Beam Me Up: Calling for a Helicopter Evacuation from the Grand Canyon

Arguably, much of the Grand Canyon is as inaccessible as any other place on Earth. The availability of helicopter evacuation makes this hostile area an acceptable tourist destination for thousands of people a year who otherwise would be foolish to enter. Fortunately for all concerned, most helicopter evacuations from the Canyon and Colorado River are not for life-threatening situations. Some are not even medical problems, such as several calls last year to pull high-centered motor rafts off rocks.
It is easy to take the park helicopter for granted, but consider that, without this asset, there are popular places in the Canyon from which it would take longer to get major medical attention than it would have taken an injured Apollo astronaut to return from the Moon.
To access this resource requires some knowledge, preparation, and equipment. There are basically two ways of making your call for help. Like most technical things these days, you have to know which buttons to push.
The Best Way: Get a satellite telephone
A satellite communications system that works well in the Grand Canyon is Globalstar. Many of the Park Service Rangers in the Canyon are carrying Globalstar units. The handheld receivers, made by Qualcomm, are not much larger than a standard cellular telephone and are available for rent from half a dozen dealers around the US. Expect to pay $100 a week plus two or three dollars a minute for calls. Don't lose the unit—a typical deposit, refunded to your credit card when the satellite phone is returned, is $1,000. Find information on Globalstar usa's dealers and rentals at their Web site: www.globalstarusa.com. Also, at least two river outfitters are including sat phones at no additional charge when a complete spread of equipment is rented from them.
Wherever you get the units, I recommend actually placing a call or two before you leave civilization. Read the instructions: the Qualcomm units automatically double as cellular phones, so be sure you're accessing the Globalstar low-orbit satellites and not some cellular antenna behind the Flagstaff K-Mart. Then recharge the batteries and don't call your friends from river camp. What if you have to make more than one emergency call several weeks after launch? It's my experience that rechargeable batteries have a lousy shelf life and you want to be prepared for the worst until there's a pay phone in sight.
Know where to call and what to say
For an emergency evacuation, call Grand Canyon Dispatch at 520-638-7911 or 520-638-2477. (Note: 520 area code will be changing to 928 in late June). Be prepared to tell the operator:
• You are requesting a helicopter evacuation at river mile such-and-such (or a landmark) in the Grand Canyon;
• Whether the patient is critical or stable;
• Whether the problem is trauma (injury from an accident) or medical;
• Whether the patient is on a commercial or private boat, or is a hiker.
Prepare the helicopter landing site
River Trip Regulations, Supplement C, explains how to prepare an acceptable site for the helicopter. Read these complete instructions, but here are the highlights:
• Select a level area approximately 15 feet by 15 feet, clear of obstacles such as trees and large rocks for a diameter of 75 feet.
• Set up an “x” with orange signal panels (not on the landing zone) so the pilot may distinguish your party from others in the area. Remove the panels when the pilot locates your position in case he selects that site for landing.
• Remove and/or secure all loose equipment (clothing, sleeping bags, tables) so if the pilot flies over your camp, items will not be blown into the rotor blades, your people, or the river.
• Wet down as much of the landing area as possible so sand will not be blown all over, especially into the helicopter's engines.
• Stay together in a group away from the landing zone and in full view of the pilot.
• Indicate the wind direction by throwing sand downwind or standing with your back to the wind and pointing downwind with both arms.
• Stay away from the helicopter unless directed to approach by the crew. Walk in a crouched position to avoid being struck in the head by the rotor blades.
At this time, there is only one helicopter dedicated to rescue in Grand Canyon National Park. It is used for about 350 evacuations a year, but during the summer it could conceivably make eight rescues a day. Far and away, the majority of these are hikers suffering minor injuries or heat exhaustion. Packing a disabled hiker out using manpower can take ten people half a day, while the helicopter can pluck them out in fifteen minutes. But when several calls for evacuations are coming in, Dispatch needs to prioritize them and determine whether basic or advanced life support is needed. With a satellite phone, your call can be transferred directly to the life support personnel so they can tailor the response and not tie up critical people and equipment that might be needed elsewhere. Also, there is the question of where to take the patient. Minor injuries usually go to the Grand Canyon Clinic, major ones to the Flagstaff Medical Center, but that requires coordinating an air or ground ambulance. Finally, the helicopter flies only in daylight, defined as being from thirty minutes before sunrise until thirty minutes after sunset. That means it must be back home on the ground outside those times.
