Canadian Air Force ready for Olympic challenge

Securing the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games is a daunting assignment, one that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, supported by the Canadian Forces and other security partners, have been working towards for years.

Nevertheless, the Air Component of Joint Task Force Games-the Air Force element of the CF's support to the RCMP (dubbed "Operation Podium")-is up to the task.

With aircraft including the CH-146 Griffon, CH-124 Sea King, CP-140 Aurora and CC-138 Twin Otter, the Air Component represents a cross-section of Canada's Air Force. Its main responsibilities will be to provide airlift of RCMP and CF personnel and equipment, medical evacuation, and air support for RCMP patrols and area surveillance.

After years of planning and a rigorous exercise period in the fall of 2009, Air Component commander Colonel Bill Veenhof declared his team ready in the final week of January 2010.

"We have some of the brightest and hardest working people in the Canadian Forces serving with the Air Component for Operation Podium," says Col Veenhof. "Everything I've seen, from the planning to the exercises to our final days of preparation, tells me this team is more than ready for this challenge."

And a challenge it will be. When it comes to terrain, the Olympic joint operations area (JOA), measuring approximately 10,000 square kilometres, is a mixed bag: from river deltas to snow-capped mountain peaks and densely-populated urban areas to tree-laden valleys. The ‘sea-to-sky' corridor from Vancouver to Whistler is just that, a stretch of land that starts at sea level and soars to heights of more than 2,000 metres-in just 120 kilometres.

It's not just the landscape. The Olympic JOA is home to some of North America's most challenging weather conditions for flying-including low ceilings, high winds, snow, rain, fog and sleet, for starters. Throw into the mix the fact that Operation Podium will run during the time of year when flying weather is at poorest, and the challenge seems even tougher.

To add to the complexity, the Air Component will draw personnel from every Air Force Wing across Canada, from Comox, B.C. to Goose Bay, N.L.

As always, however, the Air Force has adapted to these conditions and overcome them. How?

"Training, training and more training," says Major Glen Lovsin, operations officer for the Composite Aviation Unit, which encompasses all the CH-146 Griffon helicopters assigned to the Air Component. "During Exercise Spartan Rings in October 2009, most of our aircrew were able to get up in the air, get a feel for the area and get used to the conditions and the terrain."

When the aircrew and aircraft arrived back in the JOA in January, they once again began a regime of flight training that involved increasingly complex operations. All of this has been focused on ensuring that the Air Component can do its part to help the RCMP deliver safe and secure Olympic Games.

"I'm very proud of these people," says Col Veenhof. "My job is to ensure they develop as a team and that they can safely operate in the beautiful province of British Columbia."

By Lt(N) David Lavallee - Canadian Armed Forces