SKY WATCH CAP NEWS
2007 ANNUAL PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITION
The Chairman, the Chief Pilot and the National Secretary were unanimous in their selection of the winners on the Annual
Photographic Competition 2007. There are three categories; Category 1 is an air to ground photograph of a feature of interest,
Category 2 is a photograph of a Sky Watch aircraft and Category 3 is a photograph of a reported incident.
The winner of Category 1 is Colin Reeves, an observer with No 21 (Worcestershire) Unit, with a photograph of Pershore Cathedral
(Canon EON 350D).
The winner of Category 2 is Malcolm Parsons, deputy unit chief pilot No 23 (Highland) Unit, with a photograph of the
MCR01 aircraft belonging to the unit chief pilot, Peter Macintosh and colleagues at No 23 Unit. (Canon IXUS 960).
The winner of Category 3 is Colin Reeves with a photograph of flooding in Worcestershire (Nikon Coolpix S3).
The winner of the Annual Photographic Competition 2007 is Colin Reeves. Congratulations to Colin from the President, the
Chairman and the Trustees of Sky Watch Civil Air Patrol.
Entries for the Annual Photographic Competition 2008 should be forwarded to the webmaster Ian Rutland at oatlands@talk21.com
with the location, date and type of camera as well as the name of the photographer and unit details. Photographs must be taken
with a digital camera and forwarded to the webmaster as an attachment to an e-mail. The latter requirement is to provide the
photographer with an opportunity to send photgraphs electronically in near real time. Entries to the competion will be added
to the website photo gallery for 2008.
Sky Watch Civil Air Patrol
With the approval of the Charity Commission the Sky Watch Auxiliary Air Service has changed its name to Sky Watch Civil
Air Patrol. Chairman, Arnold Parker explained, "The Trustees believe that the new name more closely reflects the role
of what is now the largest volunteer flying group of its type in Europe." "With a fleet of aircraft that may well reach
250 by the end of 2007 there are many parallels to be drawn between the US Civil Air Patrol and its UK equivalent",
the Chairman added.
Sky Watch now has 16 units throughout the UK and many more pilots and aircraft operating from detached locations. With the
motto 'Observe and Report' public safety is at the forefront of Sky Watch activities and this year it became a member of
the Voluntary Sector Civil Protection Forum which works closely with Government Civil Contingencies Secretariat to
integrate voluntary groups with the emergency services when dealing with national emergencies such as wide scale flooding.
Although the bulk of Sky Watch pilots and observers 'observe and report' during recreational flying, Sky Watch has a
memorandum of understanding with HM Coastguard who list the charities aircraft as additional resources to supplement the
dedicated search and rescue aircraft. Some units also work closely with the volunteer mountain rescue teams and the chief
pilot of No 23 (Highland) Unit based at RAF Kinloss in Scotland is also the Sky Watch liaison officer at the Aeronautical
Rescue Co-ordination Centre, also at RAF Kinloss.
Small aircraft can be a big help to the professional emergency services. This Eurostar, flown by John Lynch, recently
assisted a police helicopter in carrying out a search for a missing person.
Gyrocopter Trials with Thames Coastguard
Sky Watch and Thames Barrier Coastguard are carrying out trials with an MT-O3 gyrocopter. Coastguard Officers Adrian Bates
and Phil Myers are dealing with the Thames part of the operation and Sky Watch Pilot Kai Maurer is flying the gyro.
The trials will consist of simple air observation and search flights and radio communication trials along the south
bank of the Thames, roughly from 5nm West of Gravesend to Whitstable Harbour.
The purpose of the trials are to jointly evaluate the gyrocopter for air observation and search work along the Thames
coastline and to test the viability of transmitting from the aircraft’s radio to a hand held airband radio. The MT-03
can fly in wind and turbulent conditions which would deter operations by conventional light aircraft and the radio trials,
if successful, might provide a solution for communicating with individual Coastguard patrols and the smaller Coastguard
stations which do not have a comprehensive aircraft communications station. Sky Watch President Wing Commander Ken Wallis
MBE is a long term advocate of gyrocopters for air observation and search.
