Page 66 - AirForces Monthly - Issue 381 (December 2019)

Helicopter Squadron at Zadar-Zemunik

OH-58Ds were lost to accidents or enemy fire. accumulated between 100 and 600 flying hours. After graduation, the pilot will transfer to the
To maintain the US Army’s fleet requirement of On July 30, 2016, the first five OH-58Ds arrived at Mi-171 at Lučko, the Mi-8MTV-1 at Divulje or will
368 OH-58Ds, it was necessary to replenish the the 93. zrakoplovna baza (93. ZB, 93rd Air Base) stay in the squadron to become an instructor
lost aircraft. Since production of the OH-58D at Zadar-Zemunik following a direct flight from and/or pilot on the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior.”
ended in 1999, the Wartime Replacement Redstone Army Airfield, Alabama, on board a
Aircraft (WRA) programme was introduced. USAF C-5M. The second batch of 11 helicopters Training the trainers
Officially, the US Army was 42 OH-58Ds short arrived by C-5M on December 3 the same year. Before official training started in Croatia, the unit
of the required fleet size, while a further seven Commander of the Eskadrila helikoptera (EH, gained some insider knowledge during a visit to the
aircraft were undergoing repairs for extensive Helicopter Squadron) since November 2018 is Minnesota Army Air National Guard in 2004, where
battle damage. The programme began in 2010 Lieutenant Colonel Davor Gren. He graduated as they gained insight on the OH-58 training syllabus.
with the conversion by the then Bell Helicopter of a helicopter pilot in 1998 before becoming a flight Lt Col Gren elaborated: “We applied that in our
23 older OH-58As to D-standard (known as A2D) instructor in 2000. He has 2,500 flying hours, 100 Bell 206 training – so many things we already
and delivery of 26 ‘new metal’ aircraft (these were of which were on the OH-58D. He told AFM: “The knew! The training of our pilots and maintainers
not completely new, but did incorporate brand- time in between [the two delivery batches] was was conducted by the American i3 company here
new OH-58D cabins). All 49 aircraft underwent used for preparing our squadron for operations at Zadar and started at the beginning of 2017. The
completion at the Corpus Christi Army Depot with the new helicopter. We had to adapt the instructors were all former US Army OH-58 pilots
in Texas, from where the initial reconditioned hangar and set up a simulator for maintenance and engineers, and they were very impressed with
OH-58D was rolled out on June 7, 2012. with full working cockpit including mast-mounted our flight skills. After a thorough evaluation, they
sight and rangefinder. Our engineers use this produced a tailor-made programme based on our
US Army service life ends simulator to replicate system failures, [to learn experience. OH-58D training was set up in three
After 48 years of service, the OH-58D made its how to] identify and solve certain problems. parts: training for full-combat-ready pilots, training
final flight in US Army hands on September 17, Furthermore, we had to adapt manuals and for instructor pilots and training for maintenance
2017. With the US Army gradually phasing out training syllabi for the engineers and pilots.” pilots. This was conducted according to the ‘train
the Kiowa Warrior from the scout and attack the trainer’ principle. Eight of our most experienced
role from May 2014, in favour of the AH-64 and Helicopter school pilots, with more than 2,000 flying hours each,
unmanned aerial vehicles, several countries Lt Col Gren continued: “Our squadron is were selected to follow the training that included
showed an interest in the surplus OH-58Ds, responsible for training Croatian helicopter pilots. pilot/instructor qualification, test pilot qualification,
including Croatia, Greece and Tunisia. We launched this unit in 1996 with ten Bell 206 tactics training, mountain training and high-altitude
Under the Excess Defense Articles (EDA) and JetRanger helicopters. Today we still have eight flying and multi-ship live firing, among others.”
the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) programmes, the Bell 206s in use. Student pilot training starts During this training, the initial pilot cadre
US government approved the donation and sale with screening on the Zlin 242L. When the pilot completed 150 flying hours each on the Kiowa
of 16 OH-58Ds and three simulators to Croatia, passes this and is selected to fly helicopters, he Warrior. Tuition was concluded with live firing
which would normally be valued at more than or she will follow a two-year training programme at the Eugen Kvaternik gunnery range near
US$220m. Thanks to EDA, the actual cost was consisting of 200 flying hours. We Slunj. This comprised initial range gunnery
closer to US$35m, of which around US$20.1m start with basic training that qualification and qualification gunnery,
was provided in the form of US assistance. includes VFR and IFR [visual and including four weeks of special tactics
On top of that there were some additional instrument flight rules] navigation, training. “During the live firing, we fired
taxes for Croatia to pay, amounting to around formation flying, night flying and Hydra rockets and used our machine
US$13m. In early 2016, the government in Zagreb instrument rating training. The gun,” Lt Col Gren recalled. “We also
approved the budget for the purchase, as well next step is advanced training. simulated firing the Hellfire. The reason
as additional training for pilots and engineers. This includes mountain flying, for not firing this weapon for real is the
flying with external loads, low-level price – almost 100,000 US dollars!
Warriors arrive flying and NVG [night-vision It’s not absolutely necessary
An air force team consisting of two Croatian goggles] training. Three to launch one in real life
pilots and two engineers had visited the US in of the Bell 206s are for practice purposes.
2015 to inspect the helicopters and select 16 equipped for NVG The systems
airframes from the WRA programme, as well training and have and software
as the three simulators. The airframes were all NVG-compatible on board
produced between 2012 and 2015, and had each instrument lighting. allow us

64 // December 2019 #381 www.Key.Aero

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