MarkS_Lothian
03-09-2010, 12:30 PM
Wednesday 1st September 2010, members of Lothian 4x4 Response were tasked with responding to 'Purple Rain', a training scenario organised by Colin and Hugh, assisted by Jonathan. Members who were involved received SMS instructions to rendezvous at a specified grid reference, though without the knowlege that there were 2 different points sent out to various members.
Scenario was presented to the responders, they then had to carry out their tasks while maintaining contact with the other members of the group, andi with 'incident control'.
The section I was with was tasked with collecting a water trailer, outwith the 'restricted area' and delivering it back to our initial rendezvous point. We were told that a major junction might be closed, and that a specified B-road was flooded. We made our way to the collection point, only after checking with incident control that a major road junction we'd been told might be a problem was sufficiently clear. When we reached the B-road to take us to the collection point, I had no means of communicating that we should check with incident control before proceeding, but confident in my ability to negotiate water, up to 1m standing water, I safely drove down the dry road :D
On arriving at the collection point (a farm in this case), we were shown the trailer and told it was to be loaded with 3000 litre bottles of water. It had been decided at the rendezvous point that I'd be the one towing the trailer, so after a few sums and assessing the kit I had on board, I decided I would only be loading half of this on the trailer. This was because I didn't have enough ratchet straps to secure it all safely for the journey, and 3000l water weighs 3 tonnes, putting the trailer over weight.
Having checked the trailer over (tyre pressures, jockey wheel, lights, spare wheel) I fitted my spare numberplate and hitched up. One of the other responders assisted but I prefer to do the important things myself, or double-check them. He did manage to break part of the electrics on the trailer (Sorry Hugh!) trying to stop the cable trailing, but the electrics did still work so we were ready to move. We contacted incident control, informed tham that half of the water was en-route to the rendezvous point, towed by vehicle X and accompanied by 2 other vehicles.
On arrival at our initial rendezvous point, we received word that one of the vehicles from the other rendezvour point was on the way to collect said trailer from us. While we were waiting I managed to get a few pictures for posterity:
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs295.snc4/41101_713210763361_61016412_42497673_1760736_n.jpg
(one member tries to make it look more like an incident than an exercise for the camera)
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs155.ash2/41101_713210768351_61016412_42497674_7042798_n.jpg
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs411.snc4/47434_713210683521_61016412_42497669_1829193_n.jpg
(yes, I forgot to turn off the flash....)
Anyway, the other vehicle arrived with 2 group members in it, not the ones we'd been expecting! It transpired that they did not have a spare registration plate and could therefore not legally tow the trailer. On advising 'Incident Control' of this, we were told that the exercise was now over, and that all vehicles should report to incident control at specified address for debrief.
We had a 30 min debrief meeting, and all agreed that it had been a useful exercise to get out there and actually work with each other, start learning names, callsigns, vehicles etc.
Scenario was presented to the responders, they then had to carry out their tasks while maintaining contact with the other members of the group, andi with 'incident control'.
The section I was with was tasked with collecting a water trailer, outwith the 'restricted area' and delivering it back to our initial rendezvous point. We were told that a major junction might be closed, and that a specified B-road was flooded. We made our way to the collection point, only after checking with incident control that a major road junction we'd been told might be a problem was sufficiently clear. When we reached the B-road to take us to the collection point, I had no means of communicating that we should check with incident control before proceeding, but confident in my ability to negotiate water, up to 1m standing water, I safely drove down the dry road :D
On arriving at the collection point (a farm in this case), we were shown the trailer and told it was to be loaded with 3000 litre bottles of water. It had been decided at the rendezvous point that I'd be the one towing the trailer, so after a few sums and assessing the kit I had on board, I decided I would only be loading half of this on the trailer. This was because I didn't have enough ratchet straps to secure it all safely for the journey, and 3000l water weighs 3 tonnes, putting the trailer over weight.
Having checked the trailer over (tyre pressures, jockey wheel, lights, spare wheel) I fitted my spare numberplate and hitched up. One of the other responders assisted but I prefer to do the important things myself, or double-check them. He did manage to break part of the electrics on the trailer (Sorry Hugh!) trying to stop the cable trailing, but the electrics did still work so we were ready to move. We contacted incident control, informed tham that half of the water was en-route to the rendezvous point, towed by vehicle X and accompanied by 2 other vehicles.
On arrival at our initial rendezvous point, we received word that one of the vehicles from the other rendezvour point was on the way to collect said trailer from us. While we were waiting I managed to get a few pictures for posterity:
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs295.snc4/41101_713210763361_61016412_42497673_1760736_n.jpg
(one member tries to make it look more like an incident than an exercise for the camera)
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs155.ash2/41101_713210768351_61016412_42497674_7042798_n.jpg
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs411.snc4/47434_713210683521_61016412_42497669_1829193_n.jpg
(yes, I forgot to turn off the flash....)
Anyway, the other vehicle arrived with 2 group members in it, not the ones we'd been expecting! It transpired that they did not have a spare registration plate and could therefore not legally tow the trailer. On advising 'Incident Control' of this, we were told that the exercise was now over, and that all vehicles should report to incident control at specified address for debrief.
We had a 30 min debrief meeting, and all agreed that it had been a useful exercise to get out there and actually work with each other, start learning names, callsigns, vehicles etc.