This evening, Volunteers from Skerries Coast Guard took part in a training exercise with the Irish Coast Guard helicopter, call sign EI-RCG.
The object of the exercise was to facilitate a helicopter landing under cover of darkness
A landing site was selected on Red Island, Skerries and the volunteers quickly cordoned, prepared and set up the designated landing site. The Irish Coast Guard helicopter (EI-RCG) made their approach and performed a brief landing, simulated casualty evacuation and departure.
The Coast Guard helicopter did some demonstration of their night time illumination equipment or “Night Sun”. This is used for night searches or night approaches for landing the aircraft. The Night Sun is remotely controlled by a crewman from within the helicopter and has a strength of 30 million candlepower.
Some of the Skerries volunteers also had a brief look at how the Helicopter crew uses F.L.I.R (Forward Looking Infra Red) technology to locate persons using thermal imagery.
Weather conditions on scene were fair with a cold, light to moderate SW breeze.
Our thanks to the crew of EI-RCG for another professional job well done!