Mile high school

National Guard, Nov 2002 by Prawdzik, Christopher

Obscure Colorado Army Guard aviation training school helps keep helicopters flying over Afghanistan and elsewhere

The positive feedback from a UH-60 Black Hawk pilot who served in Afghanistan was typical:

"It was amazing how similar Bagram [Air Base] was to Eagle," he said. " ... We managed to open up the UH-60 to a few new mission profiles during our deployment, helping to beat back the naysayers with respect to its power restrictions."

Eagle is a small town in Colorado, just west of Vail, deep in the Rocky Mountains. Its small airport welcomes top skiers in the winter. But across the tarmac a nondescript building is fronted by several helipads. This is the mountain home for the Army National Guard's High Altitude Army Training Site, or HARTS.

For one week at a time, helicopter pilots from the Guard, active-duty military and even other nations arrive for what Lt. Col. Joel Best, HARTS commander, calls "a graduate-level training course."

Established in 1985, Ht"ARTS teaches pilots to operate "at maximum gross weights" in "high-density altitudes and/or mountainous environment," conditions that can rob an aircraft's power.

"We want to fly superior aircraft with superior pilots," said Best, who recalled Chuck Yeagar's philosophy that he would rather fly against a superior aircraft than superior pilots. "It's a back-to-the-basics, ground-level flying course."

Chief Warrant Officer 3 Troy Brown, a Colorado Guardsman and HARTS instructor, emphasized the advanced nature of the course-teaching an advanced pilot an entire new philosophy.

"We don't train tactical maneuvers here," he said. "We have 15 1/2 hours [of flying time] to change the way a guy [flies]."

In addition to 20 hours of classroom instruction, the Sunday to Saturday schedule is barely enough time.

HARTS crams more in one training week than pilots might see in a lifetime of instruction elsewhere, according to Best.

"This is the only school I've ever been to where there's absolutely zero wasted time," he said.

ISN'T REGULAR TRAINING ENOUGH?

Several recent military helicopter accidents pose the problems HARTS addresses. Crashes in Afghanistan and elsewhere, which included a handful of fatalities over the last few years, were due to power management problems. High-density flying conditions-the combination of high altitude and high heat-have led to power utilization problems resulting in engine failure.

These conditions aren't exactly new to U.S. military helicopter pilots. Bosnia, Haiti, Honduras, Korea, Kosovo Iraq and Vietnam all contain the type of high-altitude terrain that can lead to power management problems and crashes.

Afghanistan is no different, and may even be worse. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld even addressed the matter at a March 4, 2002, news conference.

"Coalition forces are operating at somewhere between 8,000 and 11,000 feet, which is [a] cold, ... difficult environment, not just for the human beings involved, but for the helicopters," he said. "They weren't really designed to fly at those altitudes."

Instructors at -ARTS disagree. They argue that the problems stem from a misuse of power, not the aircraft's inability to perform.

According to HATS data, supported by the United States Army Safety Center and National Transportation Safety Board, "Accidents resulting from high-density altitude and high gross weight constitute the second leading cause of losses for Army aviation over the last 20 years."

In seven accidents involving eight military aircraft since 1998, power loss was the ultimate cause. In five of the cases, "rotor droop" was the cause. Often experienced in high altitude and particularly dense operating environments, "rotor droop" simply means the helicopter can't support itself in the air with the power supplied by its engines.

For example, a typical UH-60L Black Hawk operating at 15,000 pounds and at 10,000 feet should be able to deliver 11 soldiers at 300 pounds each into a landing zone. But in Afghanistan, Black Hawks are not flown in this manner because of power limits.

HARTS teaches pilots how to perform under those conditions. The limitation, Best said, is with individuals and crew training.

While basic pilot training is sufficient to train a pilot at average, near sea-level conditions, it doesn't teach HAATS' particular brand of flying.

If recent conflicts are any indication, Best said helicopter pilots aren't currently trained as they fight. And judging by mishaps in recent years, HARTS addresses challenges Rumsfeld and others argue can take an aircraft out of a mission.

According to Best, when a pilot trains at or near sea level, power utilization isn't typically a problem. Aircraft aren't pushed anywhere near their maximum power levels. But on a deployment, pilots may find themselves at 10,000 feet, following their previous training to the letter and find themselves exceeding maximum power.

"This is not rocket science we're teaching here," Best said. Pilots, however, will flip to the back of the flying manual for a particular aircraft but never readjust the equations when the altitude jumps from 800 to 1,000 feet to peaks not unlike those experienced in Afghanistan.