Nepal
 

God speed and best of luck to 99 Sqn and the Ghurka Engineers reported to be enroute to Nepal. I'm sure you'll do what HM Forces do best. :ok:

Hear, hear, and I couldn't think of a better equipped and motivated people to be taking to the region to help than the Gurkhas.

Bon Voyage, and a safe return. They will do themselves and their nations proud

Well done the RAF :ok:

I only support two charities on a regular basis and one is the excellent local charity Shelterbox ( ShelterBox | Home ). They've already got people on the ground in Nepal assessing the scale of need and will very shortly be sending quantities of their fantastic boxes, each of which contains a simple shelter, cooking equipment etc.

Thats the sort of overseas aid I approve of - not the sort that lines the pockets of corrupt officials and pays "consultants" £800 a day.

During Op Corporate the USAF flew into ASI what we called 'Concertina City'.
It was a complete accommodation set up with a generator. I have often wondered why something similar could not be provided for these relief operations. Totally agree about the criminal waste of our overseas aid budget.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...psc97e8955.jpg

Pic is of 'Concertina City' accommodation at ASI.

At a Rotary dinner on Saturday and two French branches raised enough that night to pay for 2 shelterboxes. Very real, practical aid that lines no pockets on the way.

Go 99 Sqdn,

The tradition of the Royal Air Force transport fleet is safe in your hands. It's good to see that at least the British people seem to have a wish to give as much support to the people of Nepal in this "worst of tragedies". Contrary to the government, who seem to think a derisory £5 mill. will suffice. I'd rather see some of that EU sub being given to them, by the £billion. Sorry for the political rant chaps, I think my feathers are unruffled now, rant mode off. Best of luck to all involved in Nepal, we can but hope that estimated losses are proven incorrect.

Smudge

May be wrong, and I hope I am, but no (AFAIK) mention on BBC News yet of India lending a hand.

They are contiguous, and have plenty of helicopters, and I read (in the Sat "Tel") have Gurkha regiments in the Indian Army.

D.

TankerTrashNav - Have just read up on ShelterBox - I'd not heard of them before. Have set up a modest monthly Direct Debit as it seems to be good way of getting help directly to those who need it and not into the pockets of consultants, managers, etc (Also GiftAided my DD)

Danny, the Indian military seem to be by far the biggest helpers so far in Nepal, lots of helicopters, field hospitals, rescue personal etc. Definitely pulling there weight on this one.

Smudge

Agree totally there. IMHO, we as a country need to stand up and be seen to be helping Nepal big time, The people of Nepal (Gurkhas) have in the past helped us during times of 'difficulty' and theres a moral debt to be considered.

Good luck to the Queens Gurkha Engineers and 99 Sqn.

Two RAAF C-17s due to leave RAAF Amberley shortly bound for Nepal.
A Gurkha company has been training with the Australian army at Shoalwater Bay in Queensland.
I would not be surprised if they are heading home on the aircraft.

Danny,

Nepal on Tuesday said India has led the relief and rescue operations being carried out in the quake-hit nation and was the first to rush aid to the people. Nepal’s Ambassador to India Deepak Kumar Upadhyay said there has been “unbelievable support and assistance” from India and the assurance of help from the Indian government has been like a “blank cheque.” The Ambassador said though countries like the United States, China and Israel have been quick with relief material and help, the Nepalese people have received “overwhelming love and support” from India immediately after the quake hit on Saturday.

Can't always trust the BBC.

Bob C

landing fees....
 

So why yet again is HM got being charged an extortionate amount for landing fees and services.......did we learn nothing from the Pakistan fiasco......having worked for the UN alongside NGO'S such as Oxfam I saw first hand the financial waste they spend on air fairs (business class) and will be directing my money to UK charities. Extortionate landing fees for aid aircraft have to stop.

'Extortianate fees' for aid aircraft are nothing new. I have told this tale on the Hercules thread but will precis it here. When I was involved with 48 Sqn out of Changi in 1970 we did relief ops to East Pakistan,now Bangladesh.
When we landed there the customs wanted to charge us duty on the aid supplies, the fuel in our tanks and the oil in the engines. They also tried to insist that before we airdropped aid we had to land and offload the stores for inspection and assessment of duty.

Nothing new in this landing fees business. During WW1 the UK government had to pay a fee to the French Railway companies for use of their tracks to take troop trains from the Channel ports to the battle areas, in spite of the fact most of the rolling stock and locomotives had been sent across from Britain !

ricardian pleased to hear that. The way I do it is to sell stuff on ebay and donate the money directly to Shelterbox. Ebay waives 100% of its fees if you donate all the proceeds of the sale to a nominated charity.

