Exercise EQUINOX

[BobWessex]

Just a reminder, it's on 26th 27th (of Sept)-- See someone is awake

[Darren Gloucester]

yup..you can have a glos contingent if you require!!! :P

[Jim Wallace]

Can have a Wales team if needed

[BobWessex]

Thanks Jim we MAY need one

[jon carter]

Thanks Jim we MAY need one

Hi all, sorry cant get any bux & oxon 4x4 response crews out to help you as we`re or most of us are marshalling the abingdon 4x4 festivel that weekend.

jon carter

[BobWessex]

OK Jon, all noted, to be honest I just don't know how many vehicles they will want (for good reason) If we don't have enough that will just add to the realism.. So there's no problem there.

[Simon Bentley]

Out of interest what is Exercise Equinox?

[BobWessex]

Exercise Equinox is the 5 yearly multi agency agency MAJOR exercise held in Wiltshire designed to test the response capabilities of all CAT1 and relevant Cat 2 agencies plus the voluntary sector. Lasting over 2 days (but not the night).



We are not only involved in the exercise itself but also providing 5 "support" vehicles to assist the pre-event set-up, and for other tasks during the exercise, i.e. transport of exercise referees etc. as required.



More can be seen here (http://www.4x4response.info/forumArchive/www.4x4response.net/nationalforum/index3045.html?topic=695.0)

[Dean - Suffolk]

You lucky people!

Suffolk had Suffex 08 that we were ready for, but we had to take a day off work during the week and then they cancelled it anyway. Turned into a tabletop exercise if memry serves.

About as proactive with their EP as they are with RoW!!!

[Tony Ferrari]

Yep! Strange bunch at Suffolk.



A couple of years ago I was offered an interview for the post of Head of EP at Suffolk CC.



The date was 23rd December!



When I explained that I had booked (and paid for) a holiday over Christmas and would be away from the 21st and wasn't expecting candidates to turn up two days before Christmas a bit over the top? I got the response, oh well never mind, we're going ahead anyway so bad luck.



Tomorrow it's an interview for another Head of EP job.... wish me luck guys!

[BobWessex]

Good luck -- hope all goes well

[robin-baldwin]

Good luck Tony.



For information of all members, I understand that there will be an EP post advertised shortly at Norfolk CC also an assistants post at NORMIT (Norfolk Major Incident Team).



Robin

[JonathonMarshall]

How did the interview go Tony?? Also what was the outcome of EQUINOX?

[BobWessex]

err Jonathan Equinox has not happened yet 26th/27th of this month.

[JonathonMarshall]

:oops: *gulps* just read page 1 and saw you reminding people of the dates at the beginning of August...assumption is the root of all evil :D On a side note, just seen the news - Wales and Glouscester hit by flooding any callouts? We're next - next 24 hours straight apparently.

[Tony Ferrari]

How did the interview go Tony?? Also what was the outcome of EQUINOX?



Not too bad, won't find out until Monday though!



They only interviewed two others and I know one of them. Certainly I believe I have superior experience to her although she does already work as an EPO for the PCT (Job is for the Head of Emergency Planning for the Hertfordshire Primary Care Trusts).



In fact she took me back down to reception after the interview :D Having known her for some years we were able to talk quite openly about our interviews. She was not confident and stated that she thought I had far more experience especially at a strategic level. I did remind her that she has specific NHS knowledge but she didn't seem to think this was a great advantage.



Neither of us knew the third candidate so that remains an unknown factor?



Oh well just have to wait and see.

[Pete Hallett]

Bob,



Did you get my PM about being available for Equinox on the saturday?



Thanks

Pete

[BobWessex]

Got it and replied thanks

[BobWessex]

We have had several units helping with the set-up today,



I have just received this from Alan WE22.



OK Just got home and begun to sort myself out.



We have ended for today but will be back tomorrow. The Disco of mine and Peters are now full of light (very) refreshments for the teams ready for distribution on Friday which will make it difficult maybe to do the Bronze as well. I’d wait and see what develops as its all very fluid right now.



Today we checked the ground sites for dangerous surfacing (JP would be proud of me) and then shifted 6 x scrap vehicles to the main site which involved winching and trailering them to the site. High profile and showed to the fire service another use of 4x4 Response.



