By
CPL Simone Liebelt
 |
HAWK
EYE : Aircrewman PO Craig Daniel has clocked up more than a 1,000 flying hours
in The Gulf. |
As
the only aircrewman of the Seahawk onboard HMAS Parramatta, Petty Officer Craig
Daniel is a very busy sailor.
He’s so busy that he recently clocked up
his 1,000th hour while flying in the Persian Gulf as part of Operation Catalyst.
“To
reach 1,000 hours was a really big event for me, particularly as I had the Chief
of Navy in the back at the time,” PO Daniel said.
“So when we
got out at the other end in Bahrain, he shook my hand to congratulate me, which
was pretty memorable.”
Known as a flight SENSO (sensor operator),
PO Daniel’s extensive role as part of the three-person flight crew involves
passenger control, search and rescue, and acoustics, which includes operating
the sonobuoys and submarine detection. He also operates the Mag 58 machine gun,
the winch and cargo hook, and the radar and Forward Looking Infra Red (FLIR).
“Days
are very busy; it’s not just as easy as throwing your jackets on, going out
to the aircraft and starting her up,” he said. “It just doesn’t
happen like that; there’s a lot of planning and a lot of people involved
in getting us off the flight deck on time.”
He said the main priority
in the Gulf was MSO (Maritime Security Operations) support, which is surface search
combined with radar and FLIR operations.
“What we’re doing is
conducting a patrol around the deep water anchorage; seeing who the tankers are
at the oil terminals and if any new ones come up, we inform the operations room,”
he said.
He said when he’s not flying; he’s also qualified to
be the landing safety officer on the ship, which is located in a little shack
below the flight deck.
“It’s a very big job and a very important
job, because you’re informing the bridge and the operations room of what’s
happening - where the aircraft is and what the situation is,” he said.
“There
are also different types of landings you can do as well, and some of them are
very complex, so you need to be really vigilant.”
He said this was
his third deployment to the Middle East, but his best so far.
“My
first time was as an electronic warfare technician on HMAS Darwin, the second
time I was the flight deck captain on HMAS Kanimbla and now my job is actually
flying in a Seahawk.
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