Combat aircraft

W

ITH AN AUSTRALIAN

government

investment of

AUD$1.5 billion,

the RAAF’s all-

encompassing AIR

5428 pilot training system project

will eventually result in an impressive

 eet of 49 Pilatus PC-21 trainers

being delivered, together with seven

advanced simulators, operated by Team

21 partner Lockheed Martin. Given its

 ghter-like roll rate in excess of 200° per

second, glass cockpit and sustained low-

level speeds in excess of 320kt, the new,

8g-capable aircraft is a quantum leap

over the current PC-9 and CT-4B trainers

it replaces.

O cer commanding the Air Training

Wing and former AIR 5428 aviation

training transition o ce director Gp Capt

Dennis Tan says the PC-21 is only a small

part of the training capability now able to

be o ered to the next generation of RAAF

pilots. ‘One of the greatest challenges

we have is a once-in-a-generation

opportunity to reconsider our philosophy

of training,’ he told Combat Aircraft. ‘We’ve

been doing the same things, by and large,

for about 100 years. Now is a chance to do

things di erently.

‘You don’t want to reject the basics of

 ying in favor of high technology, but

you don’t want to ignore that technology.

Essentially, we need to  gure out the best

way to use it.’

Investing in the future

As part of AIR 5428, the government

is spending AUD$200 million on new

facilities at RAAF Base East Sale in Victoria,

including a state-of the-art combined

training facility. The CTF will bring

together, for the  rst time, the RAAF’s

relocating Basic Flying Training School

(BFTS), Central Flying School (CFS), the

 ight screening program, the training

aircraft systems program o ce and

members of Team 21 — Pilatus, Hawker

Paci c and Lockheed Martin — under the

same roof. Due to be operational by April

2018, Tan says the CTF will be the base

from which all Australian Defence Force

(ADF) student pilots will start their  ying

careers on the popular PC-21.

Following a  ight screening program,

students will progress to ground school

and BFTS. The latter will run over 23

weeks for all trainee pilots before they are

split into their respective army, navy and

RAAF streams.

‘A lot of the material is delivered

through computer-based training’,

says Tan. ‘We still have ground school

instruction or traditional methods

of teaching, but the term they use in

modern universities now is the ‘ ip

classroom’. A lot of the content can

be delivered electronically, but the

interaction with that is in the classroom

environment. Once that ground school is

delivere d and the student starts looking

at di erent ground-based subjects,

they work through an electronic lesson

package that has animations and

simulations. For instance, on their laptop

they can  y a simulated version of what

they’re going to eventually be  ying in.’

Of the 49 PC-21s to be delivered,

42 will be allocated to pilot training,

four will go to No 4 Squadron at RAAF

Base Williamtown in New South Wales

A new approach to training centered around the Pilatus PC-21 is

giving the Royal Australian Air Force the edge it needs to usher in

its next generation of pilots.

REPORT Michael Serenc

This image:

PC-21s

A54-003

and -004 in

formation

near East

Sale. Serials

A54-011 and

012 were

delivered

in January,

becoming

the 11th and

12th PC-21

deliveries

to the RAAF.

RAAF/Flt Lt

Ash Kissock

Inset: The

PC-21 will give

students their

fi rst taste of

fl ying, taking

them through

to the Hawk.

Pilatus

68

68-71 RAAF PC-21 C.indd 68 20/03/2018 10:58