The Next Way: Contact over-flying aircraft
If you want to use an aircraft transceiver to contact over-flying planes for your emergency calls, or to talk directly with the inbound helicopter, or even as a backup to a satellite phone, here are some things that will increase your chances of success.
Aircraft transceivers
Several river outfitters rent a package with an aviation transceiver, signal mirrors, and orange marker panels for $10 per day.
You can buy several good communication transceivers (“com” units—no navigation capability) for under $300. One such unit is made by jrc, the jhp-500, listed on Blue Sky Flight Club's Web site for $279.00: www.fly-bluesky.com
It is fun to use these radios to listen to aircraft/ controller exchanges when you are near an airport. But beware: unless it is an emergency, any non-aviation transmission is illegal. Your next call will be from an fcc jailhouse phone. And don't use them onboard a commercial flight, even for listening.
Civilian aircraft (airliners, private airplanes, and non-military government aircraft) communicate with ground controllers and each other on certain discrete frequencies from 118.000 to 136.975 mhz. These transmissions, because of their high frequency and low power, are only reliable for line-of-sight communication. If you want to communicate with an aircraft, you had better be able to see that aircraft. The signals might bounce off canyon walls and get to an unseen plane, but that phenomena would be localized and intermittent.
Private aircraft and commercial air tours
In daylight, low altitude private aircraft and air tour operators talk to each other on three different frequencies depending on which of the faa Grand Canyon communication sectors they are in. The approximate Colorado River stretches underlying the sectors are:
• East: Lees Ferry to Kanab Creek (mile 143): 120.050 mhz
• Central: Kanab Creek to Diamond Creek (mile 226): 127.050 mhz
• West: Diamond Creek to Pearce Ferry (Lake Mead): 121.950 mhz
• Other: Grand Canyon Airport tower: 119.000 mhz

These aircraft are typically operating at a relatively low altitude above ground and move quickly out of sight. Communication opportunities might last only a few seconds. Even if you can hear the engines, the aircraft could be in a radio shadow from your transmitter. Nevertheless, if you hear or see an aircraft in the canyon, tune the appropriate low altitude frequency. Give the same information as you would on the telephone, but you need to be able to give it in one burst due to time limitations. Ideally such a contact would go like this:
You: “Mayday, mayday, mayday. Aircraft in the Canyon, do you read Colorado River trip?” (Any pilot who hears “mayday” over the radio will feel his blood run cold. You now have his undivided attention.)
Response: “This is Fly By Tours, go ahead.”
You: “Fly By, we need an emergency helicopter evacuation from the Colorado River. Advise ready to copy the information.” (Pilot-talk for “write this down.”)
Response: “OK, go ahead.”
You: “We need an emergency helicopter evacuation at river mile fifty-three, that's five three, Nankoweap Rapid. The patient is stable with a broken ankle. Please contact Grand Canyon tower on one-one-nine point zero and have them call Grand Canyon Dispatch. Can you read that back?” (The pilot probably has the frequency for the tower at Grand Canyon Airport, but this saves time and shows you know what you're talking about. The aircraft might have to climb and even head toward the airport to contact the tower but I can't imagine any pilot who wouldn't be eager to help.)
Response: “Roger, understand you need a helicopter evacuation at mile fifty-three, Nankoweap Rapid, broken ankle, patient stable, tower one-nineteen-zero. Ah, who am I talking to?”
You: “This is the Carlos private river trip. Can you call me back after you talk to the tower?”
If two or more aircraft respond, try to use the call of the one who sounds clearest and the others should shut up. Note that you don't have to tell the aircraft what frequency you're on since pilots rarely listen to more than one radio at a time.
