Colombia Trains Mexican Pilots
*Contact I and II include Basic Maneuvering Flight as well as Emergency Procedure Training. Total Hours of Flight Training (30 weeks/129 hours) Those intimately involved in RHTC, from Col. Losada to Lt. Col. Meadows, talk about the school as a dream not yet fully realized. Aircraft hours: 99 Simulator hours: 30 Joint Initial Entry Rotary Wing Course Breakdown I would like to train to work in your region of the world. I have 70hrs training in ontario, canada. Please contact me to discuss.Chris haskell “I would like to train to work in your region of the world. I have 70hrs training in ontario, canada.”Unfortunately, the training is limited to military personnel only Chris… Latin-American to be more specific… Source: Regional Helicopter Training Center/CACOM 4 An Early Start Each year since 2010, 24 Mexican and 24 Colombian trainees have entered the Joint Initial Entry Rotary Wing Course at the RHTC, benefiting from personalized instruction by veteran combat Colombian Air Force instructors. Base Commander Colonel Fernando Losada believes a shared culture and shared threats help Colombia relate to the Mexican pilots. “We are also contributing to the global effort to fight narcotrafficking and narcoterrorism.” By Dialogo January 01, 2013 Point of Instruction On the Horizon “We want to make this a daily occurrence. [We hope] that there will always be international students here, that we can help other countries in the region to train their pilots,” said Col. Losada, who points to the promise of nearby Flandes stage field. The landing strip will increase the school’s training capacity from 48 to 74 students per year and allow other countries to participate when Phase I is complete in June 2013. With Latin America’s largest fleet of Black Hawk helicopters and a brand new UH-60 Black Hawk simulator to train Colombian pilots, Col. Losada envisions the school expanding to advanced training for pilots from Brazil, Chile and Mexico, who also have fleets of the aircraft. Just as student enrollment ramps up and the RHTC can begin to charge for its basic helicopter course and simulator training, Lt. Col. Meadows said U.S. funding will decrease and loaned aircraft will be turned over to the Colombian Government at a rate of five to 10 per year from 2015-2018. Col. Losada said the RHTC would not have been possible without U.S. help, and those involved are determined to make it the best. “We do not rest in having simply reached this point; we want to continue to be better, and this is exhibited each day in the operations and the training we do here.” Sources: www.cacom4.mil.co, www.efectoespejo.com As the sun began to set behind the orange-colored rock cliffs that flank the Colombian Air Force base in Melgar, a half-dozen Mexican helicopter pilot trainees enjoyed a light moment before their night missions began. Dressed in olive green flight suits and blue caps bearing the Mexican and Colombian flags, they swapped stories with their Colombian counterparts before taking the controls. Soon, they would ascend over the mountainous terrain with only their instruments, night vision goggles and what they had learned in the past eight months to guide them. Behind them were the glittering new facilities at the Regional Helicopter Training Center (RHTC): barracks, classroom buildings, hangars and upgraded technology including simulators found nowhere else in Latin America. When talking about their mission after graduation, these young men, most in their early 20s, are focused and serious. They know why they were selected to attend this elite regional school and the responsibility that lies ahead. “I feel happy and emotional because I am going to help my country,” said Mexican Air Force Lieutenant Victor Granillo Salgado, a former air traffic controller who spoke to Diálogo two weeks before his graduation from the school. “I feel a little adrenaline because you know that in some ways, there is more risk than being in an office. It’s very emotional.” As Colombian Air Force Master Sergeant Pablo Cajamarca demonstrated flying in a Huey II simulator that recently underwent a $1.5 million upgrade, he pointed out how the real-life graphics replicate the CACOM 4 airfield and Melgar surroundings. “We are convinced that we are going to make [this] the best school in the world.” The basic training course at the RHTC is about eight months in length; each morning one group of students takes theory in the classroom while another group flies training missions. In the afternoon, the groups switch training sites. The airfield allows for six helicopters in flight at all times. Lieutenant Midzar Nava Quintana, who is one of the first pilots from the Mexican Army to be trained at the school, is most surprised by the personalized attention he receives in the class of 12 students. Lt. Nava said that he expects to participate in counternarcotics operations such as eradication when he returns home. In-processing Aviation Ground School Contact I and II* Basic Instrument Course Tactics Night/Night Vision Goggles Training Weeks/Flight Hours The Training 1 week 6 weeks 11 weeks (60 hours, 1 solo flight) 5 weeks (30 hours simulator) 4 weeks (21 hours) 4 weeks (18 hours) Just 12 years ago, the historic airfield at Air Combat Command 4 (CACOM 4, by its Spanish acronym) where the Colombian Air Force started flying helicopters in 1954, only had two helicopters and was on the verge of closing. The way to save it, base commanders thought, was to make it a regional training center for the Armed Forces and police. The idea took off. In 2001, as part of the United States Plan Colombia, the U.S. responded to the need for more helicopter pilots to fight the drug war and insurgency in the country by loaning several UH-1H helicopters. Investment continued in 2009 under a U.S. Department of Defense plan that helped create the RHTC with an estimated $13 million a year toward training and infrastructure costs and the loaning of 19 OH-58 helicopters to replace the legacy UH-1Hs. Eleven additional OH-58s are due to be loaned by the U.S. Government in 2014. “There’s always been more demand for pilot training than there have been spaces available,” said Lieutenant Colonel Ray Meadows, director of the U.S. Army’s Aviation Training Assistance Field Team at CACOM 4. “Over the last 15 years, the Colombian Government has been very successful [in] the counterinsurgency fight with the FARC and a large portion of that [is thanks to] aviation.” Even at the CACOM 4 airfield, pilots are not immune to the dangers inherent in Colombia’s drug and guerrilla war in the valley of Melgar, a hot and humid terrain 2½ hours southwest of Bogotá by car. Pilots practice flying in “the bowl,” a green area encircled by a ridge of rocky cliffs that allows pilots to practice flying over different terrains. However, even practice flights put pilots in real danger from the guerrilla Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Taking note of student training practices in 2008, the group placed an improvised explosive device on a grass landing pad. The explosion destroyed a training helicopter and took the lives of three aviators. Lt. Nava knows the risk he, too, faces as a helicopter pilot in Mexico. Aircraft have been shot at with automatic weapons by cartel members protecting marijuana and opium fields. “The danger in this case is very high,” he said. “Organized crime in Mexico does not have scruples.”