COCC: Heli Rappelling & Fast Roping

After the tough 6 days of outfield,booking in with a swollen and blister clustered feet, walking around is the hardest thing to do. Was glad that the programme for the remaining phase of the course is pretty simple, however they require lots of courage for me to carry them out.

Basically we were to undergo the rappelling and roping course and also qualify ourselves as dispatcher when we go back to our battalion. Role as dispatcher is more like a safety instructor cum checker during training and heli live task. Heli ops is known to be carry out and done by the Guards. However, NSF Commandos also have the chance to pick up such skills, although we dont really have a chance to carry missions using rappelling.

Had done rappelling before in sec sch. Remembered that my instructor had to climb out of the railing to pull me out and advice me how to rappel down. At then, the highest floor i rappel down from is 4th storey (40-50ft) from my sec sch building.

In the morning, we learn the safety and conducting theory for rappelling and roping. Follow up, we learnt how to tie our harness by using karmantle rope (climbing rope). In the afternoon, we learn how to anchor the rope at the storey we are going to rappel from.

After all the lessons, its time for practical, the rappelling is carried out at 80ft(8 storey)!! Had a ball shrinking experience (actually i lost them during my airborne, haha!) when i climbed out the building which I'm going to rappel down from. The last time i climb up that building is when we are doing the airborne dry run which is carried out at 30-40ft. Quite a leap in height for me.

Stepping out of the building and forming the L-shape is the most terrifying moment for me, takes lots of courage and guts from me to execute them. After rappelling a few times, the fear of height slowly fades away till the extend that i find it boring to rappel anymore.

Roping is another height confidence activity. Difference from rappelling is, there is no safety attachment which is the harness. The only safety we had is our dear hands, knee and feet. Roping is like what we see in shoe/movies, where fireman jumps onto the pole and slide down.

We did our roping practice progressively, from ground, 10ft, 20ft and eventually at 34ft. The max height we can go according to TSR, training safety regulation is 50ft. Imagine roping down from 4 storey high building without any form of safety attachment, all of us are afraid and thinking what will happen to them if we let go our hands.

Finally after all the practice and ground training, we got to execute them on heli live task on Wed, however only rappelling. Next Wed and Thurs, we are going to do both rappelling and roping live task and also practise our dispatching role. Rappelling down from helicopter is just the same as rappelling down from a building, as the fear factor to me at that time wasn't there anymore. This doesn't mean that we are not nervous when doing it the first time. The few difference are the experiencing of the downwash, noisy environment due to the rotor and no walls of course.

Dispatcher
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