Post by flyjoe180 on Dec 12, 2007 10:53:43 GMT 12
Night-vision goggles help rescuers
By JOANNA NORRIS - The Press | Tuesday, 11 December 2007
Rescue personnel aboard the Westpac rescue helicopter have new night-vision goggles that significantly improve their ability to operate at night.
The tiny light of a tealight candle flickers in the darkness. To the naked eye the wavering light is only visible for a few metres but to those who know how to spot it and have technology on their side, the light is a life-saving beacon.
Rescue helicopter services across New Zealand have spent the past 18 months equipping themselves with technology to assist with night-time missions all but impossible until now.
Christchurch-based Garden City Helicopters, which operates air-rescue services for the Canterbury, Nelson and West Coast regions, acquired its first sets of night-vision goggles almost a year ago.
Over the past year the service has bought six sets -- two each for Nelson, Canterbury and the West Coast.
Operations manager Grant Withers said the pilots and crew had undergone training in the use of the goggles and now regularly carried the tools on rescue missions.
"They love it," he said. "They wonder how the hell we did without them for so long. We use them for every night flight, even if it's a straightforward task."
Before the arrival of the goggles, pilots flying from Canterbury to the West Coast would need to reach an altitude of 10,000 feet to ensure a safe passage across the Southern Alps. With the goggles, a much lower and more efficient flight path can be followed.
The goggles pick up even the tiniest dot of light. A tealight was recently used as a source of light by a helicopter service operating in the south of the South Island. A successful rescue was launched as a result.
However, Withers was quick to stress that the goggles were not a magic solution to poor flying conditions.
Minimum visibility distances still apply and fog and low cloud can still force the cancellation or abandonment of a mission.
Due to strict controls on the export of night-vision technology from the United States, emergency services must go through a rigorous regulatory process in order to obtain the goggles "in case we turn into terrorists and use them for bad things", Withers said.
The goggles (Model F4949, AN/ AVS-9 Aviator Night Vision Imaging System) are manufactured by US-based ITT Industries.
The goggles, like the human eye, use reflected energy to produce an image, but unlike the eye, they are sensitive to a wide range of available energy in the night sky and intensify the light energy as it passes through the goggles.
As the light electrons enter the goggles, they hit millions of microscopic glass tubes which in turn release additional electrons which glow when they hit a phosphor screen.
This creates an intensified image which is reflected back onto the user's retina.
This technology greatly increases rescuers' ability to spot even tiny light sources -- as small as tealights or the glow of a mobile phone screen -- from several kilometres away.
And Withers said now that rescuers have Batmanesque capabilities to spot tiny lights, all those venturing into the wilderness should consider taking some sort of light to help air borne rescuers spot them even in the dark of the night.
www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4319991a11275.html
By JOANNA NORRIS - The Press | Tuesday, 11 December 2007
Rescue personnel aboard the Westpac rescue helicopter have new night-vision goggles that significantly improve their ability to operate at night.
The tiny light of a tealight candle flickers in the darkness. To the naked eye the wavering light is only visible for a few metres but to those who know how to spot it and have technology on their side, the light is a life-saving beacon.
Rescue helicopter services across New Zealand have spent the past 18 months equipping themselves with technology to assist with night-time missions all but impossible until now.
Christchurch-based Garden City Helicopters, which operates air-rescue services for the Canterbury, Nelson and West Coast regions, acquired its first sets of night-vision goggles almost a year ago.
Over the past year the service has bought six sets -- two each for Nelson, Canterbury and the West Coast.
Operations manager Grant Withers said the pilots and crew had undergone training in the use of the goggles and now regularly carried the tools on rescue missions.
"They love it," he said. "They wonder how the hell we did without them for so long. We use them for every night flight, even if it's a straightforward task."
Before the arrival of the goggles, pilots flying from Canterbury to the West Coast would need to reach an altitude of 10,000 feet to ensure a safe passage across the Southern Alps. With the goggles, a much lower and more efficient flight path can be followed.
The goggles pick up even the tiniest dot of light. A tealight was recently used as a source of light by a helicopter service operating in the south of the South Island. A successful rescue was launched as a result.
However, Withers was quick to stress that the goggles were not a magic solution to poor flying conditions.
Minimum visibility distances still apply and fog and low cloud can still force the cancellation or abandonment of a mission.
Due to strict controls on the export of night-vision technology from the United States, emergency services must go through a rigorous regulatory process in order to obtain the goggles "in case we turn into terrorists and use them for bad things", Withers said.
The goggles (Model F4949, AN/ AVS-9 Aviator Night Vision Imaging System) are manufactured by US-based ITT Industries.
The goggles, like the human eye, use reflected energy to produce an image, but unlike the eye, they are sensitive to a wide range of available energy in the night sky and intensify the light energy as it passes through the goggles.
As the light electrons enter the goggles, they hit millions of microscopic glass tubes which in turn release additional electrons which glow when they hit a phosphor screen.
This creates an intensified image which is reflected back onto the user's retina.
This technology greatly increases rescuers' ability to spot even tiny light sources -- as small as tealights or the glow of a mobile phone screen -- from several kilometres away.
And Withers said now that rescuers have Batmanesque capabilities to spot tiny lights, all those venturing into the wilderness should consider taking some sort of light to help air borne rescuers spot them even in the dark of the night.
www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4319991a11275.html
