he told Combat Aircraft. ‘We had about 80
[ ying] hours of training. Upon returning
to Güvercinlik we had an additional 20
hours of familiarization ying organized
by Turkish Aerospace Industries. New
students will have a 40-hour training
[course] on the T129 during the combat
battle-readiness phase’. This compares
with 32.5 hours of ying training for
the Cobra.
The Turkish Army pilots view the main
advantage of the T129 on the mission
side as being the target sighting unit
(TSU). ‘As a result, we have more focus
on the night training,’ Okur explains.With dramatic reductions in manpower
levels since the failed coup of 2016, the
Turkish Army is busier than ever training
new crews for its aviation arm.REPORT AND PHOTOS^ Carlo Kuit and Paul Kievit
‘
T
RAIN TODAY AS you ght and
win tomorrow’ — the mantra
of Turkish Army aviators
learning their new art at
Güvercinlik, which in 2016
alone trained an impressive
184 new students at the Army Aviation
School including the rst brand-new
pilot for the T129.
Lt Col Ahmet Okur is the most
experienced instructor pilot on the T129,
having been part of the initial training
cadre in Italy. ‘It has been very helpful to
have a dedicated training
to adapt to the new T129,’The Aviation
Training School
uses a large
number of
AB-206Rs
for initial pilot
training.http://www.combataircraft.netwww.combataircraft.net //// March 2018March 2018 8585
80-87 Turkish Army C.indd 85 19/01/2018 17:04