ANNIVeRSARY AIR SHow! - Royal New Zealand Air Force

More documents

Recommendations

Info

operational capability TACTiCAL TEST! a series of big military transports, flying low and dropping carefully cushioned loads by parachute, is a rare sight in the auckland region. But in recent weeks, during exercise KIwI Flag, american, French, singaporean and australian transport crews joined rNZaF personnel in testing their tactical skills. dropping cargo from the back of a low flying c-130 Hercules or a big c-17 for troops on the ground is a necessary skill relevant to operations in Afghanistan—and even to scientists at the South Pole (where snow conditions can prevent an aircraft landing). on this exercise, however, a variety of practice loads were dropped, ranging from large drums strapped to a pallet, to tractor tyres and water ballast. exercise kIwIFlAG 2012 was a tactical training exercise for fixed wing air transports, held at RNZAF base Auckland and conducted from 24 March to 05 April. The exercise scenario was designed to provide tactical-qualified aircrew with realistic exercises, in a deployed operational environment and emphasising coalition operations. The exercise tested intra-theatre air mobility techniques, including low level flying, simulated airdrop, cargo and personnel airdrop, and airlandings for insertion, or extraction, of personnel and cargo. The New Zealand crews came to kIwI FlAG fresh from exercise SkYTRAIN, which had been centred on the grass airfield at Alexandra during February and early March. SQN ldR Andy Scott (the detachment commander for SkYTRAIN) 12 Air Force news said the earlier exercise was for ‘currency training’; keeping personnel up to date with their training targets. The exercise developed aircrew skills in map reading, low-level flying and accurate timekeeping to ensure that the parachute loads were dropped in the designated drop zone. “we also conduct training for the support trades down here such as parachute riggers and medics. on one day we did training for aero-medical evacuation flights.” The mock evacuation scenario included ‘injured’ people on the camp who had to be transported in the Hercules. This situation provided the opportunity for the medics to practice their procedures away from base in an environment that mirrors the real thing, in real time. For personnel assigned on exercise for training purposes, there’s very little downtime. It’s a gruelling day with three, three hour flights. The preparation that goes into each flight, and making sure all the training objectives are met, is immense. each flight involves the standard aircrew of a Hercules — pilot, co-pilot, engineer, navigator/air warfare officer and two loadmasters. In addition to this team, the aircraft will carry other personnel under training. overall nearly 30 flights were
Air Movements personnel at work: lAc Pip bedlington, lAc Andre lambrecht and, in the cab, PTe luca Godinich leFT: The scene at Alexandra airfield “we also conduct training for the support trades down here such as parachute riggers and medics” KIwI Flag: Participating aircraft RAAF c-130J Singapore c-130 USAF c-17 USMc kc-130 France casa cN 235 RNZAF c-130H conducted over the 10 day period of the exercise “our pilots, navigators and all the aircrew work really hard. Their day can start at 7.00am and finish at 10.00pm. That being said, the parachute packers are regularly working until 8.00pm,” said SQNldR Scott. He explained that the Army chefs work long hours too, feeding the 180 personnel on camp three times a day. In addition to the training for No. 40 Squadron personnel, No. 42 Squadron personnel were also going through their own training with their king Air b200s at Alexandra. “It gives them a taste of what they will be working towards,” explained SQNldR Scott. Mission Planning: SQNldR Andrew Scott & SGT david bennett the regular tactical training was put to use on 15 March when the rNZaF had to transport the Navy’s operational Diving team to Bluff for an urgent search for crew from a sunken fishing boat. the easy rIDer had been overwhelmed by a rogue wave and all but one on board lost. a hercules loaded the divers and all their gear for the flight south and at Bluff quickly off-loaded into Police vehicles and trailers, which took the Divers to the search site. of note, the aircraft allocated to the task was NZ7004, sporting the new 75th anniversary livery. Air Force news 13
Page 1 and 2: ANNIVeRSARY AIR SHow! FIGHTING SPIR
Page 3 and 4: First word First Word By Air Vice-M
Page 5 and 6: The chief of defence Force has laun
Page 7 and 8: Rear Admiral Steer, VcdF and AVM St
Page 9 and 10: SECoND P-3K2 ACCEPTED on 16 March P
Page 11: The tail of Hercules NZ7004 checker
Page 15 and 16: Antarctica seen from a c-130 cockpi
Page 17 and 18: celebrating 75 Years of service to
Page 19 and 20: wwI dogfight; the Fokker dVII ( r)
Page 21 and 22: The c-17 on a slow pass with flaps
Page 23 and 24: A No.3 Sqn Iroquois is crowded with
Page 25 and 26: one of the warbird stars of the RNZ
Page 27 and 28: y simon gault ThunDER MuSTAnG! why
Page 29 and 30: Air Force Photographers corporals b
Page 31 and 32: dUMbo dIARY, RoYAl New ZeAlANd AIR
Page 33 and 34: y FlTlT lee bradford RNZAF personne
Page 35 and 36: Activity camps for young offenders.
Page 37 and 38: Avionics Pirates meet a watery end
Page 39 and 40: The 75 Years of the RNZAF stamp iss

ANNIVeRSARY AIR SHow! - Royal New Zealand Air Force

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?