Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Jan 25/02) - They were quite relieved," says Dave Taylor, while recalling a successful search mission on the Yellowknife River last summer.

A group of canoeists were pronounced overdue after they failed to arrive following a trip down the river.

Dave Taylor, Yellowknife zone manager for the Civil Air Search and Rescue Association, peers out the bubble window on a Canadian Forces Twin Otter. The window is used by spotters on search and rescue missions. - Photo illustration by Mike W. Bryant and Merle Robillard

In response, the RCMP called the local Civil Air Search and Rescue Association (CASARA), which flew out a plane to find the missing canoeists.

Two hours later the party was found, shaken but safe.

Taylor, who, during working hours is the systems manager for the NWT Centre for Remote Sensing, is also CASARA's Yellowknife zone manager.

Incidentally, his father George Taylor, was also involved in search and rescue missions during the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Last Wednesday, Taylor was presented with a certificate of achievement by the National Search and Rescue Secretariat. He is the first person in the NWT to be awarded the honour since RCMP Staff Sgt. Jack Kruger received it in 1998.

Taylor notes that CASARA does not conduct rescue operations. The NWT zone's primary objective is to fly over the wilderness and search whenever persons and aircraft go missing.

"We don't have a lot of missing airplanes," says Taylor. "I know it doesn't fit with the news of the last six months, where we had two fatal crashes. Their locations weren't unknown. The issue was rescuing them, not finding them."

CASARA operates mainly with a group of volunteer pilots and spotters. The spotters are trained to look for anything unusual when flying over the bush. CASARA members also volunteer as spotters aboard Canadian Forces search aircraft when required.

"A crashed airplane isn't going to look like a long, skinny thing with wings," says Taylor. "It might be a piece of tail, maybe a flash of light off metal."

Ninety per cent of his work with CASARA, says Taylor, is training other members. When a search mission is under way, however, he's the one that gets everyone organized and ready.

Taylor has one recommendation to make: When travelling through the wilderness by air, land, or water, dress appropriately, and carry a small mirror.

"The reason why signal mirrors are responsible for the most rescues, is because they are quite distinctive from the air," says Taylor. "They're quite small and easy to carry."