IKAR-CISA congress 2009 in Zermatt

Last year it was held in Zermatt. It was a great experience. We had the opportunity to show and demonstrate our prototype to over 150 mountain rescuers on the glacier next to Kleine Matterhorn.

This year it is held in Slovakia. We are invited to use the booth of one of the world leading experts in avalanche products and search techniques, Manuel Genswein. This is a great honour and we are very grateful to Manuel. We are also invited to make a presentation on the Commission Meeting. Great stuff for a small company trying to enter the market.

Helicopter in action with antennas mounted

The helicopter search tests performed on April 30 in Östersund, Sweden, gave very positive results. Using our portable search unit we managed to find a telephone, carried by a man pretending to be lost in the forest, at a distance of 20 km. The search took approximately 15 minutes from starting up the helicopter to a visual identification of the man on the ground.

We used prototype full-size helicopter antennas, to correlate the direction of the helicopter with the direction of the phone. Also, with the bigger antennas we get better search performance due to increased sensitivity and accuracy, which means we can “hear” the telephone at a longer distance.

We are very greatful to Osterman Helicopter in Östersund for letting us use one of their helicopters.

”We were happy to contribute with our time and equipment for these tests. The Hepkie system is a very interesting concept and can be a good tool in helicopter based Search and Rescue missions in the near future. We are often hired by the Police and Mountain rescue service and see that this system has incredible potential when people are missing“, says Stefan Larsson, Market manager at Osterman Helicopter.

www.ostermanhelicopter.se