European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 21, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 8 the stars and stripes Friday March 21, 1986 Exchange pilots share techniques ideas by j. King Cruger . Bureau Cul Drose England the mayday Call from the sinking coastal freighter came into the search and res Cue Center during a fierce Winter storm. Within min utes a Rescue helicopter piloted by a . Coast guard lieutenant was headed West toward the Atlantic on it mercy Mission. Although the helicopter was piloted by an american officer it belonged to Britain s Royal Navy and was flying from the Royal Navy air station at Cul Drose in extreme Southwest England. The Mission piloted by it. John c. Miko ended successfully. The freighter s Crew of six was winched aboard the chopper without incident or injury. Forty five minutes later the freighter slipped beneath the Seething sea. For nearly five years the coast guard has had a Pilot Exchange program with the Royal Navy As a Means of exchanging ideas on search and Rescue techniques Crew training survival equipment and the fit Ting out of aircraft. Search and Rescue coverage for the Southwest coast of England is provided by 771 so at Cul Drose Western Europe s largest helicopter installation. The Squadron uses five Rescue helicopters to patrol Anarea up to 75 Miles offshore. Our work is very seasonal and gets very Busy in the summer said Miko 30, a native of Champagne 111. A lot of the work is associated with Holiday makers who get themselves in trouble climbing Cliffs surfing or windsurf ing. We average 100 rescues a year but sometimes we can take part in three or four on a summer s Day. In Winter we can go for three weeks at a time without a Call out. How Ever when we Are called out during the Winter it is usually for something fairly serious  the Cornish coast is buffeted by extremely High winds in Winter often for weeks at a time. All the pilots in our Squadron have flown in winds of Force 10 or 11 Force 12 on the Beaufort scale is Hurricane Force said Miko who arrived at Cul Drose for a two year tour in june 1983, then extended for year. I m enjoying it Here. The volume of shipping in the English Channel Means it is an interstate when it comes to coastal shipping. And the bad weather brings us the business. It s a Good Squadron and the flying particularly the Cliff work is very  Miko s chopper usually operates with Only three men aboard himself a crewman and a search and Rescue diver. A medic sometimes accompanies the Trio. His Squadron is one of two search and Rescue units operated by the Royal Navy. The other is at Lee on so Lent located near Portsmouth. Miko in t the Only american Serviceman among the Royal Navy it. Steve Haseldine left gives a Short Brief ing in the control Tower at Cul Drose Royal Navy air station England to . Officers taking part in an sex 3,500 people assigned to Cul Drose. . Navy it. Cmdr. John Thiele 31, of san Francisco is a Pilot with the Royal Navy s 810 so training student pilots and Crews in anti submarine warfare techniques aboard sea King my helicopters. It. Ted Brown 30, of Melbourne fla., pilots the same chopper with 820 so. Recently he has been doing search and Rescue flying from aboard Britain s newest Carrier the Ark Royal. An Early Winter deployment took the Carrier on a port Call to Amsterdam Netherlands and this sum Mer Brown will travel with the ship to new York when it participates in fourth of july celebrations there. Control Tower briefing s8.s photo by Gus Schuettler change program. Helicopter pilots watching Are from left coast guard it. John Miko Navy it. Cmdr. John Thiele and Navy it. Ted Brown. Both Thiele and Brown Are taking part in the personnel Exchange program run by the . Navy and the Royal Navy. The program lets personnel from both services serve with each other s forces. Also taking part in the program is it. Douglas Stidham 44, from Arlington tenn., a newly arrived air traffic controller at pred Annack air Field a training facility five Miles from Cul Drose. Participating in a similar program Between the . Marine corps and the Royal marines and serving aboard the Ark Royal with Brown is Marine capt. Tony Barton harrier aircraft Pilot. Canadian soldiers a so suffering because of falling Exchange Rafe by Joseph Owen Stuttgart Bureau Lahr Germany if misery truly loves company americans who have watched their Money shrink in value on european markets during the past year can take com fort in knowing they Aren t alone. Canadian forces Europe personnel have seen their country s currency fare slightly worse it has lost ground against both the German Mark and the american Dollar. The 6,500 service members and 1,600 other canadians affiliated with Canadian bases at Lahr and Baden Soel Hagen earn their pay in Canadian dollars but collect it in Marks after taxes and other deductions Are removed. Their Dollar s Exchange value has plummeted from 2.44 German Marks in february 1984 to around 1.575 Marks. It also Sank to a record Low 69.24 . Cents briefly last month before rebounding to its current 72.1-cent level still 5 cents lower than in 1984 and 13 cents lower than in 1980. The Canadian forces adjusts military paychecks periodically to reflect changes in the Cost of living around its Lahr and Baden Soellinger bases said it. Col. Nigel , command comptroller. Canadian forces members in German apartments and houses receive a living out adjustment which ranges from $240 to $436 per service member depending on rank. Griffin said the adjustment has increased five times since he assumed his duties in july most recently by 9 percent at the beginning of March. The Canadian forces also supplement paychecks with a salary equalization Factor an adjustment designed to give Canadian military personnel in Europe the same buy Power they would have in Ottawa Canada s capital. It is applied against what we Call disposable income which is roughly half of what a person gets for Gross pay Griffin said. He said the formula has prompted salary hikes four times since november. The rent and salary adjustments always occur several weeks after the currency fluctuations they Are meant to offset though so Many canadians have postponed unnecessary purchases. We be definitely got no major items planned with the Money situation the Way it is master warrant officer Robert Keenan said of his family s budget. Keenan has spent 24 years in the Canadian forces and has worked the last four As a firefighter at the Lahr air Field. He said his Day to Day spending habits have Rio changed. I would say the corporals and other Junior ranks Are the ones who Are having the problems Keenan said. The towns around the two bases Are saturated with Canadian residents so the Exchange rate is pinching the wallets of local merchants who sell expensive goods such As automobiles and furniture. Udo Goebel a car Salesman at a Volkswagen Audi Dealership in Lahr said canadians accounted for 30 per cent of his firm s sales at this time last year but that Market dried up around december. Some people even backed out of their sales contracts sacrificing part of the deposits they had paid on the cars he said. But Canadian forces Europe officials believe the weak ening of their Dollar won t affect most area businesses even though canadians May be getting More frugal. Select audience in Moscow to View British to programs London up British television soap operas comedies and documentaries will be screened for the first time to a select audience in Moscow later this year the great Britain-.s.r. Association said. Spokeswoman Jenny Armitage said the idea for the showings came a couple of years ago when soviet pro Grams were screened in London s National film theater. It s taken two years to get it together said Armitage. She said it was the first time that a season of television programs from the West would be shown in the soviet Union. Thai Pilot uses emergency Brake to Avert crash with military plane Bangkok Thailand a an emergency Brake averted a possible collision of a thai airways Boeing 737 with 123 passengers aboard and a . Military plane using the same runway in Northern Thailand officials said. The Boeing 737 had been cleared for Takeoff from Chiang Mai Airport s single runway and was nearly air borne when the c-130 transport plane came in for Landing officials said. The Pilot of the Domestic Airliner stopped the plane abruptly tearing two tires said an official who declined to be named. The official said no one was injured in the incident which was being investigated by thai authorities. Thai airways flight 107, carrying mostly foreigners left for Bangkok after a five hour delay she said. Chiang Mai a major tourist Center is the country s second largest City and is about 431 Miles North of Bangkok