German skies beckon to pilots

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German skies beckon to pilots
By CHRISTIAN BONNEVIE - Manawatu Standard | Thursday, 10 April 2008
Kiwis could soon take to German skies under a two-way training scheme the Air Force hopes will help to avoid costly teething problems with the $700 million NH90 helicopter fleet, due at Ohakea in 2010.

Three senior German air force officers have been visiting Ohakea this week to discuss the plan, which, if approved, will see a pilot and crewman sent to the Buckeburg base for a two-year stint starting next year.

The former will work as an instructor with the EC135 helicopter fleet and the other on the NH90.

They will be a straight swap for two German pilots who will come to train on the Iroquois at Ohakea.

Wing Commander Ron Thacker said the chance to engage in the initiative was huge for New Zealand.

"Having a close working relationship is nothing but good and to have two of our own over there, and their's here, can only add to that," he said.

"Germany was basically the first to purchase the NH90 and they're about four years ahead of where we are. They have had to work out all the system kinks and, basically, by using their experiences we have a massive advantage and will save ourselves a lot of heartache."

Lieutenant-Colonel Hermann Grube and Squadron Leader Rudolf Lendt, speaking while the third member of their team enjoyed a flight in a Tiger Moth, said the German Air Force was yet to master the NH90's systems.

"We've skipped 50 years of helicopter technology in one step," Sqd Ldr Lendt said. "From the [Iroquois] it's a step into an entire new century and it's a very complex system.

"The maintenance aspects have proved the biggest task and it's still going to take us some time to get used to it."

Lt Col Grube said the German Air Force had so far received eight - the same number New Zealand has purchased - of the 80 NH90s they had ordered. Only four of their pilots are trained sufficiently to fly them.

"We got them in January last year but because of the problems had to stop flying until about December. We only have about 300 hours in them, so not much at all. There's a long way to go," Lt Col Grube said.

"But they're very impressive."

The NH90 helicopter has a maximum speed of 300km/h, can be flown without using the manual controls and carry an external load of 2.5-tonne as well as 20 troops.

It will replace the New Zealand Air Force's aging fleet of Iroquois.

Source
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/eveningstandard/4473586a6502.html

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Quote
Lt Col Grube said the German Air Force had so far received eight - the same number New Zealand has purchased - of the 80 NH90s they had ordered. Only four of their pilots are trained sufficiently to fly them.

"We got them in January last year but because of the problems had to stop flying until about December. We only have about 300 hours in them, so not much at all. There's a long way to go," Lt Col Grube said.

* Doesn't this seem wrong they ordered 80 NH-90s and only have four trained pilots?   They had 8 of them since last January and between the four trained pilots only 300 hours stick time?   I would have thought that German helicopter pilots would be tripping over themselves to get these slots in a modern helicopter.  Does anybody know if other uses had this problem I thought this was a huge international helicopter project.  Thanks

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Sure, but what are you gonna do, you get new helicopters and then can't fly them for a year because of teething problems, now it's been 4 months, how would you qualify more pilots? The entire training syllabus had to be developed, including maintenance, it's a new aircraft.

Also, Bückeburg is the army helicopter school, and Lt Col Grubbe commands it, so I don't know where all this "German air force" comes from, or how that fits in with the statements. 80 is for the Heeresflieger (50) and Luftwaffe (30), so if he says 8 of them are delivered, it doesn't neccesarily mean all 8 for the Army, or that those 8 are available for training. Luftwaffe's WTD-61 does the testing and evaluation of new weapon systems, they also have the NH90, at least two. Whereas if Grubbe says "four of our pilots" he might mean four of the pilots of the Heeresflieger, or four of his pilots at Bückeburg. Now, I don't know if Christian of the Manawatu Standard actually knows that in Germany both the army and air force fly helicopters... and took it into account when writing this, so don't take it all to literally.

The important message is that Germany did run into problems, especially maintenance, with this high-tech helicopters and that NZ ackowledges that it would also need a lot of knowledge and effort to switch to the NH90 in 2010 and looked for some help. However! If you read carefully, you'll see that only the 'crewman' actually will work on the NH90, probably a loadmaster. And that the two German pilots to come to NZ will train on the Huey! So it's just a start on cooperation, not a start on NH90 pilot training. I suppose NZ will be looking at Australia for more of that.

Other users haven't had a chance yet to run into problems I think, only a few have been delivered yet, and those are probably all still in acceptance testing&evaluation. The program itself had its problems though, and deliveries are still behind schedule (they probably say they are on schedule now, after making a new schedule  ).