.  WilSAR brought their new control vehicle, along with their kayaks and bikes.  Isis SAR brought the inflatable rib they have access to, in order to see if this was an effective manner to search larger areas of deep water, and also brought the new control vehicle, which had been so kindly donated by WilSAR earlier in the week.

The search was pre-planned, based on a scenario of a typical male despondent.  Adrian Smith (WilSAR) and Jennie Webster (Isis SAR) drew up and roughly prioritised the sectors the day before to ensure that the exercise did not involve too much waiting around for searchers while all the planning took place.  Although this did significantly cut down on the waiting around, there was still a delay while waiting for people to get there, as confirmation from a few more people had been received.  This was a main learning point for control, not to wait next time and to brief those who were there at the RV time.

Thirty five searchers took part in the exercise, with three in control.  Two “directors” were present to answer any questions from the police as to what ALSAR teams do.  Ten teams were sent out to sectors.  These comprised of a bike team, a kayak team, two dog teams, six foot teams and a boat team.

Eleven sectors were searched, four of which covered the 300m radius surrounding the place last seen, and so were covered by two different teams each.  The kayak team and second dog team were both redeployed to second sectors, and control were in the process of redeploying further foot teams when reports came in that the misper had been located.  The teams covered a large area in a small amount of time, demonstrating a high level of skill and current search knowledge in all the teams that were present.

The search area covered the 300m radius surrounding the PLS, significant reflectors within the 50% radius (where 50% of the misper category would have been found) and main routes and paths within this area.  Feedback from teams was encouraging, and no one reported that the sectors were inappropriate.  The qualified search controllers attending were happy with the pre-planned search areas and gave lots of constructive feedback on how to improve the exercise next time, e.g. getting teams out searching faster and being more assertive in control.

On a personal note, I really enjoyed the day and it was a really useful experience to be in control for the first time, especially working alongside such experienced search controllers.  I hope to improve next time I get to run control on an exercise – with more of an idea of what happens it should all go better the second time.  I felt it was good to have an exercise area where lots of different kinds of resources could go out on the ground and it was very good to be able to work with members of LSDogs and find out more about their capabilities.

I hope that everyone who attended had a good time and felt that it was a useful exercise and worth the long drives that quite a lot of people made.  We’d like to thank everyone who came for supporting us, and especially the WilSAR members who helped us organise and run it.

If anyone is reading this who attended, I’d love to hear any comments on how the exercise was set up and run, any feedback, whether negative or positive, would be really useful.

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Search exercise planners handbook – Part Seven

December 1st, 2009

Briefings

Out of necessity search exercises require two briefings. When it suits the exercise the first “exercise” briefing can be given to everyone attending all at once, with the “scenario” briefing being given to just the Search Management Team to allow them to brief the teams as they want. If the exercise is intended to practise callout procedures or similar then the “exercise” briefing may have to be given prior to the exercise, or in some circumstances the Search Management Team may have to give this briefing as part of the briefings to teams along with the scenarios and taskings.

What then is the difference?

All exercises should have an “exercise” briefing. This should clearly inform the participants of the parameters and objectives of the exercise. Participants learn more if given a “hook” to hang their learning on; an objective to aim for. [Interestingly research shows that you learn more overall if you are given a theme or objective, even learning more about subjects outside this theme, than if you aren't given any target or specific area to focus on!]

The “exercise” briefing can be used to inform participants of where they can and can’t go, how much to harass the local population and so on. Health and Safety should be mentioned at this point, outlining potential hazards if appropriate, reminding participants it is an exercise and we put ourselves in less risk during exercises than we would in actual incidents, and outlining procedures for any actual incident happening whilst on the exercise. This might include what would happen if a real search callout happened, or what would happen if an injury occurred or a member of the public required assistance.

Instructions on how the radios should be used during the exercise – possibly the use of “exercise message” prefix to all radio traffic – should be given along with any PRO-Words that should be used in the event of a real incident [NO DUFF?]

The “scenario” briefing can then be given. This should be as realistic as possible, even if this is not the most interesting. In some circumstances the Search Management Team can be given lots of information, in others limited information – again look back over past incidents. How much information are you generally given? If you ask for more, is this given? and when?

Use these answers as a guide to what scenario briefings should be like.

Return to Search Exercise Planners Handbook Index

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