The Lincoln Disaster Airlift Response Team (DART) will hold the first of two training exercises on Aug. 17 in preparation for the regional NorCal DART exercise involving the Bay Area and sister airports throughout the region that is planned for October.
When disaster strikes, DART crews can be critical in the initial hours transporting crucial supplies, personnel, and other resources to areas where roads may be inaccessible. When the Loma Prieta earthquake struck in 1989, volunteer pilots flew 300 missions from bay-area airports to Watsonville Airport, delivering over 300,000 pounds of critically needed supplies and transporting emergency officials. DART programs may only operate for the first couple of days of a disaster, but those few days can provide tremendous support for a community dealing with an earthquake, fire, flood, avalanche, mudslide, tsunami or other disaster – natural or human caused.
For a DART program to run well, its needs not just individuals familiar with aircraft and airport operations to fly the missions, but ground crews of willing participants who can help with managing, moving, and accounting for all supplies and personnel transported.
The Lincoln DART will hold a training exercise on Aug. 17 that starts with registration at 9 am, at the Lincoln Airport, Hanger 1886 D2 (Gary Patburg’s Hanger) to prepare pilot and ground crew volunteers for the jobs they will be assigned in a disaster.
Attached is a PDF file with all the forms you will need. Please download and fill out the forms as indicated and bring them with you.
Pilots please contact Steve Gorman(916) 716-6000 for further information and to register for the training.
Ground crew volunteers please download the forms you will need, fill them out and bring them with you. Please contact Bruce Robinson (916) 955-8311 if you have any questions and to register for the training.
The training, called a Table Top, will review procedures, have teams practice different tasks, and help volunteers learn the various jobs that need to be done.
On Sept. 28, DART trainees will participate in a “full equipment drill” at the Lincoln airport, actually loading planes that will fly to another local airport; Grass Valley/Nevada County airport (KGOO) then unload, reload and return, giving both ground crews and pilots the chance to practice in real time all aspects of DART response loading and tracking to transport.
The Lincoln DART goal is to be ready for the Northern California/Bay Area Regional exercise which will involve multiple planes flying from airports in the Bay Area to other DART airports scheduled for late October. The regional exercise will test communications, coordination, as well as ground and air operations. Our destination Airport will be Charles M Schwartz – Sonoma County Santa Rosa KSTS
Please register and we will see you on the 17th.
Note:
Pilots need to review and fill out the Volunteer Pilot Update, the Pilot and Aircraft Information form and the Waiver of Liability form.
Volunteers for everything else need only to fill out the Volunteer Waiver of Liability form.
We’ll then have a talk from our Air Academy scholarship recipients, Amy Whelan and Sarah Wallin, about their experiences at the event.
