Originally Posted by
MENELAUS
Certainly wasn’t the case on the Lynx/Gazelle.
Well...it's a bit different to a Lynx or Gazelle.
From the horse's mouth, so to speak:
When pilots leave the Conversion to Type (CTT) - learning to fly the Apache course - they are qualified to fly it from either seat. They are then given a specific seat as part of the Conversion to Role (CTR) - learning to fight it course. Once they complete the CTR they will ‘operate’ - on any mission related exercise or on operations - the aircraft from that seat. For something that isn’t mission related, they can still fly it from either seat, although that has some supervisory considerations. As they progress in experience they can do a seat swap (an abridged CTR for the other seat position) that would make them ‘Dual Seat’. In reality that is only really a qualification for aircrew progressing into a Weapons/EW instructor or Qualified Helicopter Instructor (QHI) role. As for frequency or seat swapping. The majority of aircrew at Wattisham operate in their seat allocated as part of CTR. For a smaller amount of sorties they may fly from the different seat, but that’s not that frequent. The number of dual seat qualified people are pretty low.