Kanimbla’s team keeps birdies aloft
Flight deck operators impress MEAO commanders

A British Mark 4 Sea King helicopter lands on the flight deck of HMAS Kanimbla. A demonstration of the diversity that her aviation team meets every day.

By LEUT Emily Curtis
There is no doubt that HMAS Kanimbla (CMDR David McCourt) has made an impressive contribution to Gulf operations. The ship’s Aviation Department has worked tirelessly throughout Op Falconer and has notched up some mean statistics.

When the ship sailed she had a fresh and relatively inexperienced flight deck team and no aircraft embarked. With a week’s work up the new flight deck team passed their first test – the ORE – with good results. Kanimbla’s Aviation Department has had many tests since and has come a long way.

Since the beginning of Op Falconer Kanimbla’s flight deck team has received thirteen different aircraft types from four different countries, and in one day “hot refueled” no less than thirteen helicopters, pumping over 26000 pounds of fuel into coalition aircraft.

During the ten-day peak of the war, Kanimbla conducted over 100 deck recoveries from nine different types of helicopters.

No mean feat for a team with such modest beginnings.

Kanimbla has six members that make up the ship’s Aviation Department, plus seven additional billets including three musicians. This in itself is a first for both the Aviation Department and any RAN ship. There are also two stewards whose ancillary duty is flight deck team.

This band of people is lead by LEUT Richard ‘Taff’ Foster who has over 37 years of naval aviation experience, 24 of those years being in the Royal Navy.

It was this experience and the enthusiastic and tireless efforts of the department, which ensured every deck launch, landing, vertical replenishment, transfer, and refuel was done safely and with the professionalism that is inherent in Kanimbla.

“The team have had to work at an extremely high tempo during the lead up to and during Op Falconer and I can safely say that in my 37 years experience, the only time I experienced a similar tempo to this is when I served in HMS Achilles off Vietnam in 1974 when United States troops were withdrawing,” LEUT Foster said.

The Aviation Department has overcome challenges along the way during their deployment. For example, the United States and Royal Navies use night vision goggles (NVG) for flying at night, which is something the Royal Australian Navy doesn’t do. This meant that Kanimbla’s flight deck teams had to adjust and adapt by using NVG compatible cylume sticks and work on a darkened (NVG compatible) deck.

“This had never been done before by the RAN, and the flight deck teams did extremely well to adjust to the dynamic requirements by visiting coalition aircraft,” LEUT Foster said.

The teams were exposed to new aircraft from different nations frequently, and Flight Deck Captain, PO Mark French, would brief the flight deck team with a diagram of the underbelly of new visiting aircraft so they knew how to identify the tie down and refueling points.

“We have had over 270 deck landings - many unannounced - and over 120 vertical replenishments in the last six weeks alone, and each one was completed safely and efficiently,” LEUT Foster said.

Throughout the operation Kanimbla’s flight deck team has impressed Flight Commanders in the MEAO.

“One British admiral made particular comment about the professional service that Kanimbla’s flight deck team had given to visiting Royal Navy aircraft and I think this demonstrates the trust and friendship we have built up with our coalition partners,” LEUT Foster said.

“I’m really proud of the guys and girls involved, and this multinational and operational experience has certainly been beneficial for them,” he said.

Helicopters are certainly an operational imperative, but it is the behind the scenes team effort that makes their movements possible.

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