Luxury blue whale watching by helicopter in Victoria, Australia
How this holiday makes a difference
Environment
We maintain a fly friendly policy but never at the expense of safety. We maintain where possible maximum, rather than minimum clearances to residential areas. We hold altitude as long as possible & use steeper descents to avoid low approaches over residential areas. Slow down earlier and hold altitude longer to delay onset of blade slap in noise sensitive areas, where possible. When flying coastal, where possible stay off-shore.
We only carry the minimum oil required. Only conduct water landings in an emergency. Use bio-degradable detergents only and natural cleaning products. We catch rainwater off hangar roof and use it for washing the helicopter. Encourage the use of half flush in the toilet. Repair any leaky taps immediately. Use any saved washing water on garden. Plant only water wise plants in hangar garden.
We choose the most fuel efficient helicopter for the task. Consider passenger to fuel burnt ratio. Keep ground time to a minimum. Use air transit where possible. Plan all flights thoroughly to avoid fuel wastage. Drive fuel efficient cars, keep vehicles serviced and keep towing to a minimum.
We conduct oil changes carefully to ensure no spillage. Do not over fill engine oil, check levels regularly. Use funnels when re-fueling if using fuel can. Keep fuel contamination samples as small as possible. We avoid landings and departures to bare dusty locations, expedite landings and departures, minimize hovering and rehabilitate any land degradation created by our operation.
Community
We maintain educational component of all tours and assist in research where possible. We conduct educational lectures prior to every flight and record for research all sightings. We use some profit as a donation to research and also are a regular donator to local fund raising community charities.
We started logging all sightings from our very first flight. We now are able to add time and comments to sightings along with position. This type of data is very hard and expensive to get. Data collected this way is very non invasive.
We are keen to assist local Blue Whale researchers Dr Peter Gill and Margie Morrice in anyway practical to protect the endangered Blue Whales. This year instead of supporting fund raising through the calendars, we have upgraded our flight following system at considerable expense. The new system now incorporates pilot activated data logging. This will allow us to store more Blue Whale data of a higher quality. It means that each Blue Whale watching flight is contributing more effectively to Blue Whale research. The logged data is regularly forwarded to Dr Gill.
We are very excited to enjoy a partnership with Maralinga Tjarutja Services P/L the corporate arm of the Maralinga Tjarutja people of South Australia. The aim of this partnership is to develop scenic flights during the Blue Whale off season on Maralinga Tjarutja leased land at Head-of Bight. This project if successful will employ only local and indigenous peoples.
