The Army is getting back to basics in helicopter flight training that will include a major order for Robinson Helicopters. The Army has picked M1 Support Services to take over initial helicopter flight training for the Army and the company has reportedly chosen the Robinson R66 as its primary training aircraft. The choice of aircraft was reported by Breaking Defense. The $10 billion contract marks a wholesale shift in both philosophy and process for creating new pilots. “Flight School Next delivers a critical improvement in our Initial Entry Rotary Wing Training model,” said Maj. Gen. Clair A. Gill, commanding general of the U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence in a news release last week. “Simply put, it delivers new military helicopter pilots with far better foundational skills.” Gill said the privatized training will also save the Army millions of dollars over its 26-year term.
The Army now produces about 1,250 new helo pilots a year in-house at its training base at Fort Rucker in Alabama. The training aircraft is the Airbus UH-72 Lakota, a twin-engine, highly capable utility helicopter based on the H45. Lakotas cost about $10 million each and, like all Airbus products, have a lot of automation built in. Pilots were trained using an Airbus syllabus that emphasized use of the automation, but instructors warned the students weren’t getting properly trained in basic skills. According to Breaking Defense, Army officials had been quoted as saying students were using the automation as a “crutch” during training.
The R66 has much less automation and fills most of the requirements for what Gill described as the “very simple aircraft” it’s been seeking in its shift to a more hands-on training approach. It’s also a fraction of the cost of the Lakota at about $1.1 million each and has much lower operating and maintenance costs, although the Army won’t have to worry about those details. Under the contract, M1 will supply all the aircraft, maintenance, manpower, and support for the first phase of helicopter training under a contractor owned, contractor operated (COCO) regimen, following the lead of militaries all over the world who have contracted out at least part of their flight training.
It has been said by many pilot examiners that GA might need to return a bit more to that approach. If it were my choice, and there were enough Aeronca Champs around, that’s where everyone would get their first number of hours.
I fully agree. When I was learning to fly sixty-some years ago, it was in Cubs, Champs, and T-carts. With their universal lack of power and individual idiosyncrasies (especially crosswind landings), proficiency in them all left the student well-prepared to handle bigger, heavier, and more powerful aircraft, like the T-6 or Bonanza.
For that reason, I would have picked the Robinson R-22. By far the most challenging helicopter to master, and thus both a good metric of future proficiency, and preparation for more systems- and procedures-heavy choppers.
With barely 10hrs in the R-22, I built a single-place CompositeFX Mosquito XE from a kit. First liftoff to a hover was a total non-event. That’s one sweet-flying chopper. But definitely not what one wants in an ab-initio training aircraft.
When I was a controller at LGB, and we had an airport full of copters, I had my first lesson in one, a Hughes 300 I think. I couldn’t keep it within the LGB field boundaries while trying to hover. I gained a lot of respect for those I would see out on the airport training. No more laughing at them, even when doing an autorotation, they would break the tail off the machine.
And it sounds like you and I are about the same generation. The Bellanca mechanic shop on the field at TOA had a T-Cart that he just left out and let all of the younger guys fly for free. Otherwise, I grew up flying Aeroncas mostly. Even first soloed a C3. My Dad owned three of those at one time or another. In fact, my last aircraft I owned was an Aeronca Chief. Finally gave it up six years ago.
Concur.
Legacy GA tailwheel or the likes through solo for fundamental stick n rudder. Then up and onward.
Tom C.
Well, about time! As a product of Southern Airways contract instructors at Ft. Wolters in 1971, I can attest to the value of those basic skills learned from those great (mostly ex-army) guys. The Army has now gone full circle, back to basics. Works every time!
I predict the military pilots will not like this news, for a couple reasons. First, they seem biased against the Robinson, although in my opinion they are pretty good helicopters. Second, the contracting out of flight instructor duties will take away good billets from pilots who want to remain in the service and remain flying, but at least for a time in a non-deploying capacity. Perhaps there is a retention problem already which will offset this, but if not, it could create a retention problem! Watching good billets vaporize is sad for those in uniform.
I’m also interested in the decision to go with the R66 rather than the Cadet, which is a variant of the R44 specifically made for training. Probably having the extra seats and gobs of power is a good thing, and perhaps the Army specified that the training must be in a turbine. One generally expects the contractor to take the least expensive path available.