Helo training in Taegu helps soldier
conquer his fear of heights
By Franklin Fisher, Taegu
bureau chief
Franklin Fisher / Stars and
Stripes
Veteran Army pilot Chief Warrant Officer Paul D. Gardenhire gives instructions in how to
conduct a standard passenger briefing for Black Hawk helicopter flights Friday at Walker
Army Heliport in Taegu, South Korea. Spc. Kau Freitas, right, is training to become a
Black Hawk crew chief. Staff Sgt. Brandon L. Smith, left, is a crew chief taking
Black Hawk refresher training. |
TAEGU, South Korea — He had never once flown in a helicopter,
and on top of that he’s afraid of heights.
So Army helicopter mechanic Spc. Kau Freitas, 22, of Wailuku, Hawaii,
was nervous as he faced his first helicopter ride. He’s a member of Charlie Company
(South Detachment), 1st Battalion, 52nd Aviation Regiment, at Walker Army Heliport (H-805)
in Taegu.
His unit hopes to train him to be a Black Hawk helicopter crew chief.
Overseeing the in-flight training would be Chief Warrant Officer Paul
D. Gardenhire, a veteran pilot from Texas. For three years he was an instructor in the
Black Hawk qualification course at Fort Rucker, Ala.
As things turned out on this bright, clear day, there was a surprise
waiting for them about 20 minutes out.
They lifted from the parking apron and with cool air streaming in,
were passing over the rooftops and bustle of Taegu.
The day’s mission called for the pilots to practice various
types of landings. This would give Freitas practice at one of the critical tasks of a
Black Hawk crew chief: carefully watching the tail section, especially for anything that
might impede the aircraft.
“Basically they’re our eyes in the back,” Gardenhire
explained. “They’re really key because from the front, you got ... 46 feet of
aircraft behind you and you can only focus on what’s ahead and a little bit to the
side. They’re looking out.”
Soon, they’re over the rectangular rice paddies. Here and there
were slate-gray clusters of stone farmhouses, elsewhere an occasional light-industrial
parcel with blue-roofed outbuildings and a smokestack.
The pilot was bringing the Black Hawk in for a landing on a narrow
paved airstrip about 45 miles south of Taegu, a 20 minute flight. It’s about 2,800
feet long and lies among rice paddies.
“Tail down,” the pilot says and keeps the Black Hawk
rolling so he can perform the next training maneuver, a “rolling take-off”
— lifting off while the helicopter is rolling forward on its tires.
But this time Freitas sees something that was not part of the plan.
From about 50 feet back, a blue truck is bearing down on the Black Hawk, and closing fast.
Freitas and Gardenhire, seated to his right, tell the pilot.
“We’ve got a truck coming from the rear. We got a truck
coming from the rear … Fifteen feet away from the aircraft.”
Inside the truck are what appear to be two Korean men in military
uniforms. Freitas is trying to wave them off, and as the truck pulls into
Gardenhire’s view, he does too.
Within moments the pilot has the Black Hawk high over the landscape,
the rolling take-off aborted. “I didn’t want to hover around him and blow him
away,” he said later back at Walker. By the time their training mission was done,
they’d made a total of five landings but had to give up on others because of the
interference.
The aviators said they’d report the incident to their superiors.
“You did a pretty good job,” Gardenhire told Freitas.
“You’ll get more high speed. You get a lot more comfortable with it every time
you fly.”
“I was kind of shaky,” said Freitas later, “because
I’m afraid of heights. After I stuck my head out of the window it wasn’t that
bad. It’s different looking out a building and looking out of an aircraft, for some
reason.”
The truck on the airstrip was a high point. “That tripped me
out,” Freitas said. “Because you know in America that wouldn’t happen.
Nobody would drive up toward an aircraft.”
He hopes to make crew chief. “It’s a pretty fun job.
I’ll be flying people around, might get sent to an air assault unit, a lot of fun
stuff.”
Back to June stories
Page Two news roundup
Stories from May, 2001
Stories from April, 2001
Stories from March, 2001
Stories from February,2001
Stories from January, 2001
Stories from December, 2000
Stories from November, 2000
Stories from October, 2000
Stories from August and September, 2000
Stories from June and July, 2000
Home |
