VIDEO: A peek inside helicopter training with Juan de Fuca Search and Rescue

Juan de Fuca SAR volunteers trained on boarding and deboarding a hovering helicopter at Jordan River on a foggy Saturday morning, described as a mandatory annual exercise done every year with West Coast Helicopter, called a key partner in the team's tasks as well as training. Volunteer Michelle Holmes said it's always exhilarating when a helicopter is involved, and spoke to the trust required within the team. Teams of five practiced approaching, boarding, buckling in and reversing the process; new trainees repeated it three times while those recertifying did it once. The team has a dozen new members this year, selected from 100 applicants, who trained two to three times weekly and completed an overnight survival camp. Citing BC Search and Rescue Association context, the article notes 3,200 unpaid professional volunteers manage up to 2,000 incidents a year provincewide, and quotes BCSARA president Dale Parker on how distance, terrain, weather, access routes and limited connectivity affect response times in rural and remote regions ahead of the Victoria Day long weekend.