I must admit I'd never heard of Shelterbox either, but Ihaving visited their site I am mega impressed with both the idea and the concept, all started by a local rotary club. I also like the idea that along with essentials such as shelter, light and water purification, it also includes basic tools to allow those effected to help themselves.
I too will send a modest donation to such a worthy cause.

Again, thank you for the ShelterBox steer, I was blissfully unaware of their work, a donation has been sent and a direct debit set up as a result.

I salute you RAF Chinook chaps.

Please God look after you in your mission.

I had a thought years ago.....where I got a state of the art air balloon and under slung it with a unit that was a self contained, efficient operating theater.

I envisaged it to rapidly respond to huge motorway pile up's, negating the need for emergency vehicles having to travel miles to the incident through traffic congested routes.

There are obvious connections to the Nepal situation.

I thought of emailing Richard Branson as I felt he would, like him or not, be the one person to possibly get this "off the ground" rather than some faceless person from the "Ministry".

Victor Tango, The Sikorsky CH-64 Skycrane had a specially designed drop-off mission pod, which could be configured as a mobile hospital along the lines of what you describe. It was self contained, air-conditioned and fitted with an X-ray unit, blood bank and lab unit.

Description & video here:

My #8: "May be wrong, and I hope I am, but no (AFAIK) mention on BBC of India lending a hand".

Glad to hear that I am wrong; but BBC1 News still (up to 2200A tonight) doesn't consider it worth a mention (par for the course, I suppose). But my thanks to ion berkley and Robert Cooper ("Can't always trust the BBC"), who put me straight on this !

As regards the airfield making a quick buck out of the rescue landing fees, it is reminiscent of Churchill's retort to the Egyptian Government, who "tried it on" in the N. African campaign: "I do not intend to pay for admission to the battlefield !"

"It seems that these tremors are not unusual, but full blown earthquakes rare, at this end of the Himalayas". (My Post #2684 in "Gaining a Pilot's Brevet in WWII" Thread). I must open my big mouth ! :rolleyes:

Danny.

Thank you Mechta........It's those FBI/CIA chaps sneaking into my bedroom and pinching my dreams:=

The BBC have just shown footage of Nepalese soldiers being put to work salvaging ancient bricks from collapsed historic buildings.

Priorities?

Anyone heard how the Chinooks are doing across in Nepal?

Erm, not so well. They haven't been allowed in!!

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/quake-hit-...3.html#aRDB6oi

Reports that a USMC UH-1Y working with the relief effort is missing.
Hopefully they will turn up.

They are reporting a US Marine helicopter missing


US military helicopter missing in Nepal with eight on board - Telegraph

Seems a shame that having got so far the Chinooks havent been allowed into the country. Obviously I know next to nothing about helicopter operations, but surely there must be useful work for these aircraft in Nepal at the moment? OK they are not as able to work in confined areas as the Squirrels but there must be a need for longer range transport of kit/personnel around the country which the Chinooks are ideal for - taking heavy plant to outlying areas as an underslung load for example?

I smell politics here - China sticking its oar in?

But if China exerting influence would that not counter the US effort?

USMC V22 seem to be doing a good job, not everywhere is a confined LS.

http://youtu.be/pQ_zhjFINWY

I don't know that much about us and China, but we have a decent economic relationship as it stands, therefore I doubt that is the reason, a Chinese state company is even partially funding/investing in the Hinkley Point nuclear power station!

Shelterbox
 

Shelter box costs only £495 and is now a worldwide organisation with many boxes forward deployed. However for Nepal they ars not appealing for Shelter Boxes but for Shelter Kits.

A Kit comprises a tarp, hammer, nails, saw, wire, wire cutters and is probably more useful if there is little suitable space for tents.

A Shelter Kit costs just £35. My club has just funded 10 which is addition to our annual provision of a Shelter Box.

Other useful kit it Aqua Box, not sure the cost now.

Another is Life Straws which can turn foul water into drinking water.

As you might expect they are very visible collecting in Helston at the moment (they are based here). Local Tesco has given them a good site inside the store to display a box and its contents, with plenty of pictures, leaflets etc.

Two collecting boxes seem to be doing a good trade :ok:

Just think of the work those three Chinooks could have done - and still manage not to blow any buildings down or blow any roofs off.

What a shambles :ugh::ugh::ugh:

RAF Chinooks to return from Nepal having not been used - BBC News
:ugh:

Is there any mileage in the rumour that we sent HC3 without Oxygen, which therefore could not be used at altitude?

Who paid for this shambles?

HMG or UN?

Ultimately the British Taxpayer,

Too true, more to the point- who decided to send them and didn't anyone question whether they'd be allowed to fly?