DCT Advanced Raft Management course

[Adam the Akrodude]

Along with intrepid aviator extraordinaire Damo, I was honoured and privileged to be included in Ray's Advanced Raft Management Course yesterday at Dynamic Crew Training P/L. There were brilliant talks given by professional aviators - one having survived a P-3 ditching and there was a talk given by SAR service providers Cobham. This was all jaw dropping, humbling and major eye opening stuff for a junior burger bug smashing aviator such as myself.
Participants came from a wide range of sectors from aviation and it was brilliant to share experiences in this regard. We all were given turns to "act out" parts of each scenario - be it raft commander, 2IC or passengers suffering serious ailments, sometimes in the dark with simulated rain coming down. There was a lot of floating around in live jackets as well and climbing into and out of various sized rafts. It is indeed interesting fitting and inflating these devices in the dark - just how a seemingly simple task can become more complex given low light and a lot of urgency!
I was pretty impressed by the capabilities of Cobham's Challenger 604 - it is indeed a flying fuel tank and can haul 9 tonne of fuel giving it a radius of up to 1500 nm with 0.7 hour on station at that distance out - really impressive stuff! These are indeed very complex and capable SAR aircraft and being able to chat and ask questions of the crews themselves a privilege indeed. One hopes though to never need their expert service if you know what I mean - awesome knowing they are there doing what they do though.

So, thanks again Ray for including me in this quite extraordinary day - one I will not forget. Pretty amazing to see you in your "Milspec/Sgt Major" training role too - kick ass sir! Cheers mate!