Well today has been busy. In fact it’s been quite a busy time recently for the team.

Work was pootling along quite happily until about 1200, when we had a call on the Blorenge up by Abergavenny. Details were given as a 44 year old with chest pains. “This is going to be a quick one” I thought and rushed off accross town to my car and shot off up to the M4. I got penned in on the A467 by some traffic that wouldn’t let me turn on the A40, so I had to carry on pretty much up to Monmouth before I could turn around. Along the A40, the stand down came, csualty’s been evac’d by Rescue 169 the RAF SAR Helicopter, so I pulled into lane 1 and eased off, wondering what was the fastest place I could turn around. Next thing I know is the pager goes off again and I’m thinking “Hello, it’s another stand down message.” Instead it’s a 111 – heads up from the IC that the POlice have contacted us. While I’m trying to work out if someone’s fluffed up the message, a second one comes through, yup it’s a second incident, details to follow.

So, off we go again, down the heads of the valley road. Hit Merthyr, where Echo, the team landrover whizzed past me on blues. Bravo, the Brecon control truck came past a few minutes later followed by Whisky their Landy, as I pulled in to find Tonypandy where the RV was. Down to Aberdare, and this is where it got interesting. It’s been about 2 hours since the first call went and due to the heat and my driving, my brakes overheat and I get brake fade. 10 minutes waiting for them to cool down in Aberdare and I decided to head up over the top and drop down to Maerdy, the thought being that the uphill will give them airflow enough to cool down, and worst case I can use engine brakeing to get me down. What happens? I come down into Maerdy at 20mph in 2nd. By this point they’re almost back to normal, so off I pootle again. Finally find the RV (God I need my sat nav back), and get to the control vehicle. I can see the casualty, he’s a 70-odd year old chap who’s fallen and has a back injury, but is in good spirits. Rescue 169 comes back again, which is nice, because us in control now get a nice 70mph breeze to cool us down. 🙂

After all this, it’s about 5pm, so I head off to the Air Cadets. Much fun.

Still haven’t found out any details of the DoE group that got pulled off last week – 6 kids on a Gold exped, with hypothermia severe enough that they got helo’d down to Hospital immediately by Rescue 169. I want details of that one, as I’m going to be trainig up a group with the ATC.

Anyway, enough for now. House is coming along, can’t wait to get in. Damn this heat…

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