B Company 3-25 GSAB is the 7th Unit Equpped with CH-47F Chinook helicopters

 

 

B Company - "Hillclimbers"

3-25th GSAB Wheeler Army Airfield Hawaii 2011

 

 

The Fielding Ceremony

 

 

Major General William Timothy Crosby, Program Executive Officer, Aviation, located at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, gives his comments and a thumbs up during the ceremony to announce the completion of fielding and training of the U.S. Army's CH-47F Chinook helicopter to units stationed on the Island of Oahu, Hawaii. Click-N-Go Here to view a larger version of this image.

 

 

On 8 September 2011 a ceremony was held in historic Hangar 79, now housing the Pacific Aviation Museum, on Ford Island in Pearl Harbor to announce the fielding of the brand new CH-47F Chinook helicopter to units stationed on the Island of Oahu. Click-N-Go Here to view the Fielding Ceremony Program.

 

A Vital Combat Resource    LTG Francis "Frank" Wiercinski, Commanding General U.S. Army, Pacific (USARPAC), opened the ceremony recalling an earlier time in his Army career. "As a lieutenant in a ranger company, the Chinook saved my life" he stated, alluding to a hostile situation where Chinooks were used to extract troops from the battlefield. He went on to say the Chinook played an invaluable part in such historical military operations as Just Cause in Panama (1989) and Urgent Fury in Grenada (1983), as well as the current operations underway in Iraq and Afghanistan.

MG William T. Crosby, Program Executive Officer for Aviation, followed up the those remarks by noting LTG Wiercinski gave a ringing endorsement of the Chinook helicopter. He gave the Soldiers of B Company - "Hillclimbers", 3-25 GSAB and B Company - "Voyagers", 1-171st Aviation Regiment, a thumbs up for a job well done in completing the fielding and training in the new helicopters.

MG William T. Crosby is one of the few Army Aviators who have flown the A through F model versions of the Chinook helicopter.

 

The Road to Hawaii    The road to fielding was a long one. The aircraft first had to travel westward half way around the globe. However, the fielding actually began with the formation of a New Equipment Training Team way back in August 2006.

		Systems, Studies and Simulation Incorporated (S3 Inc.), based in Huntsville, Alabama, was contracted by the Army in 2006 to assemble a New Equipment Training Team (NETT) to specifically train aircrews to operate the unique aircraft. The NET Team consists entirely of
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dedicated and enthusiastic retired pilots and flight engineers who possess decades of experience in operating and maintaining the Chinook helicopter. It is known that at least one pilot, Ralph William Graham, dates back to a time when A model versions of the Chinook were still on active duty.

To date, the NET Team, led by Tim McCall - Director of Flight Operations, has trained 411 pilots and 332 Flight Engineers and Crew Chiefs while logging 12,242 hours in the Transportable Flight Proficiency Simulator (TFPS) and 7,117.8 hours in the aircraft.

Since the fielding began in 2006, members of the NET Team, as well as Boeing personnel, have spent 365 days a year deployed to the gaining units location. Being gone away from their own homes and families has not been without personnel hardship and sacrifice, noted MG Crobsy. "Your sacrifice and dedication is very much appreciated", he said. However, it is more advantageous to conduct the training at the units home base so the soldiers can remain with their families for as long as possible. When the fielding is complete they will deploy to the theater.

There is also a significant cost saving to the American taxpayer. It is considerably less expensive to have a small team travel around the world than it is to send an entire unit to another location to conduct the train-up. The unit can also train in an environment that they are intimately familiar with and can train together as a whole unit. Aircraft Movement

 

		In late summer 2010, the helicopters, manufactured by Boeing at their Ridley Park facility in Pennsylvania, were initially received at Millville Municipal Airport, New Jersey. The S3 Inc. NET Team signed the material receiving documents on behalf of the United States Army.
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Utilized by S3 Inc. for the instruction of Army aircrews undergoing qualification training, each of the 14 aircraft were flown in the New Jersey area for at least 25 hours in training scenerios that afforded a thorough checkout of aircraft systems for proper operation.

