Yep, very typical of Tuna flying in the Pacific. "Tuna spotting" hardly sums up the job as the Helicopters biggest job, at least in the pacific areas, is rounding up the Dolphins and coordinating the catch. The Skipper will be onboard at this point and he will operating the radios screaming at the speedboats and main boat as they circle around the Dolphins (Tuna stay with the Dolphin
). Whats going on at the begining where the abrupt manoeuvres are used is probably chasing a small pod of Dolphins which are trying escape from the main pod, this could be disasterous as they may take the entire school of Tuna away. At this point the skipper will be dropping flares (and bombs
) to turn the pod back to the main pod. It can be quite tough flying especially if you're operating within only a few hundred miles from shore as these Dolphins have probably been "worked" several times and don't behave as one would prefer
. You can see the smoke from the flares on the surface of the water during some of the low level turns. The problem is that the skipper likes to circle at 500 feet as that's where you can see most and coordinate the boats, but if they start to run he wants you down below 50 feet in an instant as thats where the flares work best. Never felt any low-g myself as speeds are relatively low at this point but not impossible. Great experience but you shouldn't be out there without at least 1000 hours (in Robbies), minimum.....
TS