perspective. But from a supportability
perspective, it’s time,” he said.
Seahawk Romeo brings the very
latest sensors plus more – a dipping
sonar, critical to an effective anti-
submarine capability.
The Squirrels, meanwhile, are
being replaced by 15 new Airbus
Helicopters EC135s, again a widely
used and successful civil design.
CDRE Smallhorn said in its day
Squirrel was a top of the line small
utility aircraft.
“Today we only operate multi-
engine aircraft. First and foremost we
wanted to bring multi-engine thinking
from the very first point our aviators
strap into a helicopter,” he said.
“The Squirrel is also fairly basic in a
systems sense.”
Pilots who have already undergone
RAAF training on modern navigation
and avionics systems are taking a
couple of steps back when they strap
into a Squirrel.
“Too long on a machine that is not
continuing to exercise and stretch a
young aviator is not ideal for their
professional development. The new
helicopter replacing the Squirrel,
the EC135 is multi-engine and has a
modern glass cockpit,” he said.
“They are a beautiful modern
helicopter, ideal for training future
ADF rotary-wing aviators. They are
operating here at HMAS Albatross
right now.”
With them comes a full simulation
system including three full-motion
simulators plus tactical training
systems which feature virtual reality.
“We are bringing on a system that is
more of a ramp as they move towards
frontline aircraft, without the big leap.
It’s aiming to smooth out the path to
operational conversion training which
is pretty full on,” he said.
EC135s will provide the flight
training for the new ADF joint
helicopter school to be built within the
Navy’s 723 Squadron. Maintenance
of these aircraft will be performed by
Boeing Defence, another first.
“That’s the first time that I am
aware of in the Fleet Air Arm history- the FAA was stood up in 1948 – that
we have had a squadron without a
uniformed maintenance element,” he
said.
Though the Navy never lost a
Seahawk, it had some close calls.
In January 2001, aircraft Tiger 83
came close to ditching during a night
winching exercise in the Shoalhaven
Bight. Problems with the automatic
flight control system led to an
uncontrolled descent to within three
metres of the water.
An incident the same year at
Wagga Wagga led to a Squirrel being
written off in manual fuel landing
while teaching a trainee pilot.
The instructor pilot was then
Lieutenant, now Captain, Grant
O’Loughlan, who said the aircraft
encountered ground resonance –
where it shook itself apart – spun
around, with the tail breaking off.
He said there were two responses to
ground resonance– either take off or
shut down immediately – with neither
possible in the brief moments as the
aircraft shook violently at up to 10Gs.
“I flew Lynx, Seasprite and
Seahawk and they have all been good
and I just had that one unfortunate
incident,” he said.
“On Monday [December 4]
basically everything I have flown in
my career in helicopters will be in a
museum.
“I used to fly Squirrels off the
back of a ship and I think I much
preferred having a Seahawk strapped
to me or a Lynx – something a bit
more robust to handle challenging
conditions at sea. However, I learned a
lot as a baby Squirrel pilot. I enjoyed it
immensely.”‘But from a
supportability
perspective,
it’s time.’
CDRE CHRIS SMALLHORNA flypast marks the retirement
of theSeahawk Bravo and
Squirrel.DEFENCEA Squirrel keeps watch as
Navy vessels enter Darwin
Harbour during Exercise
Triton Thunder 2012.DEFENCEBravo Zulu