The inference that RAF Pilots are more professional than their senior service colleagues is very last year. Sadly, from the blinkered confines of the desert, dorks like Sandchopper still look to raise a bite. However I'm more interested in the Rotorhub piece that puts Army Apache training in context so I would very much doubt whether anyone else will 'get them'.
First UK Apaches ready for crews to convert to role
Defence Helicopter (23 Jan)
23 January
The first of the British Army’s line-squadron Apache AH Mk1 crews are nearly ready to begin their Conversion to Role training. As one of three squadrons in the 9th Regiment Army Air Corps (AAC), the 656 Squadron crews will complete their Conversion to Type training at Middle Wallop by the end of March ‘03 and then move north.
Their eight Apache AH Mk1s are already in situ at 9 AAC’s base at Dishforth in the North East of England. Each aircraft has already been put through extensive acceptance by the squadron’s REME maintainers and are being flown extensively by the resident Air Manoeuvre Training Advisory Team (AMTAT).
“Rumours of the Apache’s digital electronics package not working are plain wrong,” says Captain Kevin Hainey, the man who’s job it is to make all such things work. He reports that the aircraft are communicating across both non secure and secure channels between aircraft and the ground - ‘secure has often come out on top.’ One instance saw an Apache hovering at 15 feet over the Otterburn training area talking on VHF FM secure to an Apache at 500 feet over Dishforth, a distance over 100km.
Major David Amlôt, SO2, Ops adds: “We are using the IDM between aircraft. We are not yet established with a ground based IDM radio in the Regiment, they are coming in to service with various components of the Army this year, notably Forward Air Controllers. Trials have already been conducted with Apache using the IDM to talk to these ground stations and other platforms.”
By mid-January ‘04 there were eight Apaches on-site with others arriving at the rate of one every fortnight. They are being housed in renovated hangers, part of a £48 million investment by the Ministry of Defence to transform this ex-RAF station up to the standards required by a front-line attack helicopter unit. The newly built training centre is the pinnacle of this investment. Managed by the Westland/Boeing joint-venture company Aviation Training International Limited (ATIL), it houses the AAC’s only Field Deployable Simulators.
- Andrew Drwiega
First UK Apaches ready for crews to convert to role