The sites are quite small considering so everyone can see everyone else but there is more than one site. Scenario is at least one plane crash and a train plus lots of houses and cars in partial demolishment.



Friday we will be at the holding area in Dinton from about 10-10.30. There is a briefing due at 11am and then we (me) will likely disappear to the main site to meet Sam Weller before it kicks off at 12. Pretty much everything is signposted.



We need volunteers on Sat after 1400hrs to retrieve the cars with our winches to the gravelled roads so if we can have vehicles with winches available it would be very useful. Does anybody have a car trailer for Sat. Sunday we may still be required so if anybody wants to be available let me know asap.



Do bring food and drink to be self sufficient, you can never guarantee anything in the field. The rest centre is about 2/3 miles away so I suspect we may be used for people transport at some stage.



Main entrance to site is signposted Chilmark Without. Second area is the station without. Watch out for the quarry entrance on a double bend just before you reach the station.



Speed limit on the site is 20mph.



If nothing else the sight of them backing a low loader with an aircraft fuselage on it thorough a gate and down a muddy bank was well worth the wait



Don’t forget to mark your vehicles and I suggest they are left fairly empty. Trailers are unlikely to be needed until Sat pm. There is one flat bed car trailer that the Police have and we can use. You will find it down by the station without.

[BobWessex]

Well it can only be described as an interesting day, I set up our Silver near RAYNET Silver, both of us waited for the call to the exercise which didn't come. However, we had vehicles deployed most of the day in SUPPORT of the exercise ferrying officials (umpires etc.) and refreshments food and water to participants.



We also had a chance to meet with various officers of the bluelight services and are likely to be involved in the support of the exercise all of tomorrow and possibly Sunday.



Again in a 'support' role we found ourselves suddenly deploying every available vehicle, to transport participants to the Railway and bus station, transport of umpires etc. As anyone who has been in the bluelight services will almost expect, these calls came just as the food arrived.



What was amazing was the number of vehicles that were deployed into a very small area,

[Tony Ferrari]

I do hope you have a camera with you!

[BobWessex]

Yeap hopefully will be uploaded tomorrow.

[peter willis]

talking of pic is there a place to put all of them ,from all that took them so we can share them round as some have pics of diffrent things :) :)

[BobWessex]

Send them over to me, Pete and I'll resize then post as appropriate if you see what I mean.

[peter willis]

well i read all about it in our local paper tonight and on there web site nice little video



http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/video/52233/read/



shame we never got a mention but hay we knew we were there :D :D :D

Hi All.



I was by now hoping there would be some detailed feedback on here....



For those who attended, can I ask what your thoughts and opinions are of our utilisation by the Authorities and our own performance. In addition, how has it affected our future plans and aspirations with regard to relationships with the Agencies?



I have been reading the feedback of other organisations and other forums and have a picture of what happened, what didn't happen and what should have happened. I was deployed with Raynet in the incident room at County Hall in Trowbridge and so have my own 'distant' picture of what went on but was hoping for some feedback from our own members!



I have been invited to give some basic feedback on the excercise in general to a Senior member of the County Emergency Planning Team at Gloucester, so all feedback is welcome!



Thank you! ;)



Bob Hyde.

GR05 Gloucestershire Team.

[BobWessex]

Hi Bob,



We have given some feedback to Swindon LRO, I'll forward a copy across to you. My personal opinion is that in some ways the exercise was over equippped. It seemed to me that in many ways the "crash scene" was too small.



We were heavily utilised in setting up / taken down the exercise scene, and to some extent supporting the event with "no-duff" tasks such as transporting exercise staff, volunteers to Salisbury and transporting food and water. However as we have fed back we could also have been used in the exercise for transport. There were several occasions on which "evacuees" could have been transported to the rest centre but we were not used for various reasons.



I think we accept that the general rule of thumb is that it takes two or three exercises before people realise what we can do.



Having said that we did get a chance to speak to various members of the emergency services.



