UPDRAFTS
Cadet 2nd Lt. Bryce Ward gives a thumbs-
up before the flight over Fort Worth in a Bell 407. (Staff Sgt. Deyton Talley Photo)
in the program over a couple of years. Unfortunately, that will be challenging. Given the logistics, I don’t know that we’ll be able to have more than 20 cadets. Assuming Bell would have us back,
flights and partner with the Helicopter Institute in Fort Worth to provide us with a lower rate for the R44 discovery flights was fantastic.
What other experiences did the cadets enjoy? On the third day, we went to Bell Flight, where each cadet had a chance to fly the 505 sim. They also spent a fair amount of time in Bell’s maintenance hangar talking with the aircraft main- tainers and looking at the training aircraft, which have the inner workings exposed. That was really satisfying for me. So
much of the stuff we’d been teach- ing in the classroom, such as how the control systems work, was on display in Bell’s training device called the Iron Maiden. It shows all the control sys- tems and the cyclic and collective in a cutaway view. When you pull on the cyclic, you can see how it activates the pushrods and moves the swash plate. I think it helped everything click for the cadets. Bell treated us amazingly well.
They provided a whole lot more than we expected. It was really gratifying how they embraced us and how they
24 POWER UP SEP 2024
thought through ways to help the cadets.
Will you offer RES next sum- mer, and if so, will there be any changes? Yes, we’ll offer it again, but it really needs to be five full days. The cadets arrived on Sunday afternoon, then went straight into the classroom that evening after dinner. We held a group study time in the evenings so they could review their Rotorcraft Flying Handbook, do their assignments, and ask questions. The program ended early on Friday, which served more as an administrative day. There’s so much more we can cover.
So Friday probably needs to be a full day, with our admin processing hap- pening on Saturday. Still, we’re throwing a lot of academ-
ics at the students. We could add a fun yet educational activity like a trip to an air museum.
Will you expand it to other CAP locations? For it to become a national cadet special activity, we have to run it successfully and show some growth
just getting all the cadets through the sims takes a lot of time. We want to be mindful of Bell’s hospitality. Maybe we can split the group, with half going to Bell and the other half visiting another facility. I think we can show growth in
other ways. We had cadets from Texas, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee. We can expand our reach to cadets from other wings.
How can RES be a model in work- force development? That’s the big key, right? Everyone is experiencing shortages of pilots and maintainers. Where do future helicop- ter professionals come from? In the airline industry, they’re starting their own training academies, but there’s nothing like that in the helicopter industry. We’re relying on either the military or law enforcement to recruit and train. We want to catch cadets when
they’re thinking about their future. We want to inform them that there are many opportunities and viable career paths in vertical aviation. It’s great to know there are folks
in the industry like VAI, the Jeff Pino Foundation, Helicopter Institute, and Bell who are willing to step up and help inspire the next generation. Christine Knauer is a journalist specializing in aviation. She holds a master’s degree in aviation safety.
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