What’s life like as an expert helicopter tactics instructor in Sintra, Portugal?
11 May 23
Helicopter ServicesBlogCareersInzpire Culture
BY Ian Swift
After 30 years in the Royal Air Force, serving all over the world, Ian ‘Swifty’ Swift recently joined Inzpire, where he works alongside our team of highly skilled ex-military helicopter operators delivering training to aircrew in the UK and overseas. With regular stints in Portugal to support the European Defence Agency’s (EDA) Helicopter Programme, we interviewed Swifty to find out more about his varied role and what it’s like to work as a helicopter tactics instructor in Sintra.
Another desert, another face full of sand
What was your background before joining Inzpire?
I joined the RAF in 1992 as an aircraft technician, working on Tornado, Wessex and Puma. In 1999 I retrained to become aircrew as a flight engineer. Initially I was posted to the Nimrod MR2 in the maritime role at Kinloss and then to the VC10 in the air transport and air-to-air refuelling role at Brize Norton. In 2009 I retrained as a helicopter crewman and after two years on the Puma I moved to the Chinook at Odiham and served there until I left in 2022.
During my 30 years I have served all over the world in all the usual places you would expect, gaining a wealth of experience in all sorts of climates and conditions. I completed lots of training courses and became an instructor in helicopter tactics, survival, human factors, helicopter rear-crew training, helicopter despatch and all manner of specialist helicopter skills. I became an A2 instructor in 2021 after a lot of study, finally leaving the RAF as a flight lead and senior rear-crew instructor on a specialist unit.
Fast rope training with live troops
Why did you choose to work for Inzpire?
I had interacted with some Inzpire personnel during my tactics instructor course, and with the team at the Chinook Simulator at Odiham. I heard nothing but good reviews about the company and during my resettlement from the military I enquired about any openings… and here I am. Inzpire, being 80% ex-military, has made the transition easy, as I am working with like-minded individuals. The company has been fantastic in supporting me as I settle in, and it is good to be recognised for the work I do and allowed to progress as required. When I am not away teaching in Portugal I work from home, which gives me lots of flexibility to work around home commitments.
The answer is always two Chinooks… now what is the question?
How does Inzpire support the EDA’s Helicopter Programme?
The EDA has a Helicopter Training Centre at the Portuguese Airbase of Sintra. Inzpire provides a team of instructors (all of whom are experienced former UK military helicopter operators) and highly skilled simulator technicians. We deliver a basic helicopter tactics course, electronic warfare and composite air operations (COMAO) courses and support the EDA tactics instructor course.
The Centre itself consists of a learning centre with classrooms, briefing rooms and a crewroom. A hangar building opposite houses a tactical trainer facility, which is made up of two helicopter mock-ups for a four-person crew (two pilots and two rear crew/gunners) with an instructor station. Various scenarios and air and ground threats can be simulated to facilitate practical tactical training.
The tactics trainer instructors’ station
What is it like working out in Sintra?
We live and work in Portugal for the duration of each course, housed in a local Air BnB and driving into work each day. Living and working together means we are quite a close-knit team and look after each other when we are away. We self-cater and shop locally and the town has a good selection of bars and restaurants.
When in work we are responsible for looking after the students. A lot of them live on base, but some are accommodated in local hotels. We are the liaison for the students and the host nation and expected to sort any issues.
All courses are taught in English and students are told they need to have a reasonable level of English-speaking knowledge, not always the case, but we adapt and overcome. On the basic three-week-long helicopter tactics course, we have students with various levels of experience. Some have come straight from basic flying training; others are on the front line with operational flying time. We must carefully tailor our lessons to ensure everyone has a positive experience and takes something away from the course, and we keep everything generic. A large part of the course is sharing experiences to better everyone’s knowledge.
The course has lessons on all aspects of military helicopter operations. We use the tactical trainer to demonstrate what we have taught and in the final week-and-a-half the students are split into crews and given missions to fly. We develop the missions using a crawl, walk, run concept; finishing with a multi-aircraft airfield assault, in a radar and small arms threat environment, with enemy aircraft trying to shoot them down.
We always have positive feedback from the course with everyone, regardless of experience, walking away with a better knowledge of helicopter tactics which they can take back to their units.
Inside one of the helicopter trainers
What is the most rewarding part of your job?
Being an instructor, I am passionate about developing the students. Taking someone who has just finished basic flying training and never operated in a multi-crew environment, to being a mission lead in a multi-aircraft formation is extremely rewarding. Watching them develop their crew resource management skills and applying the training we have delivered. We debrief each of the sorties and the majority of students will take on board the points raised and apply them throughout the course, which is extremely satisfying.
The Inzpire instructors and staff are held in high regard by the students and our credibility is important to us, so we are constantly keeping up to date with the latest training, tactics and procedures, and modern weapon systems. This promotes lots of discussions amongst staff and keeps us interested and engaged, and everyone on the team has a vote on how to improve things.
My move from the military to civvy street has been made easy with Inzpire and I am glad I took the leap and now work in an equally stimulating and enjoyable environment.
Find out more about the varied and rewarding opportunities at Inzpire on our careers page.
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