Last weekend I spend most of Saturday filming and photographing the helicopter operations for the Rat eradication project. The team spent some time with me explaining how things work. Basically the bait spreading device is an aluminium hopper which the ground crew fill with Brodifacum rat poison pellets. The helicopter then hovers low over head and one of the ground crew attaches the hopper to a special hook under the aircraft. The hopper is fitted with a small Honda engine which the ground crew will then pull-start. This engine drives a paddle wheel which, when the pilot operates a switch will start spreading the bait. Once the engine is started, the ground crew moves away and the pilot begins to lift the hopper. This is a very skilled bit of flying as the pilot cannot see the hopper, so has to use his skill to judge when he is picking it up straight. If he does not lift it vertically he will spill the hopper of damage it. Once the hopper is airborn the pilot flies to the appropriate area and using a specialist piece of GPS tracking equipment he will open the hopper valve and begin flying a course similar to that of a farmer ploughing his field. The tracker will record the choppers progress so the team can be sure the bait has been spread thoroughly to the required amount.
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| "Alpha Mike" on the ground for re-fuelling |
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| "Tango Charlie" departing Grytviken with a hopper |
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| Showing the hook system |
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Approaching to be fitted with a hopper.
See the album at http://picasaweb.google.com/mailmemek |
Hi Matt, I am really enjoying your blog along with the different pics & blogs of the rest of the team down with you.
ReplyDeleteI hope this rat work is a success & I watched the bit of film of the helicopters working on the SG web-news; all interesting stuff. Not too sure about sharing rat bait with drinking water though!
Your U-Tube film bits are great; they bring it all alive! Keep up the good work & thanks for sharing it all with us at home.
All the best
Mark