(original post by 1-APR-2002 by Bill Weiss)

"AS soon as our Mustang Ice Commander suits come in, we'll start training in Cook Inlet, Alaska. It's taken me a fair amount of coordination with the municipality to get permission to cross the small strip of municipal land that lies between our west end boundary and the inlet. Also, any time we go out into the inlet, I'll first give Kulis Air National Guard a head up. If we happen to break down, a Kulis UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter will come get us - both hovercraft and crew. Kulis made a custom sling for a hovercraft. At some point (soon) we'll do a practice lift. The helicopter will hover just above the craft while I connect the sling to their belly hook. Then both hovercraft crewmembers will be hoisted into the helicopter prior to lifting the hovercraft. Each of my twelve hovercraft pilots (three per shift) will do at least one hoist into the helicopter. They'll do that form the water - well away from the hovercraft, to limit the exposure of rotor blast to the hovercraft. We're extremely lucky to have Kulis Air National Guard available to us. Always nice to have a few back up options.

At least for our department, all of this coordination and getting our portion of the Cook Inlet response plan up and running is pretty much a one man show on my part. However, whether I'm dealing with folks within the airport system, other agencies, I'm getting a great deal of cooperation form everyone. Pretty hard to say no when the goal is to save lives. It does make me wonder who will pick up the ball in six years when I retire.

We've ordered our first of four eight-person Shoresava Inflatable Buoyant Apparatus to be deployed with the hovercraft. One of my goals is still to have one hovercraft for Lake Hood and one for Cook Inlet. Once we get successfully past the August exercise, I'll try to convince airport management of the need for a second hovercraft. The hovercraft is turning a lot of heads and generating a lot of interest. I'm trying to avoid the media until we're properly prepared to best demonstrate the craft's capabilities during breakup in Lake Hood."

The best to all of you.

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