Wildflower Evacuation
"The Wildflower Evacuation" Captain Doug Dawson, Kalgoorlie Base
An emergency call directed to the Royal Flying Doctor Service duty doctor at the Kalgoorlie Base, Western Australia on the 25th August 1998 started a chain of events which were what one would expect of the "Flying Doctors" on TV. However, the following is true.
A call came in from a station north of Southern Cross - the caller was on his own, a vehicle jack had collapsed, breaking his leg. He had managed to drag himself over 100m to the house and to a phone.
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At 0935 hours the Communication Coordinators initiated action - I was the duty pilot and called at the Kalgoorlie Base.
I had flown into the station's strip some 31/2 years before. A call to the patient confirmed the strip had been inspected in the past few days - "its in good condition, but has a few wildflowers on it".
With this information the aircraft King Air CWO was prepared for flight. The crew consisted of Nurse Sue Salter, Doctor Mike Mears, engineer Shane Parslow (in case we needed to fix the offending vehicle) and myself, Captain Doug Dawson.
As the house was in from the strip about 1½ -2kms Dr Mears loaded on a piece of additional equipment, his electric orange mountain bike.
Taxi time was 1115 hours and the trip was uneventful, until over the top of the strip. There were plenty of wildflowers all right, but no one had mentioned the cattle!
I decided to make one pass downwind and downhill to shift the stock, then assess the possibility of landing off the second pass. There was quite a scatter off the first pass, and after setting up for landing, the approach was made to 300 feet. As the rest of the stock shifted, the approach was continued and the landing was made.
Sue sorted the medical equipment to be taken in while Shane and I walked through the masses of white and yellow everlasting daisy's to check the rest of the strip for rocks and holes. And Mike? Well he had his bike together and was on his way Station house within minutes.
Twenty minutes later we heard the sound of an approaching truck with Mike behind the wheel. The vehicle had no driver's side door, very little exhaust, and a stock crate for cattle on the back. Dr Mears had driven back to pick the medical equipment and us up. The gear was loaded in the crate, plus Sue, Shane and myself - there was no passenger seat in the front, and we headed back to the pick up the injured pastoralist. While Sue and Mike attended the patient, Shane and I checked the accident vehicle, and a decision was made to leave well alone and use the stock truck to get back to the Aircraft.
Once the patient was stablised, he was placed on a vacuum mattress and carried out to the truck. With some difficulty he was loaded on to the stock crate, and with Mike on his bike, Shane driving, Sue tending the patient, and me holding on, the convoy made their way back to the King Air known as CWO.
The wheeled stretcher and the stretcher-lifting device fitted to the aircraft made loading swift and relatively easy. Once the patient (and bicycle) was secured, the aircraft was started and we returned to Kalgoorlie.
Something different I suppose, but the sort of task for which we exist. It was good to have all the different trades, professions and staff involved in a true RFDS mission, in true RFDS spirit - "the wildflower evacuation".