Sunshine Coast residents heard the hum of a Land Rover LifeFlight Special Mission Helicopter off the coast of Mudjimba in Queensland recently, as crews from Australian aeromedical retrieval service RACQ LifeFlight Rescue completed vital water winch training. The Land Rover LifeFlight Special Mission helicopter is an AW139 fitted with a winch, enabling offshore rescue ops. It was launched in December 2020.

“Water winching is the skill we need to practice the most,” says chief aircrew officer Simon Gray. “This is really important training for us; it means we can go out and save people in the water.”

Rescue crews braved winter temperatures to complete annual water rescue training in conjunction with Queensland Police Service's Sunshine Coast-based boat. “At the end of the day, we want winching to be our last resort but, obviously, we need to be prepared to do it,” Gray continues.

The exercise aims to ensure RACQ LifeFlight Rescue crews are always ready to respond to rescues and emergencies on the water.

RACQ LifeFlight Rescue pilot Brent Hall says the exercise is very important in keeping the community safe. “Emergency services always work together, so it's great to be able to do our training with the police and make sure they understand our techniques and we understand theirs,” he states.

Five rescue pilots, three aircrew officers and three rescue swimmers completed several training scenarios, including dropping a life raft, winching people to and from the ocean and winching an RACQ LifeFlight Rescue swimmer to and from the back of the QPS vessel.

“On training days, like this, you've got the aircraft moving, the boat moving and you're trying to get a person, our aircrew office, on the back of a small boat deck,” Hall adds. “It is difficult but with great teamwork we're able to achieve good training outcomes in a nice, safe way.”

The Land Rover LifeFlight Special Mission helicopter performed this training exercise as it is currently, temporarily based on the Sunshine Coast, while the familiar blue and yellow RACQ LifeFlight Rescue helicopter undergoes scheduled engineering.

The aircraft is part of LifeFlight Australia's commercial operation, which supports the work of the community helicopter fleet, through a profit-for-purpose model and is rotated through its community bases from time to time, when operationally required.