PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Changes to MoD helicopter low level training rules
Old 24th Sep 2005, 00:01
  #55 (permalink)  
Lafyar Cokov
 
Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: UK
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Exporting low flying sounds so amazingly easy to do - but it is completely unworkable for a vast variety of reasons.

1. We are the Royal Air Force (or Royal Navy or British Army - ie UK Sovereign Forces based in the UK) - for those unaware of recent events, our influence over the commonwealth has vastly reduced in the past few decades. Hence, should our lords and masters instruct the prospective governments of host nations of our newly exported low flying that they are to allow us to low fly at will, they are highly likely to be met with a 'f**k off your Britannic Majesties!'

2. The setting up of engineering, operations, legal framework, ac and personnel accomodation etc etc would be prohibitively high.

3. As current SH operators, many of us (me included) are already spending more than half the year deployed on ops. To be told that prior to every op deployment we have to spend a suitable time deployed in some god-forsaken part of the world, working back down to operational low flying heights, would be completely unnaceptable and would lead to an even bigger exodus than the Heli forces have faced over the past few years.

4. Low flying is such a perishable skill that it needs to be constantly practised to be effectively employed on ops - remember that we have not always had the luxury of 1-2 months warning for many of the ops that have been carried out in the past few years.

5. Low flying over any terrain involves a constant level of vigilance and concentration that can be improved by practice. The fact that you are flying over undulating grassland in practice and flat desert on ops only makes the handling task easier leaving more capacity for other tasks at hand.

As I've stated before, if we don't keep practicing it - the skill will fade and we will suffer more casualties as a result of CFIT.
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