Commercial Air Traffic
Most of the time, especially at night, you will have a better chance of contacting a high altitude airliner. Typically, jets over the Grand Canyon will be above 20,000 feet and in radio range for a minute or two. Virtually all of their radio communications will be with enroute radar controllers at Los Angeles Air Route Traffic Control Center (LA Center). The Center has many remote transmitter/receiver sites, including three for aircraft in the Grand Canyon area. Since those transmitters are at a higher elevation and optimized for talking to aircraft, your radio will probably receive only the pilots' side of the conversation. The frequencies are:
• High altitude: 128.075 and 135.250 mhz
• Mid altitude: 124.200 and 124.850 mhz
If your radio can scan frequencies, start with these four. When a transmission from an airplane is received, stop the scan manually so the radio will not go to other frequencies. Again, read the instructions. This is no time to be learning how the radio works.
Pilots should use their aircraft call sign for each transmission, so try to remember the airline flight number or private plane “n” number (e.g., “American four fifty-three,” “Cessna November two three four nine Sierra”). The procedure is similar to contacting a tour aircraft. Here is how a contact might proceed:
(radio voice in mid-transmission) “. . . and up to three seven zero, Continental one oh two.”
You: “Mayday, mayday, mayday. Continental, do you read Colorado River trip?” (Even airline pilots will sit up straight when they hear “mayday.”)
Response: “If that's a mayday call, go ahead.” (The airline pilot might want to confirm something he almost never hears.)
You: “Mayday, mayday, mayday. This is Colorado River trip. Say again your aircraft number.”
Response: “Center, standby, Continental one oh two is getting a mayday call. Go ahead, mayday.” (LA Center and other aircraft on the frequency will not hear you, so a good start is for the responding aircraft to tell them to standby so your calls won't be blocked by their powerful transmitters.)
You: “Continental one oh two, we need an emergency helicopter evacuation from the Colorado River. Advise ready to copy the information.”
Response: “Ready to copy.”
You: “Please have Los Angeles Center call Grand Canyon Dispatch on the phone and request a helicopter evacuation at river mile one-three-one, that's one hundred thirty-one. The patient has severe vomiting, could be food poisoning, possibly critical. Patient is a passenger on Bottom Dollar River Trips. Please have Center confirm.”
Response: “Ok river trip, standby. LA Center, Continental one oh two has picked up a request for you to telephone the Grand Canyon for a helicopter evacuation from river mile one thirty-one, patient has food poisoning, may be serious. You know how to handle that?” (You won't hear LA Center responding.)
“River trip, la center wants to know the phone number to call.” (The sector supervisor's desk at la Center has the number of Grand Canyon Dispatch, but the controller might not know that.)
You: “Roger, Grand Canyon Dispatch is area code five two zero six three eight seven nine one one.”
Alternatively, you could have the airliner contact Grand Canyon tower, 119.0, and have them call Dispatch, but the jet pilot would already be talking to Center and the phone in Palmdale, California works just as well as the phone in Tusayan, Arizona. (I guess you could ask the airline captain to go into the cabin, run his credit card through an Airphone, and make the call himself, but that's pushing your luck.) I suggested you have air tours and low altitude private aircraft call Grand Canyon tower because those planes might be too low to contact LA Center's remote site.
One note about an emergency frequency, 121.5 mhz: this is the aviation equivalent of 911, but few aircraft routinely monitor that frequency. However, if you make contact with an airplane and there is too much chatter on the normal frequencies, suggest a change to 121.5. Every pilot—airline, air tour, or private—knows that number, and there will be no other conversation on it. If feasible, ask that the evacuation helicopter be on 121.5 so the pilot can communicate with you when he is within range.
Of all the evacuations in Grand Canyon National Park last year, only fifty or so were from the Colorado River. But those were fifty lucky souls, able to get better medical attention within one hour than anyone in the world could get when Hoover Dam was built. This chain of communication, aviation, and medical technology is a manmade wonder that allows us to safely enjoy the natural wonder of the Grand Canyon.
Russell Thorstenberg, Jr.