Do you value your training?
Imagine for a second that you are in a 300-foot AGL out-of-ground-effect hover, with a 10-knot quartering crosswind, only 12 inches from a 500,000 volt high-tension power line, and a lineman is perched on a Tyler bench outside your helicopter.
Given the incredibly narrow margins for error, alongside the need for instant reaction in the event of an emergency, I’m certain that every pilot performing this work understands the value of quality training. This type of precision work happens every day in the MD Helicopters-dominated world of power-line maintenance, repair, and construction operations, in which pilots rely on their training for safe operations. Other sectors such as law enforcement operations also depend heavily on MD Helicopters for the speed and smoothness of the platform so they can fly in challenging operational profiles that require high levels of training, especially in emergency procedures.
OEMs are the best for training pilots and mechanics, said Banks, who has extensive military and instructor experience. “Any questions that come up, we have the ability to get answers here through our engineering support staff,” he elaborated.
MDH offers five pilot courses, five military courses, and a maintenance course. Instructors will travel to any part of the world to train customers on their own rotorcraft, and in the past four years that includes foreign militaries with the blessing of the U.S. military. For example, this
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year’s contract for the sale of 12 Cayuse Warrior Plus scout/attack helicopters to the Nigerian Army includes pilot training in-house and in Nigeria, tailored mission training, and maintenance training.
MDH conducts its in-house training at its Falcon Field global headquarters and production facility in Mesa. The site’s history dates back to 1941 as a military airport that trained U.S. and British pilots. It was deeded to the City of Mesa in 1948. Hughes Helicopters moved operations there in the early 1980s after winning a U.S. military contract for its Apache helicopters. Located in the Sonoran Desert with highly varied terrain, “We have very few weather days,” Banks said.
Customers appreciate the opportunity to conduct certain types of training at Falcon Field on MDH-owned helicopters, Banks added, “because not everybody can afford to do full touchdown autorotations, for example, at home. It’s high risk for their own aircraft, so they’ll do those here. We assume that risk to make sure they’re trained up to where they need to be.”
To emphasize that point of not utilizing operational aircraft for high-risk training operations such as touchdown autos, David McColl, a 12-year veteran utility pilot for several major utility operators flying MD products, said MD training has developed touchdown autorotation profiles that will challenge even the most experienced pilot.
“Most utility pilots think they are prepared to handle an engine failure – that is until an MD instructor rolls the throttle off on you
at a 300-foot OGE hover with your head hanging out the door,” McColl said. “That’s when you realize the value of factory training. It gets real, very fast. I have always said that pilots will rarely rise to an occasion, but they will default to their level of training.”
MDH trains an average of about 200 pilots and 100 mechanics annually, not including the training it provides for military pilots, mechanics and armament, Banks said. Each instructor normally works with a maximum of two students at a time. Lindauer said the quality of MD training has never been an issue. “We do a spectacular job of training, and that is the consistent feedback from customers,” he said.
While the MDH website details numerous types and levels of training, MDH can tailor its training to exactly what each customer wants, Banks said. “The nice part about being a smaller OEM is that we also have the ability to change things as necessary,” he said. “A lot of places just offer training packages – what you get is what you get. And we’re not that way. We’re about trying to get customers what they want and what they need to help the units be more successful.”
Since MDH has a “one-stop shop,” oftentimes armaments, maintenance and pilots all train at the same time, and that’s valuable in creating a cohesive unit, Banks added. Numerous
police departments
conduct annual recurrent training with MDH at their respective headquarters. An MDH crew just wrapped up instruction with 12 Las Vegas Metro pilots, for example.
En route to the top of the structure, with the wind and power lines off to his left, the engine quit at 120’ and 30 knots.”
May/June 2023
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