The German manufactured MT-03 is also on trials with the German police as a supplement to the police force’s traditional
helicopters.
Flashing in the Highlands
Why include a camera in your emergency equipment in case of a forced landing in the Highlands? Because you can point the
camera on "flash" towards land or air searchers and the camera flash can be seen up to fifteen miles away at night and
five miles in daylight.
That is just one of many practical tips in "Highland Flying" by Sky Watch Pilot Peter Macintosh, an ex RAF Red Arrows
pilot who also did mountain flying operations in Borneo on RAF re-supply missions, has flown the Highlands in jets. He
now flies an MCR01 Banbi for the Highlands Sky Watch Unit.
For a small donation to Sky Watch the "Highland Flying" booklets are available from:
Peter Macintosh, Sky Watch Highlands, 1 Bridge Street, Portsoy, AB45 2GP Please make donation cheques to "Sky Watch"
(minimum £6 please to cover print, post and packing).
Sky Watch Passes 200
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
The number of pilots in Sky Watch grew to 212 making it by far the largest voluntary air observation and search service in Europe.
Member numbers accelerated in September following a feature article on the work of the service in the Daily Telegraph. Growth was
further increased by 14 pilots at the new No.9 (East Yorkshire) Unit at Eddsfield. Edd Peacock is Chief Pilot of the Unit, based
at the popular airfield in beautiful surroundings on the Yorkshire Wolds. The Unit will be particularly useful for liaison with
the Humberside Coastguard Search & Rescue Centre at Bridlington.
SkyWatch AAS Fly In and AGM 2007
Monday, May 14, 2007
I have pleasure in advising you that a Sky Watch AAS Fly-In (incorporating the AGM) will be held on Saturday 2 June 2007 at Fenland Aero Club, Holbeach St. Johns, Lincolnshire.
Further details have been sent out to all members by email and/or post. If you have not recieved yours, please contact Graham Whitehead using the contact form.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Sky Watch Dam-Busters
Monday, May 14, 2007
A Cessna 172 of the Sky Watch Moray Firth Unit on a training exercise with Kinloss Mountain Rescue Team was called by Aberdeen Coastguard to help locate an angler who had fallen into a small loch 5nm south of Elgin and was trapped in the water up to his neck.
The angler was located and the decision taken by Coastguard to breach the loch edge to lower the water level in order to rescue him.
The Sky Watch aircraft was asked to stay on scene to monitor the flood water as it flowed toward Elgin heading north, in case of
danger to people, property or livestock.
The angler was eventually released and taken to Inverness by the Helimed helicopter where his condition was later reported as
satisfactory.
Although some fields were flooded, no buildings were damaged and having monitored the situation, the Sky Watch aircraft returned to its base after 90 minutes.
The Sky Watch crew were Pilot Peter Macintosh (ex Red Arrows) and Pilot James McNie acting as Observer.
Sky Watch Honorary Chief Pilot
Sunday, July 02, 2006
Squadron Leader Tony Cowan MBE has been appointed Honorary Chief Pilot of the Sky Watch voluntary air observation and search
service to provide advice to the Trustees on operational procedures and standards. A good deal of his aviation career has been
involved in emergency and humanitarian air operations. During his RAF career he flew the C130 Hercules and Nimrods on search and
rescue, in addition to executive RAF posts and specialist flying, including the Round the World Chipmunk flight; his personal
aircraft, WP 962 is in the RAF Museum at Hendon.
Following RAF service he flew the ubiquitous BN Islander in the service of the
UK police and also flew the same aircraft for the Scottish Air Ambulance Service. As a member of the RAF reserves he currently
flies the Grob Tutor in the Air Cadet air experience role. In addition to his military career and flying for the emergency
services.
Tony, a former member of the crew of the Hartlepool Lifeboat, is a Governor of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. He is also
a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation and a former member of one of the UKs civilian mountain rescue teams.
Sky Watch Chairman Arnold Parker said, "We are fortunate to have Tony on our team. He is typical of of the highly qualified
aviators that form the core of our service and who instill the high standards that are so important to our service."