Iraqi helo training takes operational flight

Photo By Staff Sgt. Eunique Stevens | Keith Shivers, a U.S. Army Security Assistance Training Management Organization-contracted instructor pilot, conducts a post-flight brief with an Iraqi student pilot after his first rotary-wing training flight in an OH-58 Kiowa here Feb. 15. Six Iraqi rotary-wing student pilots flew for the first time after almost three weeks of ground training, which is part of a three-phase six-month course that covers basic aircraft handling, flight instrument use, and tactics application.  

KIRKUK REGIONAL AIR BASE, IRAQ

02.27.2009

Story by Senior Airman Jessica Lockoski 

506th Air Expeditionary Group

KIRKUK REGIONAL AIR BASE, Iraq - Training days: 19. Flying days: zero.

That tally changed to 20 and 1 as six Iraqi rotary-wing student pilots moved from the classrooms and briefing rooms to the tarmac and OH-58 helicopters--and the air--Feb. 15.

Led by Soldiers, civilians and contractors from the U.S. Army Security Assistance Training Management Organization, Iraqi Air Force Squadron 2 is comprised of 12 student pilots, whom began ground academics when the course started in January and is scheduled to graduate here late July.

The three-phase flight course will include basic aircraft handling, flight instrument use and tactics application.

"After two years of hard, collective work of Airmen, Soldiers and contracted personnel, we have the first time an Iraqi student is actually on the controls of a U.S. Army helicopter," said Army Col. Donald Clark, SATMO commander, here from Ft. Bragg, N.C.

One Iraqi pilot shared his feelings of lifting off the first time.

"I felt something amazing when I flew," said the student pilot. "It was an amazing moment in my life - so fast, and we were flying so close to the ground."

The student pilot said flying the helicopter was more difficult and sensitive than flying a fixed-wing aircraft. The next flight he takes will be "more calm and easier", but as training days go on he said the students know training will get harder.

"Everything the instructor pilots tell us we do not forget," he said.

The students understand the utility and importance of the helicopter and are very stoked about training, said Steven Millard, a contracted instructor pilot here.

"This helicopter thing has been a long time coming," Millard said. "The guys that got selected for it are excited and happy to be here, and they realize that with helicopters they are going to get a lot of flight time," in what he said would become the "pick-up truck" of the Iraqi air force.

"It's a Ph. D level effort to get to the point we are today," said Colonel Clark. "Today is a beginning; on the other hand, we have a lot of work ahead of us. We want to make it a permanent facility and be able to continue to do this for many years in support of rebuilding the Iraqi air force."

"It's an ideal situation to be in when you have the equipment, recourses and the motivated students to put it all together," Colonel Clark said. "We are all working toward a common goal that what I hope will happen today as a beginning and maintain into the future."

Prior to the start of the helicopter course, students received at least 17 hours of screening on the Cessna model aircraft operated by the coalition air force transition team here.

• Date Taken: 02.27.2009
• Date Posted: 02.27.2009 02:33
• Story ID: 30513
• Location: KIRKUK REGIONAL AIR BASE, IQ