Below is the log kept by Sam my "Silver Scribe"



EXERCISE EQUINOX

26TH September





Attendees



WE01

WE08

WE10

WE15

WE22

WE23

WE35

WE55

WE67

WE74

WE77

WE86

WE88

GR01

GR02

GR08

GR10



Total = 17





Timeline



0830 All designated units receive instruction to proceed to holding area



0850 WE77, WE35, WE17, WE86, WE15, WE74 and WE08 all shown as en route



0910 WE91, WE88, WE22, WE77, WE67 and WE10 en route



1100 approx. Briefing for all players at holding area commences



1125 W4x4R briefing



1205 Startex command issued to all blue light services (command not received directly by W4x4R)



1257 Fire Service instructions received to deploy W4x4R from prime mover crews after being passed through their radio. All W4x4R units deployed except WE01



1300 WE57 reports holding at scene



1331 Raynet report W4x4R units returning to staging area – reason unknown



1335 WILSAR crew suggest moving to exercise area for lunch



1345 W4x4R units arrive back at holding area



1422 NO DUFF – WE22, WE15 and WE74 depart holding area with double crews to Chilmark Without at request of Di staff



1436 NO DUFF - WE22, WE15 and WE74 report held up in traffic



1451 NO DUFF - WE74 advises limited access to water for distribution among ‘casualties’ and other volunteers. WE22 tasked with distribution. WE01 requests transport of refreshments back to holding area for W4x4R and RAYNET staff there



1508 GR02 arrives at holding area and joins exercise



1516 NO DUFF - WE74 advises communication with WE22 is lost and water on site has been used by other agencies



1521 WE22 arrives at holding area



1525 NO DUFF - WE01 suggests going off site to find refreshments for W4x4R staff at holding area in replacement of missing supplies at exercise area



1529 NO DUFF - WE22 heads to exercise area to liase with Di staff to get refreshments for members at holding area



1556 NO DUFF - WE74 advises to be still at Chilmark Without with WE15 (WE35 double crew), just inside cordon of village area, grid reference ST977308. WE22 believed to be on the way to holding area with a member of Di staff



1612 WE15 arrives back at holding area



1630 NO DUFF – RAYNET state a requirement for a minimum of 5 vehicles to take an estimated 13-15 passengers to train station. GR01, GR02, WE77 and WE08 are sent to Dinton Village Hall to collect them. Request from Di staff for vehicles to be sent to Silver control building at ISSEE. WE10, WE67 and WE91 are sent.



1641 NO DUFF Further request from Di staff for students to be taken to train station, which is already being done. WE74 notifies food distribution to Di staff completed at Chilmark without



1652 NO DUFF WE35 and WE15 also head to Dinton Village Hall to support transporting of students



1656 GR01 at Silver control reports tasked with transporting casualties from Chilmark Without to rest centre – conflicting with no duff tasking at 1630



1701 NO DUFF WE22 joins vehicles tasked with student transport



1710 WE35 confirms number of students to be 15, WE74 and WE86 arrive at Dinton Village Hall to assist.



1715 GR01, GR02, GR08, GR10 and WE77 arrive at Chilmark without



1720 NO DUFF WE35, WE68 and GR01 en route to Salisbury with students



1723 NO DUFF GR08 tasked with transporting wheelie bins



1727 GR01 reports arrival or 3 more units at rest centre – WE10, WE91 and WE67. WE77 transporting Di staff before returning to Chilmark Without.



1735 WE77 at Chilmark Without



1742 NO DUFF WE17 arrives at holding area from railway station



1751 WE08 arrives back at holding area. GR01 advises WE22 now at their position at Chilmark Without



1753 WE74 advises proceedings at rest centre are winding down and is preparing to return to holding area



1756 WE15 and WE35 in convoy to holding area



1756 NO DUFF GR02 advises GR08 now at Chilmark Without to pick up trailer



1757 NO DUFF RAYNET convey order to cancel tasking for trailer to transport wheelie bins



1758 WE74 advise on way back to holding area



1800 GR01 reports having conveyed message to GR08 to cancel bin collection and intention to group up with them



1801 WE74 arrives at holding area



1802 GR01 advises contact with GR08, unhitching trailer and making their way to holding area



1804 WE22 arrives at holding area



1804 R77, GR02, WE91, GR10 and WE10 arrive at holding area



1811 GR01 and WE67 arrive at holding area. Start of W4x4R debreif



1815 GR08 arrives at holding area



1816 WE86 arrives at holding area



1819 WE35 and WE15 arrive at holding area



1820 Debrief



1825 Decision made to drastically reduce attendance for Saturday as most events will be "Notional"



1830



END OF EXERCISE





To check:

Issue of Endex unsure of time – approx 1805?

