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...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... He has seen all of the Maldives islands from the air, landed at most of those where one can land on water at, and is not seldom approached by a new captain for facts about water, platform location or something else at a destination. “I’m very often paired with new captains or with experienced captains flying with new first officers. You see, this is a team operation. We help each other and we teach each other. I, for example, teach new first officers how to load the planes, take care of the passengers when we are loading and offloading in rough weather and so on,” explains Raeef. Early start Raeef’s day starts at home in Male’ when the alarm on his clock goes off at 4 am. A shower, a quick breakfast, and ironing the uniform and then he is off for the dhoni at 5 am. Maldivian Air Taxi has their own staff-dhoni leaving from Male’ every morning at 5 o’clock. When the dhoni arrives at the airport the red MAT bus is waiting to bring Raeef and his colleagues over to the seaplane airport. Now the time is almost 5.30 am and Raeef starts to prepare the aircraft he is going to fly with on this day. “If we are away from the base then I will pump the left float free of any water while the first officer does the right float. In Male’ we have dockhands that does this for us, but that is something new. A few years ago that was also my job,” says Raeef. 28 While the captain and first officer check the aircraft and its systems, Raeef then checks the cabin, stocks up on extra inflight magazines and briefing cards, checks that the earplug bag is full, and gives all the extra ropes for docking and beaching on board a thorough check to see if they need to be exchanged. Then the baggage arrives, and together with the dockhand, he loads the aircraft and checks that it is loaded accordingly to the company’s standard operating policy. If there is time, he will then give the first officer a hand with the fuelling. Now the time is almost six o’clock in the morning and the captain gives a short brief to Raeef and the first officer about the first flight of the day. “It could for example be a flight to Ari Atoll where we take passengers from the international flights that have arrived during the night to a couple of different resorts where we also pick up passengers or staff.” During such a flight a lot of baggage is loaded in and out of the aircraft. On average Raeef and his cabin colleagues handles 8.400 lbs. of baggage during a normal day that normally consists of six flights with two to four stops en route before returning to Male. “It’s hard work but I love it. I’m not the type that can sit around doing nothing. I like working and always doing something,” explains Raeef when asked if it’s not an exhausting job. End of the day Ask one of Maldivian Air Taxi’s training captains about Raeef and they will talk about him with the highest regard, except when they are doing training of a new captain. Because if Raeef gets impatient and thinks the new captain under training uses too much time to get the aircrafts nose swung into the platform or dock, he will take the rope and pull the aircraft – all 12.500 lbs. of aircraft, passengers, baggage and fuel – in and tie it down by himself. And as the training captains all explain, ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Cabin Attendants in MAT Maldivian Air Taxi has 37 cabin attendants. An average working day is 6 to10 hours. A work week is 5 days. MALDIVIAN AIR TAXI then the captain under training will not learn how to dock the aircraft when Raeef does that. “Hahaha, yes I know. I’m not allowed to do that but I sometimes forget if we are late for lunch or only have a short break,” says Raeef while he laughs. As the day is coming to an end around 5 to 6 pm Raeef will either be back in Male’ at the base or he will be at a resort for an overnight. On average 4 to 8 of Maldivian Air Taxi’s seaplanes stay at a resort every night. This is so that early next morning they can return with passengers who need to catch the international morning flights out of Male. To become a cabin attendant one starts out as a dockhand at the base in Male. From there one continues through classes of emergency training, evacuation, crew relation management, first aid and aircraft handling before being released for flying with an instructor. After minimum 25 hours of flying, the new cabin attendant is released for flights by himself. ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... www.maldivianairtaxi.com 29
Page 1 and 2: ISSUE 19 | MALDIVIAN AIR TAXI Infli
Page 3 and 4: Editor’s NOTE Welcome to the 19th
Page 6 and 7: athuruga beach & water villas thudu
Page 8 and 9: MAGIQUES, MERVEILLEUSES, MALDIVES.
Page 10 and 11: MALDIVES ..........................
Page 12 and 13: MALDIVES ..........................
Page 14 and 15: MAT RouTE MAp .....................
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Page 19 and 20: www.constancehotels.com The jewel i
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