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60FltMech 7th May 2023 00:40

US Air Force IFT-R
 
I just became aware of a new Air Force contract that will apparently begin this year, although it’s been hard to find information about and potential award and start date.

It seems the Air Force has had a hard time putting students through fixed-wing training in the AT-6 for various reasons which has created a bottleneck in the supply of pilots for undergraduate helicopter pilot training.

The did an experimental program in the past year wherein they sent prospective helicopter pilots to a civilian flight school in Texas for basically an FAA helicopter private pilot license.

They sent out an RFP a couple years ago gauging industry capabilities to support training up to 100 pilots a year flying 3000-5000 hours a year on Bell 206 “or equivalent” aircraft and are now seemingly close to awarding an actual contract.

Has anyone else heard of this? I found the contract Performance Work Statement and can post a link if anyone is interested.

FltMech


SASless 7th May 2023 14:14

One would think the Air Force could use the Army or Navy schools that are already in operation and bootstrap their own service students into one of those schools.

Seems that would be far better than creating one of their own.

Think back to Southern Airways at Fort Wolters in the 1960's for example.

Mast Bumper 7th May 2023 14:45

I heard that Helicopter Institute, Inc. out of Fort Worth, TX is the preferred civilian company to complete the training for the Air Force.

chopper2004 7th May 2023 17:04


Originally Posted by 60FltMech (Post 11431238)
I just became aware of a new Air Force contract that will apparently begin this year, although it’s been hard to find information about and potential award and start date.

It seems the Air Force has had a hard time putting students through fixed-wing training in the AT-6 for various reasons which has created a bottleneck in the supply of pilots for undergraduate helicopter pilot training.

The did an experimental program in the past year wherein they sent prospective helicopter pilots to a civilian flight school in Texas for basically an FAA helicopter private pilot license.

They sent out an RFP a couple years ago gauging industry capabilities to support training up to 100 pilots a year flying 3000-5000 hours a year on Bell 206 “or equivalent” aircraft and are now seemingly close to awarding an actual contract.

Has anyone else heard of this? I found the contract Performance Work Statement and can post a link if anyone is interested.

FltMech

here is the original from 2021

https://govtribe.com/opportunity/fed...ates-air-force


and

https://www.highergov.com/contract-o...r0025-p-a1f07/


cheers

chopper2004 7th May 2023 17:27


Originally Posted by Mast Bumper (Post 11431537)
I heard that Helicopter Institute, Inc. out of Fort Worth, TX is the preferred civilian company to complete the training for the Air Force.

It was good to see and engage with them in Atlanta, their B206 and R44 are ex Horizon Flight Academy (one of my flight instructors went over to there 15 years ago) my pics below
https://scontent-lcy1-1.xx.fbcdn.net...qA&oe=645D725B

https://scontent-lcy1-1.xx.fbcdn.net...LQ&oe=645C69E9

https://scontent-lcy1-1.xx.fbcdn.net...vg&oe=645DBBC5



btw the cap you see on the head had an unique Icarus IFR training device of which a famous Blackhawk driver was trying to market...he and his crew who were shot down over Afghanistan made it to front of News week (i took screen shot of the his iphone) knows how to talk the talk and also has a book out.

https://scontent-lcy1-1.xx.fbcdn.net...Bg&oe=645D1E10

They seem a good outfit...

cheers

60FltMech 7th May 2023 22:45

That would make sense but we all know each branch has to indoctrinate their people in whatever procedures, regulations and publications they use, everybody has to reinvent the wheel.

A pilot I fly with was flying HH-60Gs at CCAD, had about 400 hours in them and the Air Force came in and said that he couldn’t continue to fly their Pavehawks because he didn’t go to the Air Force HH-60 course.

Will be interesting to see who wins this contract. The way the PWS is written it will have to be with 100 miles of a military installation of some kind.

FltMech


chopper2004 13th May 2023 11:57

CAE has it
 

Originally Posted by Mast Bumper (Post 11431537)
I heard that Helicopter Institute, Inc. out of Fort Worth, TX is the preferred civilian company to complete the training for the Air Force.

They did not get it according to their FB page statement

'As many of you know, =AZWruTK2gqkhBdKrwQnMfOAwhWrR0vybwpqC_44B1TULIh-VNVP7GRcoicM0bhru8d4sL4NotZ0Zch1sTDrHKvAkC8yiZp8qNEeI7bLZl5U LlUkwXeHA3WelCh3jDVqNdYE&__tn__=-]K-R]Helicopter Institute has been “chasing the win” with regard to the USAF Initial Flight Training - Rotary (IFT-R) contract. Although we were fully ready to execute the contract as a Commercial-off-the-Shelf solution, we were notified that we were not selected.
The competition was between Helicopter Institute and CAE. In this case, CAE pulled off the win. We out performed on almost all factors, but lost on price!
Congratulations to CAE on another substantial win under their belt as they also hold the IFT contract for USAF fixed wing training.
To other small business owners watching HI’s performance…not being selected is always a possibility. As a company, we held Plan A, B, and C on the table in case we did not make the cut. So…it’s off to Plan B and keep doing what we’re doing well.
I would like to thank our staff, customers, vendors, and friends that have supported this effort from day one!
After next week, we will schedule a Zoom debriefing for any Small Business owners that would like to hear about our journey during this process. It was hard, but the learning softens the blow! Hope to see you there.
Randy Rowles
President
Helicopter Institute Inc.

cheers

chopper2004 11th Dec 2023 18:38


Originally Posted by 60FltMech (Post 11431238)
I just became aware of a new Air Force contract that will apparently begin this year, although it’s been hard to find information about and potential award and start date.

It seems the Air Force has had a hard time putting students through fixed-wing training in the AT-6 for various reasons which has created a bottleneck in the supply of pilots for undergraduate helicopter pilot training.

The did an experimental program in the past year wherein they sent prospective helicopter pilots to a civilian flight school in Texas for basically an FAA helicopter private pilot license.

They sent out an RFP a couple years ago gauging industry capabilities to support training up to 100 pilots a year flying 3000-5000 hours a year on Bell 206 “or equivalent” aircraft and are now seemingly close to awarding an actual contract.

Has anyone else heard of this? I found the contract Performance Work Statement and can post a link if anyone is interested.

FltMech

I wondered why Bell put this pic up to celebrate the USAF 75th birthday last year on their social media

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....8bf453338c.jpg

Then CAE won it over this summer with the Bell 505,

https://www.cae.com/news-events/pres...ry-wing-pilots

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....d53d1d4f55.jpg

cheers



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