WE17 returning from no duff tasking at 1742?

[Matt Powys]

This is probably a daft question but what does "no duff" mean?



Judging by the experiences there I would say the crucial things for future exercise participants are to take plenty of water/food (as in enough to last you the duration if nothing is forthcoming from organisers) and to figure out why on earth they wanted wheelie bins moving in the middle of an exercise.



Not a criticism, just, well, wheelie bins? *scratches head in puzzlement*

[BobWessex]

My apologies I should have explained "No duff" but it is a phrase used by most organisations -- especially the armed forces /Blue lights, As Alasdair said it is a real message requiring real action as opposed to notional. i.e. if during the exercise we were given a message "Exercise Equinox, this person has to get to the Bus Station" We would drive off site have a coffee etc. and then reappear. Whereas "No Duff, this person has to get to the Bus Station" results in them being driven to the bus station.



As for the Wheelie bin, believe it or not bins do fill up with real rubbish during exercises. :lol: :lol: An awful lot when several hundred people are eating off plastic plates.

[Andy Harvey]

I was really gutted at not actually having to pick up the wheelie bins after all and getting stood down. Havn't towed a car trailer for a lot of years however I think the tying down of the bins on a flatbed car trailer would have been fun. At leats it proved my trailer wiring was working and I had the tow hitch at the right height on the drop plate.



At least I managed to tow it about 10 feet without hitting anything before I was stood down! :lol: :lol:



Note to self, get a second trailer board or another reg plate as I would have had to tow the trailer on the police reg plate and as it would have been on road that is definately a no no.

Hi Bob.



Thanks for that. Excellent!



Your personal opinion is the same as mine, in that the excercise was too small in area and scope and therefore a lot of responders from various groups were under utilised.



I have taken part in several multi-agency major incident excercises at the sharp end and although this time I was at a distance in County Hall, I had soon formed this opinion from the radio traffic that I was monitoring. Nothing I have seen or heard since has changed my mind.



I personally think that this years Equinox was an opportunity lost. It is only when agencies, personnel and equipment are pushed to the limit and beyond that potential problems show up and lessons learned.

Next time it might be the real thing......



I agree with you that it does take two or three such excercises for the capabilities of a responding agency to be recognised. I was rather hoping that this excercise would have utilised us so as to explore, use and demonstate our capabilities in more extreme circumstances.



It seems to me that all the general tasking could have been performed in Ford Fiestas. I am guessing that of all the agencies and responders attending we were the only ones with extreme 4x4 capability and the knowledge to use it? It is a good job that in all the hundreds of square miles of remote open country around Salisbury, that this plane 'happened to come down' conveniently next to sealed roads. What will happen if that happens is, well who knows, because nobody has trained for that......except us!



Any more feedback is welcome. I am talking with and possibly seeing the Gloucestershire County contact next Tuesday. This is not in an official 4x4 Response capacity but as I am giving general feedback it will be good to be able to mention us, but there is a lot of ice to thaw yet. Softly softly.......



Bob Hyde. ;)

GR05 Gloucestershire Team.

[peter willis]

the crucial things for future exercise participants are to take plenty of water/food (as in enough to last you the duration



AS for the 4x4 teams we all had food and water(coffee) etc to last the days we were there and longer for some guys



the water we were asked to move and distribute was for there own staff and jugdes but i think they said help your self's

to some services and and useual i think some took more than they needed so by the time we were tasked to sort out and deliver surplies it had all vanished !!!!!



but a good two days all in all

[BobWessex]

the crucial things for future exercise participants are to take plenty of water/food (as in enough to last you the duration



AS for the 4x4 teams we all had food and water(coffee) etc to last the days we were there and longer for some guys







A good policy which most of our guys follow is to ensure that you have not only enough for yourself but also for who else might be with you. In my case that was some 5 packs of "food bars" plus 2 lbs of bannanas plus coffee AND water.



The second rule is not to eat / drink what you have if you can "acquire" it from someone else i.e. WRVS, Salvation Army, Fire Catering vehicles etc. keep yours for when no one else is there to give you some.

