Homestead Air Reserve Base, Coast Guard conduct pilot survival training

Photo By Tech. Sgt. Ian Carrier | An HH-65 helicopter from Coast Guard Air Station Miami extracts a 93rd Fighter Squadron, Homestead Air Reserve Base, pilot from the waters off of Key Largo during Water Survival Training, Sept. 11. The training was part of a 2-day event that included signalling, survival kit familiarization, land navigation and land and water survival training.  

HOMESTEAD AIR RESERVE BASE, FL, UNITED STATES

09.12.2010

Story by Tech. Sgt. Ian Carrier 

482d Fighter Wing

HOMESTEAD AIR RESERVE BASE, Fla. -- Pilots assigned to the 93rd Fighter Squadron at Homestead Air Reserve Base participated in required combat and water survival and rescue training, Sept. 11-12.

During the first day of training, conducted on base, several stations were set up round-robin style. Pilots were instructed on the use of pyrotechnic signaling, which included various flares and a gyro jet flare gun. Other stations included orienteering, electronic signaling, water and food collection and building shelters from available materials.

The training was conducted by Operations Support Squadron Aircrew Flight Equipment with help from two Air Force Survival Evasion Resistance Escape trainers and two Army Special Operations Command soldiers.

A combat extraction was also performed with the help of a U.S. Customs and Border Protection UH-60 helicopter.

Being in South Florida, Homestead pilots are over water every day. Flight crews have to be prepared for the worst-case-scenario of a forced aquatic landing or ejection from the aircraft over water. To prepare for this, a day of Water Survival Training was conducted in the waters off of Key Largo.

The training was built around a number of eventualities. For example, while floating, winds can catch the parachute and pull the pilot across the water. To prepare the crews for this, members fully suited in flight gear were dragged through the water by a jet-ski.

The pilots also had to clear themselves from underneath a floating parachute canopy and negotiate climbing aboard both a personal life raft and a 20-person raft.

In addition, the training involved instruction on mounting and dismounting an aerial rescue basket lowered by helicopter.

The water instruction ended with an aerial extraction by a Coast Guard Air Station Miami HH-65 helicopter. Under the supervision of Coast Guard Auxiliary boats, Coast Guard rescue divers and 482nd OSS personnel, the pilots were raised out of the water, and then lowered back into the ocean. The event provided a true joint training environment involving the numerous assets which would be used to help rescuers locate and recover downed aircrew.

"You train like you fight," said Lt. Col. Joseph Feheley, 482nd Fighter Wing Safety Officer. "This is as close as you can get."

“In my 11 years at Homestead, this is the most outstanding Water Survival Training we’ve conducted,” he continued. “This was the first time in those 11 years that we’ve put all the pieces together with real boats and real helicopters.”

• Date Taken: 09.12.2010
• Date Posted: 09.15.2010 11:18
• Story ID: 56314
• Location: HOMESTEAD AIR RESERVE BASE, FL, US