In October 2010, after completing the training and airframe checkout requirements at Millville, the aircraft were ferried to the Port of Delaware [view Video]. The rotor blades were removed by the Boeing Maintenace team that is part of the fielding effort put in place by the U.S. Army. The aircraft were then placed aboard the USNS Mendonca. The ship departed the United States in late October enroute to Hawaii via the Panama Canal, arriving at Pearl Harbor mid-November.

When the USNS Mendonca docked at Pearl, a combined effort from the US Navy, Boeing and S3 Inc. personnel facilitated the speedy reassembly of the airframes. In under 3 days, all 14 helicopters were flown off the dock and ferried to Wheeler Army Airfield at Schofield Barracks. All aircraft reported flyable upon arrival.

 

A Flying Computer    Next came the arduous task of training personnel from B Company - "Hillclimbers" to operate the brand new helicopters.

		Although based on the early 1960s design, this IS NOT the Chinook your grandfather flew in Vietnam. The CH-47F is a brand new and totally redesigned airframe containing the latest in electronic equipment and two 4,500 shaft horsepower engines.
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Pilots who are already qualified in the D model series of the Chinook may attend the CH-47F Aircraft Qualification Course (AQC) administered by NET Team. The previous qualification helps to fly the aircraft, but there is a lot more to it.

 

 

The flight deck of CH-47F Chinook helicopter 07-08735 containing the very advanced and computerized flight displays. Click-N-Go Here to view a larger version of this image.

 

 

Into the Flight Computer, pilots have the ability to input a complex flight plan containing headings, altitudes, airspeeds, and points in space or on the ground then couple that flight plan to the flight control system.

When the Flight Director Coupler button is engaged, the aircraft will proceed on the specified course, fly to its destination and come to a hover - all hands off.

Without doubt, the F model Chinook helicopter is the finest instrument platform currently in the Army inventory. When properly programmed, this version of the Chinook can execute a takeoff from a hover, proceed on the specified instrument flight rules (IFR) course, fly to the final approach fix (FAF), execute the desired instrument approach procedure and come to a stationary hover over the numbers. Again this can be accomplished all hands off by the pilots.

With their workloads significantly reduced, the pilots need only monitor the progress of the flight and can spend more time looking outside to detect flight hazards or enemy activity.

This is truly a remarkable flying machine that too few an aviator will be fortunate enough to pilot.

 

Training - A Lot of Hard Work    Getting to the level required for proficiency at programming, interpreting, and flying the aircraft takes a lot of hard work by the students and instructors.

Pilots will spend the first week of a six week course in a classroom completing academics taught by the professionals from LSI, based in Jacksonville, Florida.

Next comes 26 hours of training in the TFPS spread over 13 training days that runs concurrently with more academics. This training will prepare them for flight in the aircraft.

For seven days, the student pilots will practice their skills at programming and flying the aircraft while obtaining a minimum of 10.5 hours of flight time.

This training is followed by a Stage I checkride, three hours of night vision goggle (NVG) training and a Stage II checkride.

Unit personnel who are Maintenance Test Pilots or Instructor Pilots received additional training in the aircraft and TFPS.

When the training is completed, aviators return to their units fully prepared to safely operate the CH-47F Chinook helicopter in all environments in which they may fly.

The NET Team began teaching the CH-47F AQC in January 2011 and completed 5 such courses by the time the "Hillclimbers" were trained-up as the 7th Unit Equipped in September.

 

 

Soldiers of B Company - "Hillclimbers", 3rd General Support Aviation Battalion (GSAB), 25th Combat Aviation Brigade (CAB), stand in formation in front of CH-47F Chinook helicopter 07-08742 during the fielding completion ceremony on Ford Island in Pearl Harbor. Click-N-Go Here to view a larger version of this image.

 

 

At the time of the Fielding Ceremony, Company B - "Voyagers", 1st Battalion, 171st Aviation Regiment, based on Wheeler Army Airfield, had just begun the train-up having just recieved seven CH-47F Chinook helicopters that were formerly assigned to the "Hillclimbers". Their training is scheduled for completion by mid-December 2011.

 

 

Related Information

 

Hawaii's Chinook Helicopters Arrive

Hawaii's Chinook Helicopter News

F Model Fielding Posters

Tail Number History

 

 

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