Hello again! It’s me, Johnise Philoe and I will be continuing my blog for this week before it ends. Day 4 is almost over and the week itself is literally flying away. Since the second day of the internship programme I was already feeling at home. The working space at which we were placed in was comfortable along with plenty information, which were very interesting. Yesterday, when preparing for our flight that took about 1hour and a half, I was feeling quite scared and excited at the same time. This was due to the fact that I’ve never been in a small aircraft before and I was also looking forward to see the surfaces from a bird’s eye view. For the flight we took the Dornier 228-202K (SY-007) aircraft. This aircraft was equipped with a sophisticated radar. This radar can cover a distance from Mahe to Praslin and it can also detect any objects with heat signatures. Before departure the pilot had to make sure that all the systems on board the aircraft were working properly. This was done by checking if the movement of the flaps of the wings and tail were working properly, and most of all they had to make sure that the emergency brakes were working also. After departing from the base, following the Base to Entry line (BE), the view was simply breath taking, as shown below: During the patrol we got a chance to locate two local fishing vessels and made them our target for a few minutes. The pictures and information gathered would be later send to the Imagery Intelligence (IMINT) office where the Mission Report would be made by the operation’s member (i.e. L/CPL Alexander Stravens). The data acquired from the two targets will also be sent to the Seychelles Fishing Authorities (SFA) to know if the tow fishing vessels are registered in their database or not. Those vessels were also located in the Area of Interest (AOI), around the Patrol Line (PL), at which the aircraft was patrolling. Our patrol was longer by minutes than scheduled. We returned to the Seychelles Air Force (SAF) base following the Exit to Base line (BE). Although there were small turbulences the flight went better than expected and the experience itself was beyond excellent. The whole crew (i.e. CMDR A. Menon, LT Hoareau and CPL Hertel), my colleagues (Annia and Conshita) and I also took a picture in front of the Dornier 228-202K (SY-007): Today was very calm because it’s not every day that the Seychelles Air Force (SAF) will have a rescue mission to respond to or a patrol to attend. Instead my colleagues and I took the time to know some of the officers which were around and some of the other military members. We also had a brief discussion with our supervisor, Captain Rodney Zarine, informing us about the talk that we will have tomorrow with him regarding our understanding in how the Seychelles Air Force (SAF) contributes to the blue economy. That will be all for now folks! Until next time, Johnise
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AuthorThe interns of the Prosperity & Environment: Promoting sustainable development opportunities for youth in the Blue Economy sector. Archives
January 2018
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