Primary Flight Training

Upon completion of Aeromed, the next stop for flight students is Primary, the first actual flying of IERW. After months of basic officer and preparatory courses, the flight training truly begins. The first few weeks of Primary are some of the busiest and most overwhelming of flight school. Instructors often talk about drinking out of a fire hose; they say that for a reason. The schedule involves either morning class followed by afternoon flightline or morning flightline followed by afternoon academics. Academics begin with  systems classes which start a few days before the first day at the flightline. This allows students to gain a basic knowledge of the TH-67 before they begin to fly. Once both academics and flightline are in full swing, things start coming hot and heavy. With morning flightline the day will begin with a bus ride to the airfield at 0500 and academics will end somewhere between 1400 and 1600. Afternoon flightline starts with academics at 0730 in the morning and ends around 1730. Evenings will be filled with lots of studying. A word of wisdom to the wise, get a 5&9 study guide as early as you can and start memorizing. Students must know all limitations from chapter 5 and all underlined steps from chapter 9 verbatim. The rest of the information in chapters 5, 8, and 9 does not need to be verbatim but the basic concepts need to be nearly memorized as well. Students who wait till they being flying to try to learn all of this will be swamped. By having it all memorized ahead of time, Primary will be much less hectic and a lot more fun. There are two checkrides during Primary, P1 and P2. The P1 is just to make sure students are progressing as they should. Some weak students get set back a class for more time, a very few get eliminated if they just can not fly. The P2 checkride is much more intense and is likely to be the hardest checkride of IERW. Upon completion of the P2, students move on to Instruments.

Initial Entry Rotary Wing (IERW)

Flight school is broke down into two basic stages, Initial Entry Rotary Wing (IERW) and Advanced Aircraft Track (AAT). This is all proceeded by the two weeks of Aeromed and systems mentioned in a previous post. The IERW portion is further subdivided into three stages: Primary, Instruments, and Basic Warfighting Skills (BWS). These courses are constantly being updated and changed so this information is dated; however, the current schedule for each of these courses is as follows. Primary consists of eight weeks of training and around 50 hours of flight time. All of the training is conducted in real aircraft. Instruments is another eight weeks of training. It too consists of around 50 hours, though only about half of that time is flown in the aircraft; the other half is done in simulators. The final course in IERW is BWS. It is only four weeks in length and will accrue a little over 20 hours of flight time. It is currently conducted in OH-58s but has used TH-67s in the past. Upon the completion of these courses, the common core of flight school is completed and students select for and begin to train in their advanced airframes.

Aeromed

The first true portion of flight school is Aeromed. In the past, this was the most failed course in the entire training sequence of flight school; however, the program has been modified and, with the changes, all of the flight students in my section passed without too much difficulty. The course is only a few days long so, if possible, get the materials a couple days before you begin the course so you can become familiar with it. The way Aeromed is currently taught is interesting. The classes aren’t so much teaching as they are an extended quiz session. Over the course of the day, each student will be called on to answer a question concerning the material assigned the previous night. As a result, the course is essentially self taught with the instructors there to ensure the students have covered all the assigned material and to fill in any knowledge gaps. Two study aids that proved helpful were Quizlet and Study Blue. Quizlet has a number of readymade sets of flashcards for Aeromed. Even if you are not give the course materials prior to your class, learning the answers to these flashcards will give you an excellent head start. I had a slight preference for Study Blue. It does not have pre-made flash cards but, rather, allows the student to make the exact cards they want. It also offers an app that allows the cards to be used on a smart phone.They both have their pros and cons; try them and see which works better for you. The course goes by quick so study hard and do well.

SERE

One of the areas of flight school most shrouded in intrigue and mystery is SERE school. If you are hoping I will tell you what is going to happen to you during this phase of training, you are wrong. However, I would like to pass along some tips that I was given or wish I had been given that would have made it easier. First, you are going to get a packing list a couple weeks or so before your report date. If it is on the packing list, bring it! I usually put a lot of stuff in ziplock bags to keep it dry and didn’t because I thought SERE would confiscate my bags. I was wrong and wished I had at least brought some to see if I could keep them. If there is something you are not sure about, bring it anyway; the worst they can do is tell you no. That being said, do NOT bring ANY food! Yes, you may really enjoy that candy bar while you are out in the field; however, if you are found with so much as a wrapper in your pocket it’s a guaranteed recycle at best. You’ve come too far now to throw it away for something stupid. There are some dull periods during SERE and the current packing list allows you to bring some reading materials. I would highly recommend you bring an approved book or two. SERE has a website on the AKO with the current packing list and other helpful information. A link to the website can be found from the Fort Rucker Newcomers page. You will need your CAC card to access the SERE site. As you are going through the school, remember it’s mostly mental. Keep your motivation up and your head in the game and you will do fine. Remember the end goal; you are going to be an Army Aviator. SERE is just a stepping stone along the way.