[Sam Woodbury]

The timeline is up for debate if anyone has spotted something they don't agree happened at that time or place, I was somewhat busy in the latter stages of the exercise and may have missed out something conveyed by RAYNET or our own radios.



I would say as this particular exercise was about a plane coming down a village, it is probably more likely to have sealed roads for access by those living in the area, and it was in an inconveniently small site for the volume of assests each service had bought with it. It would be useful for them to hold a similar scenario in a more remote area and see how that would effect their capability to respond in addition to this one, but for this particular situation it doesn't appear to be a test of overcoming terrain to access the area, only dealing with mass casualties, something which is less likely in remote areas and perhaps wouldn't require us anyway. I would have thought the challenge of the small site with limited access in terms of the size of roads should have been met by the agencies involved as they can't choose the site a real C17 may come down in. Scaling down their response would have been sensible, but didn't sound like it happened.



Those are my waffly observations anyway, probably wrong!

[Darren Gloucester]

Hi all

It would be nice to get feedback from the others. It was certainly an interesting two days. Bob (senor Hyde) on your feedback with Glos, let us know if they are beginning to thaw to us.



When we were around silver control, we were earmarked specifically for evacuees on a couple of occations, but that didn't happen. If the incident happened further from a tarmac road, instead of the evacs going straight to the minibus, we could have taken them to the nearest tarmac road to get a coach of sorts or more ideally, direct to the rest centres/ hospitals (walking wounded).



Perhaps that comes on the next one??? as an observation, we could do with honing our comms as well, perhaps double crewing so one can drive, the other radio and note taking.



It appeared we were a little detached from the rest and on the Friday, could we have been mobilised to silver and rest area? We may have been forgotten about.



Enjoyed the two days though, even if me and Ash (GR02) got locked out from the ticket office as we were going to kip with the RAPID uk/ Fire chaps and chapesses. The lane was quite cool and the sounds of some animal or alien creature being abused in the nearby field was worrying :lol: :lol:



On the Saturday, everyone was at Silver/ Rest area. The Holding area was not used. Even RAYNET silver came down.



On anopther note, the National callsigns came in handy as all movement was registered by the Police.



cheers

Sam.



I think you have hit the nail on the head.

Exactly as you say......for the size of the site they 'invited' too many responders from each or some of the voluntary agencies, therefore there was not enough tasking to go around and personnel and kit was under utilised.



As I understand it, this particular excercise changes location each time. Last time, five years ago, it was apparantly at the oil depot at Purton just north of Swindon. I wonder where it might be next time?



Nevertheless, it was a showcase for us, and as they say, every bit helps!



Bob Hyde ;)

GR05 Gloucestershire Team.

[Andy Harvey]

I understand that the next one is in Swindon area, can't remeber where I heard that but definately remember that I did.

[Matt Powys]

Thanks Bob - was just wondering what it meant. The wheelie bins didn't really fit with the plane crash hence asking! :lol:

[BobWessex]

Bob (Hyde) / Andy, CURRENTLY -- I say currently as it is changing - there is Witshire Emergency Planning and Swindon Emergency Planning, who alternate exercises etc between them. Hence one near Swindon followed by one in "the rest of Wiltshire" followed by one near Swindon etc.





Mark no problem, :D :)

[BobWessex]

A few photos from the Saturday

[Jim Wallace]

On my Rangie I had a steel plate glued to inside roof worked a treat magnet was strong enough to hold beacon on

[Tony Ferrari]

I have also seen it done with a magnet out of an old loud speaker glued to the inside of the roof behind the roof lining.

[bullfrog4x4]

The sunroofs on classic are also steel (other than the glass ones.. doh)



I fitted a tag to the light bar on a mates classic with a slot and 2 pin plug so it can be removed

[Darren Gloucester]

What the photo didn't show was the light was just placed on the roof at the time. He daren't move :shock:

Gotta sort my pics out and will post.

cheers :P

[alancaulfield]

Just an update on Equinox.



The follow up report is now out but yet to be released to us.



All comments from the participants have been received by the organsiers.



All expenses have been paid.



The next excercise is planned for Swindon in around 2/3 years time