An Cosantóir

An Cosantóir July/August 2016 www.dfmagazine.ie 24 | Under our guidance the Air Wing pilots moved quickly over the ship and the assault was underway. The ropes were deployed and the troops were onboard in seconds, with the performance of the Air Wing pilots and soldiers again impressive to observe. Capt McArdle got the opportunity to take fly a Super King Air 200 as the fixed-wing top cover for the exercise, and was delight- ed to renew his familiarity with the ubiquitous KingAir, putting it through its paces in formation flight and landing it back in Luqa. The hoist training concluded with some wet work, hoisting 'casualties' directly from the water. This was conducted just along the northern coastline under the shadow of an ancient lookout tower at Mghatab, known as Saint Mark's Tower Sgt Kelly ably controlled the training in collaboration with the AFM rescue personnel. While the winching training was underway, our helicopter handing instructors, Capt Daly and FQMS Walsh, conducted an under-slung load training course with some of the Air Wing tech- nicians along with several Maritime Squadron personnel. The course was based on a standard Landing Point Command- ers course, modified to suit the specific needs of the AFM. The Air Wing identified the need for this course as they were faced with a similar situation to us with the introduction of the AW139. While the unit had some experience of cargo slinging with the ever- versatile Alouette III, the extra lifting capabilities offered by the more powerful, larger AW139 meant that extra training had to be undertaken for the supporting personnel. The course comprised a lecture block over several days covering subjects such as landing-site selection and marking, troop drills, helicopter under-slung load equipment (HUSLE) identification and use, and landing-point management. The students were also briefed on the specific techniques required for operating at sea, to and from Maritime Squadron vessels. The course concluded with two practical exercises, a landing-point recce and management exercise on the island of Gozo. The course deployed by air to a helipad at a nearby base before recceing, selecting and marking a landing point, which was then used to extract the course and return them to Luqa. The second practical exercise was an external load-training day conducted on the airfield. This consisted of the course pre- paring a load, using a mix of Irish and Maltese HUSLE for flight, which was then moved to a pick-up point. The students briefed the flying crews on its expected characteristics and then man- aged the landing point during the flying phase of the exercise. While this training was being conducted the other aircrew of Air Wing were provided with a night-vision goggle demonstra- tion flight by Capt McArdle and Sgt Hennessy who took to the air on a dark, windy night. The AFM personnel were amazed at the sight of their island through the goggles. The level of detail they could see over the cliffs and sea in particular made a remarkable impression on our hosts. Heretofore, the southern cliffs of Malta, which rise to almost 1,000ft from the sea, were a 'no-go' area at night – but with goggles, flying in this area was now possible. The personnel that undertook the course displayed a high degree of motivation and ability, along with a real desire to share knowledge and experience. The Air Wing and Maritime Squad- ron can both be justifiably proud of their professionalism and to have progressed so quickly with their new AW139 helicopters. It is our hope that we get to build on this success with further visits and exchanges into the future. Go Mairidís Beo. bRig geN wp FRy, gOc aiR cORps "The Air Corps can trace its acquisition of the basic skills de- scribed in this article to the establishment of Helicopter Flight with the initial Alouette 3 helicopters in 1963. At that time experts from the neighbouring RAF imparted the correct patter, winching techniques and flying skills to the Air Corps to help us begin to safely operate in the demanding SAR role. The wheel has turned full circle for the Air Corps as those skills have been built upon and added to. It is now a recognised expert operator of the AW139 type, possessed of the full range of military day and night flying and operating skills, matured over fifty-three years of helicopter operational experience. No 3 Operations Wing can be proud of the intense nature of training completed in such a short space of time with our friends in the Armed Forces of Malta. The AFM have a long association with the Irish Defence Forces through the Cadet School train- ing agreement, and also through its facilitating the Air Corps deployment to Luqa in support of the evacuation mission fol- lowing the collapse of Libya in 2011 and more recently with the Naval Service' ongoing operations as part of Operation Pontus in the Mediterranean. It was most appropriate that we could in this way continue this fruitful and cordial relationship."

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