Publish dateSaturday 18 November 2017 - 17:14
Story Code : 153276
Afghan Pilots Preparing To Fly Black Hawks
MI-17 helicopters’ pilots are learning to fly Black Hawks which gradually replace the Russian MI-17 and MI-35 aircrafts.

The Afghan pilots who are under training will be able to fly the Black Hawks within the next year, a trainer of the Afghan Air Force said.

The pilots are using Russian M-17 for their operations.

“They have a good experience in the MI-17, so that has helped them transition to the US 60 which in some ways is a lot easier aircraft to fly and more capable one. So we have a full confidence they will be able to effectively fly the aircraft,” Alexmi Lugo, TAAC-Air UH-60A Program Manager said.

A young pilot, Zabiullah Doorandish, said flying the Black Hawk aircrafts are easier than Russian MI-17 helicopters.

“Today from taking off to landing, I was in charge of almost 85 percent of control,” he said.

The pilots will receive six weeks of primary trainings and then they will enter a 10-week training program to become professionals in flying Black Hawks.

“Once they become comfortable in their job as a co-pilot, then there is more responsibility and more duty to be responsible for it to become a pilot in command. Once they become a pilot in command, they become an instructor pilot, a standardization pilot. I have been flying Black Hawk for 10 years and I am still not fully qualified. There is still missions that I am not capable to doing, there is still missions that I am not willing to do. Every one of these guys they will never be done being qualified, they will always be new advanced,” Jeff Martin, a trainer said.

The Afghan Air Force MI-17 and MI-35 helicopters will be replaced by the US Black Hawk helicopters equipped with weapons, officials said.

MI-17 helicopters engineers also will be assigned for maintenance of Black Hawk helicopters.

"Our course is not started. When it starts, it will take one to two years or more than that to learn repairing the helicopters," Mirwais, an engineer said.

"I am really interested to learn Black Hawks repairing. My work might be difficult, but I can do that," another engineer, Husain Ali said.

The officials said Black Hawks parts are easily available in compare with MI-17 helicopters and that this will prevent the Air Force engineers from facing any big challenge in this respect.

According to Air Force engineers, Black Hawk helicopters are better than MI-17 aircrafts for following reasons:

• Black Hawks are faster

• They save 250 liters of fuel in one hour flight compared with MI-17

• They are more sustainable

Source : Afghan Voice Agency(AVA)
https://avapress.com/vdcd5s0f9yt0kx6.em2y.html
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