The March Event will be a helicopter event in North Wales. It is based on a real-life incident that I witnessed on a rock-climbing holiday, a brief description of which can be found HERE.

A Mountain rescue team is in the process of stretchering a casualty from the top of "the Devil's Kitchen" to the flat ground at the southern tip of Llyn Idwall. They have radioed for RAF Valley to send their Mountain Rescue helicopter to evacuate their casualty to Bangor Hospital. They expect to have the casualty ready to be collected from the Llyn Idwal landing spot in 25 minutes.
So the event task is to: -

1. Plan/estimate how long it is going to take to get from EGOV to the landing spot in Cwm Idwall.
2. Take off in time to get there as the Mountain rescue team also arrives. (Fuel costs money so you don't want to take off and get there too soon and waste fuel with the engine idling waiting for the stretcher party, but neither do you want to delay getting the casualty to hospital!) You may want to fly direct, coming in over the top of the "Glyders" / "Y Garn" - 3107 feet).
3. Allow ten minutes to transfer and secure/strap the casualty into the helicopter.
4. Make the fastest run possible from Cwm Idwall to the Heli-pad at Bangor Hospital. In general this will be straight down the Nant Francon till overhead Bethesda, then direct to the hospital heli-pad.
   Just for fun/interest you might like to time this leg, and post your time on the forum!
5. Allow ten minutes to transfer the casualty to the medical staff at the hospital,
6. Return to base - EGOV

The event may be flown on any day in March.

Any helicopter can be flown in this event as long as it is within the EASA GA category.

Your flight plan should show:

• Departure = EGOV
• Destination = EGOV
• Route = Landing in Cwm Idwall, Landing at Bangor Hospital
• Comments = /V/ DAYLIGHT / CIX VFR CLUB /

Take care not to let our Teamspeak chat cut across ATC. Stop any conversation immediately the R/T comes alive, then continue if "he wasn't talking to us". This is difficult because when transmitting on Teamspeak you can't hear the R/T. So be brief on Teamspeak, and be aware that ATC might be trying to get through. If anyone hears an R/T message which seems to be being ignored, just say "ATC is calling G-CIXN" if you have identified the callsign, or "ATC is calling us" which is a cue for everyone to be quiet on Teamspeak until ATC call again (which they will). Remember too that if asked to "Stand By" by ATC, you do not reply - not even "Roger", but simply wait until you are called again.

Remember also that there are several different ATC frequencies in use, and you may not be able to hear when communications are taking place. Make sure you have set and know how to use a Teamspeak mute switch.