On patrol with Orion

Press, 13 July 1984, Page 22

On patrol with Orion

The nerve centre for No. 5 Squadron’s resource patrols is a room in its operational headquarters containing maps, photographic displays and photographic equipment. On one wall is a map of New Zealand and its territorial waters with colour coded tags marking where all the fishing vessels are and into what category they fall. An adjacent wall has photographs of all the different types of fishing vessels the Orion crews are likely to encounter on their patrols, to aid speedy identification. In another corner is a machine through which photographic negatives taken on each flight are passed. The machine is capable of turning out a print of individual negative frames within seconds to aid identification and to show whether the vessel was fishing when spotted. In this room the crews are briefed before each flight, and told over what area they will be patrolling. They are also able to assess the density of fishing boats in that area before they set out. After their briefing the crew moves to the pre-flight planning section where actual routes are plotted and courses calculated. The flight plan is lodged and the crew move off to their aircraft. Once there they move through the ordered lists of pre-flight checks designed to ensure that the aircraft is fit for flying. On the day a reporter and photographer from “The Press” flew with No. 5 Squadron, a fault was discovered only minutes before the scheduled takeoff, which was then set back about five hours. Because of that fault and because of flying commitments the following day, our patrol was shortened from the usual patrol of eight or nine hours to a flight of just over four hours. The delay also affected the area we were to cover — which had been outlined as a patrol right around the coastline in an anti-clockwise direction from Auckland to Christchurch. The new flight plan provided for the aircraft to fly directly over the North Island until it reached Cook Strait and then fly around the territorial waters to the east of the northern half of the South Island.

Normally No. 5 Squadron patrols the whole of the 200-mile E.E.Z. at least once in every two-week period. The aircraft assignments, organised in conjunction with the Fisheries Control Centre run by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries in Wellington, are kept confidential and are organised with no set pattern in mind so that the fishing vessels are unable to predict when an Orion might be coming to check their position and activity. “We are unannounced,” said Flight Lieutenant Peter Douglas. The Orion is a particularly smooth and steady aircraft in the air, an important quality when considering its role as a working platform for the 11-man crew. Much of their work is done away from windows which could provide a comforting glimpse of horizon in turbulent conditions. Behind the pilots’ cockpit is the radio station manned by an air electronics operator. One of his jobs is to radio back to operational headquarters the details of all vessels spotted during the patrol. Where necessary this information is checked with the Fisheries Control Centre so that further instructions can be issued to the crew. Beside the radio, and on the opposite side of the aircraft, are convex observation windows which aid visibility, particularly in times of search and rescue. The main body of the aircraft is taken up with a bank of instrument. panels along one side with a row of seats for the operators. The first of these multi-purpose displays is the radar station. Here an APS 116 Mod 4 radar (“the latest all singing all dancing radar in the world,” according to one of itsa operators) replaces the old APS 80 model which was used before the modernisation. The operator of the solid state radar identifies and numbers all the objects that appear on the screen so that they can be systematically checked out by the pilot. The aircraft’s computer helps the radar to sort what information is useful to the operator and eliminates the remainder. Beside the radar station is the infra-red detection system, another product of the modernisation. The sensor itself is located under the nose of the aircraft in a rotating

turret.. A screen inside the aircraft portrays what the sensor has detected, while the operator can determine the direction. As the Orion swoops down low over its first target for the day the infra-red detection system (1.R.D.5.) shows that it is one of the Cook Strait ferries. From the cockpit the ordnanceman, armed with his Agiflite camera, photographs the vessel through a side window. The I.R.D.S. system incorporates a recording device which can be switched on if a vessel is identified as an infringer. The vessel’s position is then recorded and the crew have evidence if they claim the vessel was fishing where it should not have been. The I.R.D.S. has a range of about 3km and can show up land 25km away. It is particularly useful in search and rescue, especially in darkness or adverse weather conditions when the sensor will detect things not visible to the naked eye. If the crew are looking for a person in the water the I.R.D.S. will help them up to about I.6km. Adjacent to the I.R.D.S. station is the navigator, who operates an updated inertial system which is linked into the data handling system. His equipment provided a 10 second plot of the aircraft’s position and records this for possible use in the post flight debrief. The navigator also manually plots the course as an additional check. In the future (beyond phase two) the Omega navigation may be replaced by a satellite navigation system. Beyond the navigator is the tactical co-ordinator, or data base manager. The “taco” controls the data magnetic tape system and is the only operator at the multipurpose displays who controls the destroying of data. The “taco” also controls the armament panel, which only the pilot has the facility to override. The last place at the panel is occupied by the acoustics, but not during maritime patrols. It is here that the acoustic signals are picked up from the sonarbuoys dropped by the aircraft. It is the acoustic station which has the most ground to make up in phase two of the modernisation. Phase one neatly covers maritime patrols and search and rescue but it will not be until phase two is completed that

the R.N.Z.A.F. will be in with an equal chance in the Fincastle Trophy. Phase two will include a larger number of channels for the receiving of sonarbuoy information and a profile on the radar. During a patrol the teamwork on the Orion is highlighted. As the aircraft approaches a vessel the warning goes out to crew members to don life jackets as the aircraft drops to about 60 metres for a closer look. Binoculars are brought in and faces peer through all of the windows as the crew try to identify their target. The vessel is photographed, the required identification is noted, and the vessel’s position is fixed. Other factors such as the speed of the vessel, and whether it is fishing are also noted. The fishing vessels within the E.E.Z. are required to report their positions at regular intervals to the M.A.F. and the crew are supplied before take-off with a computer print-out listing the positions of all vessels and the areas they are allowed to be in and to fish in. As the details are radioed back to Auckland, the crew await further instructions. Every few months they find an infringer and further precautionary steps are taken. All conversation inside the aircraft is taped and the I.R.D.S. is set on to the recording mode. Several methods are used to fix the vessel’s position beyond any doubt. In some cases the order may come back to the aircraft to maintain a watch on the vessel until a ship can be sent to arrest it. In this case the aircraft would be relieved by another Orion to spread the burden of the watch. In the course of a normal patrol the aircraft photographs all vessels it encounters — including merchant vessels and pleasure boats. Amongst the more unusual “finds” is the Benreoch rig off the east coast of the South Island. Our patrol ended in Christchurch so that the crew wobld be able to start patrolling southern waters early the following day. Their patrols also take them to Fiji and Rarotonga. On those trips the Orions patrol on their way to the islands and then spend several days patrolling in the area before patrolling back to Whenuapai.