Flying at Last – Reporting from Afghanistan

During the compulsory familiarization flight (FAMFLIGHT), the aircrews of the previous rotation introduced the newcomers flying aboard the Mi-171 helicopter to the key entry and exit points and the key navigation points. Of course, there are some among the newly arrived pilots for whom the “landscape is not only a map", as they have deployed with earlier rotations of the Mi-35 Air Mentor Team.

During the route planning, they had to pay attention to the route as a whole besides the en route points. Even during take-off and landing, it may happen in the environs of Kabul that inbound or outbound airplanes and helicopters take small arms fire, and on rare occasions the insurgents launch RPGs as well. While flying above the danger areas, the aircraft climbed to a higher altitude so it can fly outside the range of small arms and RPGs, thus the Mi-171 was able to return to Kabul International Airport (KAIA) after the long two-hour flight without any incidents.

True, we paid a visit en route to the base of the British forces. The Hungarian soldiers were not interested in the walled helipad of the small fort (although the Mi-171 had a great success by demonstrating its hovering capability at a high altitude), but rather in the extensive shooting range around the compound. While the US commander of the mentor team was practicing emergency procedures with the Afghan pilot at the controls of the aircraft, the Hungarian team was being guided around the range by British soldiers to learn about its current arrangement. This was no accident, as the goals include the establishment of a range for the purposes of air gunnery. This environment could serve as an ideal location for that, as there are some “hard-skinned" targets like buildings in the area of the range, which also offers abundant waste ground that will be available to the Hungarian and Afghan pilots for use.

Beside the work, the personnel had time to celebrate during the farewell ceremony and the medal parade held for the (mostly Hungarian) aircrews of the 438th Air Expeditionary Advisory Squadron and their Afghan partners. The outgoing commander of the AMT-6 said goodbye to his Afghan classmates he had got to know in the former Soviet Union, while the deputy commander of the Afghan battalion mentioned the brother of a Hungarian instructor pilot currently serving with the AMT-7 as his former classmate, recalling the time they had flown together. The Hungarians, the Afghans and the US commander attending the ceremony all pointed to learning together and mutual learning as possibly the most important factor of the last five months. “It gladdens us to know we can return home to our families, yet it saddens us to leave our friends here", the outgoing AMT-6 commander said. He said special thanks to the Afghan interpreters who had been working with them in the air too, as they do an indispensable in-flight job in the interest of overcoming the language barriers. After receiving the Hungarian and Afghan certificates of merit that detail the joint work and the results, the members of the AMT-6 were given the NATO (ISAF) mission medals for +3-month service.

Photo: Veronika Dévényi

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