Bubbles

Bubbles, those dreaded down times between portions of flight school! While there are still some bubbles, many have been reduced and nearly eliminated. Students used to take 18 to 24 months to complete their training and might wait in bubbles for months between portions of training. Now, nearly all flight students are done in less than 18 months with many being done in just over a year. The longest bubbles at this time are about a month in length. So, what should students expect during a bubble? The Army tries to make use of their soldiers and students can expect some taskings. Most are sent to either Funeral Detail or the SERE Detail. A majority of the Funeral Detail is taken care of by the warrants who gained prior experience between WOCS and BOLC. That leaves a lot of the LTs for the SERE Detail. Students who are assigned to Funeral Detail will spend a couple hours a day practicing (after their initial couple days of learning what to do) and will go anywhere within a three or four state region around Alabama to provide honors at funerals as they are needed. There is usually lots of time off but funerals kind of have a way of being unplanned. The SERE Detail students will have a set schedule, but it will be all hours of the day; SERE does run 24/7 after all. For both details, there is time off, however, getting a pass can be a nightmare as it has to be approved by the detail and by B Co. Pass or no pass, there is plenty of free time to study or make up some time with the family you’ve hardly seen during the blocks of training.

HOST - Swim Test and Dunker

As a weak swimmer, one of my greatest concerns prior to coming to BOLC was passing Helicopter Over-water Survival Training (HOST) or dunker training. I was unable to find much information online concerning what was required so hopefully I will be able to provide some here. Searching YouTube for HOST Dunker provides some videos of the training being conducted. Some are great for learning what to expect, others are not so helpful. At this time, the way the program is set up is as follows.  Students in-processing to Fort Rucker for flight school are encouraged to begin working on completing their swim test and dunker training prior to entering BOLC, however, new regulations require a flight physical before these blocks of training can be completed. If you have enough time to get the physical and still make it to the swim test and dunker you are golden. The swim test is required prior to dunker. It consists of swimming around the perimeter of the pool, treading water, doing a drown-proofing drill, and inflating a PFD while in the water. The instructors will work with students to make sure they are comfortable with the exercises and performing them correctly. Ironically, stronger swimmers often have more trouble with this as the dunker school uses proprietary strokes and will not permit the use of more traditional strokes students may already know. Those who fail to pass the swim test after a reasonable amount of coaching will be brought back on a future day to work one on one with an instructor to perfect their technique. Once the swim test is completed, students are authorized to return for the dunker portion of the training. The morning is spent in a classrooom to cover water survival techniques and learn the use of the emergency breathing device (EBD) carried on helicopters. The second portion of the day is devoted to the water portion of the dunker training. Students begin by learning to use a regulator, both while right side up and while upside down under water. If you have never used a regulator before get a snorkel and try it at a pool, it may save you from getting dropped from the class before it has even started. Also, it is highly important that you be comfortable having your nasal passages flooded with water. If you are uncomfortable in the water this is one of the key things you should probably work on. The next interation is conducted using a stationary device in the shallow end of the pool. Students are strapped to a chair and flipped upside down and then required a conduct a number of exercises including day and night exercises and breath hold and supplemental oxygen exercises. When everyone has completed this stage, the helicopter simulator is used to repeat the same exercises in the deep end of the pool Students are given three strikes in the shallow end and then have three chances in the deep end training. Failing to correctly complete any three events in either the shallow or deep water portion will result in remedial training and redoing dunker at a later date. If the remedial is taken more than 30 days from the time of the initial dunker training the entire classroom portion must be retaken as well. The dunker remedial training is conducted soley using the shallow water trainer. Students may come back as many times as necessary (other training permitting) to work on their comfort in the water and their technique. Students who know they are weak swimmers may also come in before they have had their dunker classroom exercises in order to complete comfortability training, though they will not be permitted to use the oxygen or conduct all the exercises that are required for dunker. A very small number of students do fail out of the aviation course because of the swim test and dunker, but the personnel at the HOST school will do everything in their power to make sure students become comfortable and are able to pass the training. Anyone with the dedication to keep trying will pass.

Aviation BOLC

The first of the many schools involved in becoming an Army Aviator is the Aviation Basic Officer Leadership Course (BOLC). This course is seven weeks in length and provides an introduction to the world of Army Aviation and the basic knowledge that is required to become a successful Army Officer. Most BOLC classes are composed of both Lieutenants and Warrant Officers with some of both coming from Active Duty, Guard, and Reserve components. The members of the class will remain together until primary aircraft selection. The exact order of BOLC varies by class but all BOLC classes are similar. The first three weeks of BOLC consist solely of classroom exercises covering a wide range of topics from assault and attack operations to ground vehicle maintenance to supply operations. There are four tests during this time period: aviation tactics exam, combat vehicle identification (CVID) exam, combined arms doctrine exam, and a maintenance/sustainment exam. The next week is "field week." During this week the officers conduct land navigation, M-16 qualification, M9 qualification, and convoy operations. The week following consists of classroom in the morning and combatives training in the afternoon. The last week is spent continuing classes from the week before over topics such as counseling, OERs, ORB, SERE inbrief, and UCMJ. None of these are testable with the exception of the UCMJ class. Following graduation from BOLC, there is often a period of time, known as a "bubble" before SERE school starts. In the past these bubbles could be months in length. Current changes in flight school have narrowed most bubbles to a few weeks or less. If there was not time scheduled into BOLC for it, this bubble is an opportunity to complete flight physicals and the swim test and HOST (Dunker) training.