Warhorse sky high
Volume 11, No. 55, November 02, 2006
By Maj Graham Henley

Rotar wash: Cpl Dave Paterson, B Sqn, 5 Avn Regt, watches as a Black Hawk sets off on a high-density altitude familiarisation flight in Timor-Leste.

AFTER briefing, call sign Warhorse Blue lifted off from the heliport just east of Dili’s city centre and tracked up the Comoro River valley to the towns of Aileu and Gleno before swinging west toward the Indonesian border.

Part of JTF 631’s Anzac Battle Group in Timor-Leste, the helo – Black Hawk 207 from B Sqn, 5 Avn Regt – was on a high-density altitude training mission.

It had been prepared and pre-flight checked by the captain, Lt David Davis, co-pilot Capt Mathew Colquhoun, and loadmasters Cpl Ben Balchin and Tpr David Jones.

About seven nautical miles from the border, the flight tracked inland to what is colloquially known as the “Mary feature”, so named for the statue of the Virgin Mary placed at the top.

The feature is some 2980m above sea level, almost at the limit for any Black Hawk not fitted with oxygen for the crew and passengers.

High in the clouds with the temperature about six degrees Celsius, the loadmasters and passengers could be excused for thinking they were in Canberra on a winter’s day; after all, who thinks they would be freezing while serving on Operation Astute.

Warhorse Blue has been fitted with “jugs”, external fuel tanks on wings that, according to Lt Davis, change the performance of the aircraft considerably. “We need to pull much more power and be conscious of the aircraft’s performance that continually decreases as you gain more altitude,” he said.

The flight was to re-familiarise the crew and passengers with high-density altitude flying with an aircraft fitted with jugs.
A byproduct of this was the opportunity to view some of the most spectacular scenery to be found anywhere.

Flying over razorback mountains that rise out of the ground to a height of 2290m, to escarpments that fall away into fertile valleys under cultivation, the pilots and loadmasters need to be constantly vigilant to react to the changing conditions.

“To fly in these conditions, we need to be trained and qualified. It involves formal theory-based training plus the practical flying experience under assessment,” Lt Davis said.

“There are not too many places near home that present these conditions so we must travel overseas to gain the qualification, and then take every opportunity to keep our skills current.”

Almost all of the rugged peaks have a religious icon at their peak; crucifixes, statues and chapels are visible symbols of this devoutly Christian nation. One can only wonder how they carried the materials to some of them, let alone built the structures.

Stopping to simulate a hoisting exercise on the side of an almost vertical mountain, the loadmaster called the flight to a position and dropped the hoist cable almost 36m from the right-hand side of the helicopter to touch the ground.

Looking out the left-hand side, the ground dropped away to the point where the hoist would have run out of its 68m of cable before touching the ground.

When the familiarisation flight ended with a low-altitude run along the Dili foreshore before tracking slightly inland and landing at the heliport, the crew of call sign Warhorse Blue had confirmed their ability to provide helicopter support to the troops on Operation Astute under any conditions.