Advanced Airframe - UH60A/L Part 1 - Prep Phase

Selection was finally over and I knew what I was going to fly for the rest of my Army career.  I felt a sense of relief since I no longer had to stress about possibly flying an aircraft that I didn't prefer (although flying anything at all is amazing!)  As I said in a previous post, I took some time off to relax for about a week.  After that, I got right back in to studying before my class actually started.

There's a lot to learn when you get to your advanced airframe.  If you have a lot of time between selection and starting class, use it wisely!  I spent my time learning 5's and 9's (limitations and emergency procedures), and learning the startup procedure for the helicopter (since it's about 10x longer than the TH-67!)  Learning 5's and 9's and startup before you even go to class is slightly difficult, because just like when you did it in Primary, you don't know what a lot of the acronyms mean or even where most of the switches are in the helicopter.  I spent a lot of time at the technical library and got help from a few of my friends that started the class a couple weeks ahead of me.

The first couple of weeks of the UH-60 course are spent in academics.  You learn mostly about systems of the helicopter and malfunction analysis (this is where emergency procedures come in to play).  This part of the the course is called prep phase.  On the first day, after an introduction brief, you will receive your first 5 and 9 test.  It will have most of the limitations (at least all of the quantifiable ones), and ALL of the underlined emergency procedures on it.  You have to get at least 50% to pass the first one.  As I said before, study and learn your 5's and 9's before you even start class, it will make your life a whole lot easier.  We had 2 guys that were held back a class because they didn't bother to look at 5's and 9's before we started.  They tried to play catch-up but trying to study for academics and the start up at the same time was too much and they got set back.

There are a few tests during academics as well.  After the first couple of weeks of academics, you'll spend a week at the CPT (Cockpit Procedural Trainer) learning the start up procedure and the learning about performance planning.  In hindsight, I'm glad that I took the time to try and learn the startup procedure before starting class, because it made that part of class a little bit easier.  There were a few guys that never looked at it, and they were definitely feeling the pressure of trying to catch up.

In addition to just learning the start up procedure, you also must memorize every single Warning, Caution, and Note associated with the startup procedure.....there are 43 of them.  You can write W,C, or N in your checklist to help you remember where they go, and how many are associated with a step, but you cannot write any other notes in your checklist to help you remember.

So....only a couple of weeks in to the 60 course and we had already jammed our brains full of new information.  Even though we had learned all this new information, the hard part is continuing to remember it as you receive even more new information, and especially remembering all the stuff that you learned at the beginning of flight school, like Aeromedical, Airspace, Aerodynamics, etc.  A lot of times they'll refer to your brain as an iceberg and the information as penguins.  The iceberg can only contain so many penguins.  Once you start putting more penguins on the iceberg, others will start to fall off!

Even though we had so much to learn and continue to learn in a short period of time, I was much more committed to learning it for the 60 course than I was during primary (at least in regards to the aircraft specific things).  In primary, we were required to learn the 5s and 9s for the TH-67, and although I learned them, I didn't spend a ton of time really committing them to long term memory, because I knew I'd only need to know it for a few short weeks.  When I started learning Blackhawk stuff I wanted to make sure I committed it to memory since I needed to know it for the rest of my career.

That was prep phase for the 60 course.    A ton of information in a short period of time, all to prepare us to fly the best helicopters that the US Army has to offer. 

The Preflight

After recovering from SERE, I was ready to start flying again.  I wasn't really sure what to expect.  I didn't know what Army flight training would be like.  I wasn't sure if I'd pick up flying again quickly or if it would take awhile.  I mean, I hadn't flown in 4 years.  I had heard a lot about these "5's and 9's" and "daily questions" at the flight line, but I didn't know what that really meant.  They say (whoever they are) that Army flight school is like trying to take a drink from a fire hose.  You'll get a lot of information thrown at you, and it will be extremely hard to take it all in.

First, the big picture.  Flight school is broken down into multiple sections - IERW (Initial Entry Rotor Wing) and Advanced Track.   IERW is where you learn the basics of flying a helicopter, and it consists of multiple sections as well - Primary, Instruments, and BWS (Basic Warfighting Skills).  Advanced Track is where you learn to fly and perform tactics in your advanced airframe (UH-60 Blackhawk, CH-47 Chinook, or AH-64 Apache).  Primary and Instruments are 8 weeks each, and BWS is currently 4 weeks.  For Advanced Track it depends on the airframe and model that you fly (see below).

Click for a larger version

Before you actually get to touch the controls, there are 3 weeks of classes that have to be completed.  First is Aeromed.  This is where you learn about aviation physiology.  You'll learn about what effect a lack of oxygen can have on you as an aviator, types of illusions that you can experience while you are flying, and the rules regarding when you can and cannot fly if you are using medicine.  At the end there is a test which is part of your OML, of course.

After Aeromed, you start systems.  In systems you learn about the mighty TH-67 Creek (which is the trainer for the Army.)  The TH-67 is basically a Bell B06B3 "Jet Ranger".  You'll learn about the basic parts of the helicopter and how they interact.  What you learn in this class will help you when you get out to the flight line and preflight the helicopter before you go fly.  It will take some studying, but there are practice tests that you can take that are about a 95% copy of the actual test.

TH67 Cockpit Procedural Trainer

The final class that you need to take before jumping in the cockpit, is actually jumping in a fake cockpit - a CPT (Cockpit Procedural Trainer).  Since there are multiple ways to kill a helicopter before you actually get in the air, you will practice the startup multiple times before you do it for real.  The CPT is a very realistic cockpit hooked up to computers.  The benefits are twofold.  You will spend less time on the ground when you get to the flight line, and you will know how to prevent a hot start.  A hot start is when the engine gets too hot during startup and basically burns up.

After those 3 weeks, I was ready to finally get back in the air again.