For the general Bell 407 enthusiast, perhaps a different look at the build of this particular machine.

The night vision goggles used in this video are Anvis 9s, manufactured by ITT Night Vision & Imaging. What is especially impressive in this particular example – apart from being able to clearly see terrain in unlighted areas – is the ability to see the fog layer. Without NVGs, a pilot could fly into fog without any indication that fog existed. This would be especially problematic for Visual Flight Rule (VFR) pilots flying into Instrument Meteorological conditions (IMC). With NVGs, the cockpit crew could clearly see the position and extent of the fog layer and determine whether continued flight and landing at a targeted airfield or landing zone was possible.

Only the raw footage from the shoot is presented here. No correction, enhancement, or degradation was applied to the video in post production. Video and editing by Lian Digital Media. Click the image to watch the video.

The father/son pair were thrown from their horses in the thick Pampas Grass area west of the Bodega Dunes campground, between Bodega Head and Salmon Creek Beach. The men were trampled on and kicked by the horses during the incident before the horses ran off.  They suffered lower extremity injuries.

This area is covered with Pampas Grass and sand dunes, which would have made access difficult and time consuming for ground-based emergency crews to get to and treat the injured men. The Henry-1 crew located the pair, landed in the Pampas Grass area and provided medical aid to them.  The men were then loaded into the helicopter and transported to a Westshore Rd. parking lot where they were turned over to Bodega Bay Fire crews.  One of the men was transported to a local hospital via ambulance.

The horses were located a distance away and were later corralled and returned to their owner’s trailer.

On 1/20/11 at about 4:45 PM, a passing citizen flagged-down Sheriff’s deputies and reported seeing a white truck drive off the cliff on Hwy. 1 between Jenner and Russian Gulch.  Deputies investigated further and discovered a truck located about 300 yards off Hwy. 1 and down into a deep ravine at mile-marker 23.  State Parks units, and Fire personnel from Monte Rio and Bodega Bay Fire Departments responded to the scene along with Sheriff’s Helicopter crew in “Henry-1.”
The Henry-1 crew arrived within 15 minutes of the flag-down. The pilot of Henry-1, Paul Bradley, then long-lined a trained rescue crew member down to the truck where two patients, a male and a female, both in their 20′s or 30′s, were being stabilized by deputies who had hiked down to the area.  After packaging and stabilizing the patients, they were both long-lined back up to Hwy. 1 via Henry-1 for further assessment.  This greatly reduced the time, risk and resources that would normally be associated with a traditional technical rope rescue/haul system from a cliff-side trauma scene.
The male patient was flown via REACH to a Santa Rosa hospital and the female patient was transported via ambulance.  Their identities were unknown at the scene.  Their injuries did not immediately appear to be life threatening. CHP is investigating the crash.

It is with great pride that I take this opportunity to congratulate Lt. Lorenzo Duenas on his recent appointment to Assistant Sheriff.

I count myself fortunate to have had the opportunity to meet Sgt. Duenas at Henry 1′s hangar ten years ago. Sgt. Duenas was the primary reason we were able to produce the Henry1.com website. Not only was he the unit supervisor at the time, he assumed the role of gatekeeper to ensure that this ‘unknown entity’ would not misrepresent or discredit – then or in the future – the reputation the unit had earned through hard work and a commitment to excellence. He was instrumental in Henry1.com’s creation and, ultimately, its success as a website that grew to inform and entertain an international audience. Through a developed and demonstrated mutual trust, a personal friendship grew, and it is a friendship that I hold, to this day, in the highest regard.

Although his responsibilities changed over the years and his energies were directed elsewhere in the department, he always remained a staunch supporter of the program, the helicopter crews, and of henry1.com. Congratulations, Lorenzo. We wish you the best of luck in your new role as assistant sheriff.

-Editor

For more on Lt. Duenas’ appointment, please visit the Press Democrat :

Sonoma County sheriff’s veteran named to assistant post

Lake County Sheriff’s deputies and personnel from the North Shore Fire Protection District responded to a frantic 911 call from a neighbor in the 6200 block of Roland Dr. in Lucerne, CA.

On arrival, they located a teen that was stuck at the top of a 60-foot cliff, known as “Castle Rock.” The teen had been there for about two hours and was unable to make it down safely since night had fallen, which made the situation more perilous. Ground-based rescue efforts would have been time consuming, requiring additional rescue crews and tied up those resources for an extended period.

The Henry-1 crew responded to the area and rescued the teen using a horse collar device. The teen was then flown to fire crew members who were waiting on the ground. He was uninjured.

The victim was later identified as 19-year-old Jerry Michael King of Lucerne, CA. He had apparently climbed the rock before sundown but found it too dangerous to descend, especially once it got dark.  He had been on top of the rock for about two hours.

Henry-1 is equipped with state-of-the-art night vision goggles and a 50-million candle-power Night Sun spotlight. This equipment, plus regular night time rescue training, enables the Henry-1 crew to be available to perform these nighttime long-line rescues.

On 11/6/2010 at 1:16 PM the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office received a report of a plane crash in the area 21877 8th Street East in Sonoma.  Officers from the Sonoma Police Department and deputies from Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene along with Fire and EMS personnel from Schell Vista Fire Department.

They located the single engine Qualt aircraft in a grassy area approximately 30 feet wide that runs the length of a 200 ft. long warehouse.  The plane was between a series of warehouse buildings along 21877 Schellville Road.

The plane was occupied by two males suffering from moderate injuries and obvious lacerations. Schell Vista Fire personnel extricated the two occupants from the plane and they were airlifted to separate bay area hospitals for their injuries. The pilot was airlifted to Memorial Hospital in Santa Rosa by Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office helicopter Henry-1 and the passenger was airlifted to John Muir Medical Hospital in Oakland by REACH.

On scene damage to the plane indicates the plane impacted the ground nose first, and also damaging a cyclone fence. There was no structural damage to any buildings.

The plane had just taken off from Sonoma Skypark Airport and witnesses described the engine noise as being under low power.  The plane crashed almost immediately after take off. It cleared the runway, crossed over 8th Street East and crashed in the industrial park west of the roadway.

The FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) and NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) were notified to investigate as is required in all incidents involving aircraft.  The names of the pilot and passenger are not being released until authorized by the NTSB.