CANORA - March 22 was the annual snowshoe/survival day for the Canora Air Cadets.
Held at the Canora Activity Centre and on the Canora Golf Course, the cadets learned about skills and exercises that can be vital to survival in the outdoors.
2Lt Wade Stachura spoke to the cadets about navigation, and demonstrated the proper use of a compass and how to take bearings. One of his first messages was to “hold it flat and level” for an accurate reading.
“If you have to move while using a compass, move slowly,” said Stachura. Other factors that can affect the accuracy of a compass include another compass nearby and if it’s disturbed by an outside magnetic force.
2Lt Stachura followed by explaining the map reading employed by pilots using VFR (visual flight rules) maps, which is essentially navigating by using landmarks. This becomes especially important if electronic navigation equipment is unavailable or not working properly.
2LT Stachura showed the cadets his homemade navigation tool, which works similar to a sextant, essentially to measure the angle between an astronomical object and the horizon for the purposes of navigation.
For the remainder of the day, it was basically up to the cadets to learn survival skills from each other.
After reminding the cadets that isolation and loneliness are the “enemies of survival,” Captain Darren Paul, commanding officer, turned to FCpl Max Paul and FCpl Mickayla Maygard to share their ideas on fighting isolation and loneliness with the other cadets. Their suggestions included:
- Locate necessary resources such as food, clean water, and firewood.
- Stay positive and keep your mind active.
- Read a magazine.
- Play games. One example is gather four small twigs of the same size, matches can also work. Lay them out in a square and attempt to create a triangle, without breaking the twigs or matches.
- Doodling is another way to fight boredom. If paper and a pen or pencil are not available, a relatively flat rock and a stick with a burnt end will do.
- Loneliness can be difficult to overcome, but not impossible. Using a tennis ball, volleyball, or some other round object, create a friend to talk to.
FSgt Maisie Kuzminski followed by instructing the other cadets on ground to air signals that can be used to alert overflying aircraft to a person’s location and situation.
For the final session of the day, FCpl Zoe Becker took the other cadets outside and led them on a snowshoe compass course, showing them how to find the waypoints (xy points used for navigation to mark locations on a map or GPS receiver) that they were given earlier.
Don't count on social media to deliver your local news to you. Keep your news a touch away by bookmarking Canora Courier's homepage at this link.
Bookmark SASKTODAY.ca, Saskatchewan's home page, at this link.
