Coastguard’s Air Patrol Benefits from Tablet Technology

MEDIA RELEASE
7 July 2011

Coastguard’s Air Patrol Benefits from Tablet Technology

Coastguard’s Air Patrol is heralding the introduction of tablet based software to improve their search and rescue response processes.

New Zealand’s primary marine search and rescue provider, Coastguard, have adopted the portable ‘Memory-Map QuickCharts’ mapping software package for use on a tablet PC as an enhanced navigational tool for their Air Patrols.

Operating as far as 10 miles offshore, Coastguard’s 10 Air Patrol units play an integral role in supporting the organisation’s primary task of saving lives at sea. Air Patrol keep watch over the entire coastline, and sometimes assisting with land searches in areas of dense bush or mountainous regions.

Neil Harris, a volunteer and in-flight controller with Coastguard Auckland’s Air Patrol, says that in time-critical rescues, it’s not uncommon for the people in trouble to not be able to give their exact location.

“It then becomes our role to not only spot them in sometimes vast areas, but to assess how urgently they need help and also relay their position to the Coastguard controller and rescue vessels.

“Memory-Map has quickly become our primary tool for navigation at all times including search and rescues and now we don’t know how we lived without it. It’s simple to use - with our GPS position shown on the chart, all we need to do is drop a mark on the screen, and select ‘Go To’, then the program tells us the bearing and time to destination so we can reach the scene much faster.”

“There are many additional benefits of using Memory-Map. It reduces the possibility of operator error because it uses raster charts which hide information layers. We can also instantly pull up remote areas which is critical when dealing with rescue calls from those coordinates.

“We are able to also pull up our next destination straight away, so for instance if we were up at Little Barrier, with just a few touches of the stylus we can get an instant map image of where our next task is located. This saves us valuable minutes which can sometimes be the difference between life and death or serious injury.”

The Coastguard Air Patrols use three types of map – marine, topographic and aeronautical on the Memory-Map program and the software makes it easy to instantly switch between maps.

“The low space needed, along with the computing power available, is far superior to using a typical marine chart plotter for the task. In addition, the fiscal benefits of merely upgrading the software in future instead of replacing a complete plotter will be most welcome,” says Neil.

He has also developed useful training scenarios using the software which have been adopted by other Coastguard Air Patrols as training tool.

Aimed primarily at boaties, hunters and trampers in New Zealand and other parts of the world, Memory-Map QuickCharts software was designed for recreational use, but because it’s simple to use, all 10 Coastguard Air Patrols are now either using Memory-Map or committing to doing so.

The adoption of the software came about when the marine chart plotting system they had been using neared the end of its useful life.

Coastguard Auckland’s Air Patrol runs Memory-Map on a Hewlett Packard tablet PC with stylus touch screen and SSD memory, after standard devices were found to be unsuitable in the often bumpy environment.

Neil, who undertook the plotter replacement project, says it was hard to find a replacement for the previous system as most were larger devices, meaning they could be problematic in the small confines of a plane so he began to look at computer-based software.

“I looked at many options but most had difficulty tracking our position when we were flying. We also needed an option that was simple to use, as we have a great variety of volunteers who need to be able to use the software.”

Steve Holder, Training and Technical Officer of the Coastguard Hawke’s Bay Air Patrol who was part of the team testing the navigation software, says everything needs to be portable – marine radio, battery box, switch gear and tablet PC.

“Neil and I were trying a number of different programs but Memory-Map QuickCharts stood out above the rest. Straight out of the box, it does 90% of what we want. We’re really excited about the difference it will make to the service we provide.”

ENDS

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