Helo pilots all aboard

FLTLT Megan Hurley, centre, and FLTLT Paul Jeffery, right, with a Navy colleague during their Seahawk helicopter training.

TWO Air Force helicopter pilots – including the Service’s first woman helo pilot – have embarked on their first shipboard postings as Seahawk tactical captains.

Flight Lieutenant Megan Hurley has been posted to HMAS Stuart and Flight Lieutenant Paul Jeffery to HMAS Darwin. Apart from being the Air Force’s first female helo pilot, FLTLT Hurley is the first woman to become a Seahawk pilot for the RAN.

The pair are on a five-year posting to the Fleet Air Arm. They began helicopter conversion training in 2002.

“We had both put this option down as one of our top choices and got the jobs,” FLTLT Hurley said.

“I thought it would be a unique opportunity to experience both rotary and fixed-wing flying during my Air Force career.

“We discovered that working with a Navy squadron as RAAFies took us time to adjust to the Navy way, but we are learning to ‘speak the language’.”
She said hovering a helicopter was testing at first, but “fun and satisfying when we got the hang of it”.

Especially demanding were the confined area landings “where you descend into a small opening in the trees with only 10 feet between obstacles and the rotor disc”.

The pair have undergone training on both Squirrels and Seahawks, and have had opportunities to operate with different types of Navy vessels. They experienced the day-to-day operations of many non-flying aspects of shipboard life, including watch keeping, during these deployments.

“It was a great way to gain confidence on the helicopter and experience life at sea,” FLTLT Jeffery said. “Operating from a ship at sea was a new and challenging experience.”

Flying on a pitch-black night at low level over the ocean to land on the flightdeck of a moving ship is the most difficult training the two pilots say they have done.

As part of their Seahawk training, the officers were posted to No. 816 Squadron where they learned aviation-related aspects of anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare, vertical replenishment and blue water transport.

They say helicopter flying is great hands-on experience and the tasking is always varied. They believe they will return to the Air Force with excellent flying skills and captaincy experience and say their understanding of naval operations will be a great asset in future joint operations in which they are involved.

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