Solo Flight Time

[zaurus]

During initial flight training, is there any solo flights in the UH-72A or TH-67 ALONE? Or do you always fly with a stick buddy?

[mike0331]

From my reading it is with a stick buddy and no IP for the TH-67.

I found this to be a very thorough write-up as well as pretty recent, having not been myself.

http://usarmypilot.blogspot.com/

Mike

[StockTrader]

Army regs dictate that there must be two pilots in the aircraft whenever it flies You'll get to "solo" with your stick buddy doing traffic patterns at a stagefield but thats about it.

[ShelbyFlyer]

This thread made me smile. Its fun to tell a former military pilot with thousands of quality hours that I'm getting out and to go fly the pattern solo. None that I have worked with had ever been in a helicopter by themselves. They aren't anxious like a student pilot but they're postive feeling after the solo time is much the same.

[SBuzzkill]

Army regs dictate that there must be two pilots in the aircraft whenever it flies You'll get to "solo" with your stick buddy doing traffic patterns at a stagefield but thats about it.

 

Which reg says that?

[Trogdor]

When I "soloed" in flight school in 2008 it was with a stick buddy. A lot has changed since then and I doubt they are going to let the IP step out of the Lakota.

 

I have since soloed but it's not a typical occurrence these days since with the departure of the Kiowa all the regular army aircraft are two pilot aircraft.

[UH60L-IP]

You will not solo, in any form, in the UH-72. There will always be an IP at one set of the controls while in flight school.

[StockTrader]

 

Which reg says that?

Ill just go ahead and correct myself. Its based on the operators manual or mission. That and the exceptions to the rule (ie. student training or limited cockpit duties) are in 95-1. My fault on just stating regs. I know others can be in the cockpit when doing stuff like APU/AGPU runs for us but im not familiar with the other aircraft.

[SBuzzkill]

Yup, if it's authorized by your operators manual and you get your mission approval you're good to fly solo. While you wont get to solo in flight school you may end up doing it later in your career.

[stearmann4]

The H-6 series and Lakotas are the only airframes left (that I'm aware of) certified to fly single pilot. We do a lot of single pilot VFR in our UH72s.

[SBuzzkill]

Sir,

 

OH-58Cs are still being used and flown single pilot for OC support at JRTC and NTC. They're supposed to be replaced by Lakotas but the date keeps being pushed back. Scuttlebutt has it that they will be around NTC until at least 2020. Lots of the slots are being filled by prior 58D guys but there are still some pilots coming straight out of flight school and elsewhere in the Army.

 

I was wondering if the Lakota was single pilot. Looks like you answered my question! From the outside they sure seem like nice birds to fly around the states. The ones painted in OPFOR colors are pretty dang cool looking.

 

-Sam

Edited December 2, 2016 by SBuzzkill