A Week in the Life of a Civilian Qualified Helicopter Instructor
28 Jul 20
Platform Training Services OBU
Inzpire's civilian Apache Helicopter instructor community, although small (currently six-strong) packs a fair punch in the training delivery pipeline.
Based at AAC Middle Wallop, the majority of the Inzpire Apache instructors are CFS A category QHIs. This means they are capable and qualified to conduct the in-depth training requirements of the military students who are exploring the additional opportunity of the aircraft's Air Warning system (this requires additional training). Civilian Qualified Helicopter Instructors (CQHIs) also form the base of the examining body responsible for maintaining standards across all disciplines of flying training. Another responsibility of the CQHI fraternity is the training of newly qualified instructors focussing on the specialised techniques and methods specific to Apache.
As well as our primary role, Inzpire CQHI’s also deliver many essential secondary tasks on behalf of the customer. These tasks are varied and not limited to the following:
- Apache Force EW Officer
- Sqn Training Officer
- Refresher Flight Commander
- Instructor training Flight Commander
- Conversion to Type Flight commander
- GECO subject matter experts
So, what does a typical week look like in the life of an Inzpire Apache CQHI?
Inzpire's CQHIs fulfil a number of critical roles for the customer
Monday
This week should be fun. A week of nights. “Right love, see you in the morning, night Bert, night Millie, enjoy your tea”. Off I go in to the evening sun. This will be our life for the next few weeks.
My wife has it harder than I do. Solo bath and bed times with two toddlers is far more challenging than low-level night pairs at 50 feet, with a student pilot, who’s still trying to work out which way is up, with a right eye on FLIR and an unaided left eye. Well done old girl!
So, what do have I to do today? First, catch up on the outstanding (not completed as opposed to very good) paperwork from last week’s sorties. Two check rides for me and an examination report for one of our pilots following his successful Instrument Rating Test (IRT). After that, soak in the changes that have inevitably arisen from serviceability/crew sickness and re-write the knock-on effect to the flying program accordingly.
Single aircraft, night revision sortie tonight. Should be dark! I should think some advance transitions and a recovery with a simulated double generator failure will do the trick (I bet my student wishes he knew that was hapening!). Don’t worry, I’ll be kind. I also had the very important job of re-stocking the coffee supplies today - critical for a week of nighttime instruction.
After landing, de-brief and write the report on the flight.
Night done, home a little after 2am.
Tuesday
Once again, the kids tea time was my cue to leave for work.
Tonight, I am the supervisor, ensuring safe operation of the airfield and making sure that all of our crews are fit to fly, correctly briefed and planned for the sorties.
It's a mixed bag tonight, with two sets of formation flying, a night single aircraft check and some instructor training.
Team Inzpire have done well today: the maintenance pilot got the serviceability up from three to six and the instructor training team taught the next batch of instructors the autorotation double engine failure sortie and invigilated a weapon handling test - the Apache is a gunship after all.
Reasonable results tonight. Pairs success, night check complete and the instructional sortie all done. I've just got to sort the STATS out and should be out of here by about 1 O’clock. I'll be back in for day and night pairs tomorrow. That’s going to be a long one!
Wednesday
Today will be busy as we have a day and night formation flying serial.
I've got to be in for 1400 to get together with the other instructor to pre-brief what we want to achieve.
We meet the students at half past and sit through a formation brief; walk through the sortie and the “what ifs”; authorise; out-brief; sign out the aircraft; walk; fly as lead and wing; pairs circuits; land de-brief; night brie; re-brief and rehearse; out-brief and do it all again in the dark. Then de-brief and write the reports.
As one of the flight commanders, in amongst all of this, I write the program for the following week, which involves balancing the resources against the requirements and the Squadron priority list.
Inzpire CQHI Andy Bancroft
Thursday
Well you can’t say our roles aren't varied!
I'm in at 1400 to invigilate an end-of-course gunnery test, then it's on to the flight line to lead a night formation pair. The gunnery check was a success and the de-brief and report for that didn’t take too long. Night pairs was eventful. When you get two training aircraft crossing each other at a few metres separation with a 200 knot closing speed it really focusses the mind. The balance is to let the student make the decisions and fly the manoeuvres whilst giving yourself enough time to intervene and maintain safety should the need arise. It's a piece of cake really.
Friday
I have to cheat here as I had an appointment to keep at Gatwick so wasn’t in today.
After checking, it looks like the Inzpire CQHIs, except for our day walker, took some well-earned leave. Even gun pilots need to rest occasionally. It also makes for a nice long weekend so we can be ready for the chaos that next week throws at us….Bring it on!
So, what did Inzpire Apache CQHI’s achieve this week for the customer?
- Instructor training sorties in preparation for qualifying check rides for three new apache instructors (nine sorties).
- All maintenance test flights improving the overall aircraft serviceability state of the fleet.
- Night revision sorties – six sorties.
- Day and night pairs formation flying - too many to mention!
- Built the training schedule for the following week for both the aircraft and the simulator providing training scenarios for the conversion to type course; refresher course; instructor training; and currency training.
- Examined instrument ratings – two sorties.
- Invigilated weapon handling tests for the conversion course - eight sorties.
- Flight supervisory tasks enhancing four world flight safety.
This blog is written by Andy Bancroft. Andy served in the Army for 23 years, the last 11 of which were as a pilot with the Army Air Corps flying the Apache Attack Helicopter. His career was built upon operational experience as a Flight Commander and Air Mission Commander acting as pilot, gunner and weapons officer, before moving in to flying instruction and then joining Inzpire in 2016.
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