Page 233 - Demo

229This of course was a secondary duty which I had to undertake more or less in my spare time. It was mainly an administrative job as I was not a qualified team member and did not have to attend all the training weekends. I did, however, attend all the call outs. The way we worked was that the team leader deployed the team as he felt fit and I sort of remained in our base area to liaise with the police and other interested parties. Basically, my team leader wanted me to act as a buffer so that he could get on with his job undisturbed. I pointed out that if I was to liaise I needed to have some knowledge of what was happening and so usually went to the crash site first to have a look before moving back. Because I might be flying when a call out came I arranged that Air Traffic Control would automatically recall me if the 6 whistle blasts on the station tannoy system signalled a call out. I did attend a number of training weekends in the Lakes but really as an observer although I vaguely remember being lowered down a cliff strapped to a stretcher which was terrifying. The team also took my boys abseiling which they enjoyed. I think we also had a team family weekend on the Northumberland coast where families were introduced to abseiling off a cliff.It turned out that my main task was protecting the troop from officialdom. On one occasion the team were transiting back from a hard working weekend and had to refuel the Bedford. For some reason they put in petrol rather than diesel. They sorted it out and got home but they called me first thing Monday morning in a bit of a panic. It turned out that the culprit was our civilian member, which (however unlikely) meant that no disciplinary action could be taken against him and so I was able to smooth it over. On another occasion one of the troops had fallen while climbing and had been seriously hurt. His helmet had saved his life and had actually smashed. They called out the rescue helicopter to take him to hospital and while waiting covered him up with a couple of duvet jackets which ended covered in blood and had to be scrapped. They also protected his head with another helmet while he