Last Gunnery for „Csőrike”

In the last week of September three helicopters flew from Szolnok to the airfield set up on the Újmajor section of the military training area and shooting range. This was the site where the personnel of the HDF 86th Szolnok Helicopter Base conducted their second live air gunnery this year in their annual training scheme. The five-day relocation involved a total of 110 airmen of the helicopter base.

Lt.-Col. Tamás Bali, the flying training chief of the helicopter base told us that the Mi-24 attack helicopter was firing its built-in machine gun and its unguided rockets on the “zero point" range. This gunnery was aimed at enabling four soldiers of the attack helicopter battalion with “limited combat ready" qualification to be upgraded as “combat ready".

Lt-Col. Bali also informed us that the Mi-8 and Mi-17 helicopters participating in the live firing exercise also fired unguided rockets. This time, however, the primary mission of the airmen of the transport helicopter battalion was to hit the targets on the shooting range using the onboard 7.62mm PKM machine gun while manning the weapon in the open door of the helicopter. The five trainees have acquired the “Door Gunner" qualification.

The lieutenant-colonel added that this has been the last air gunnery for the widely known Mi-24 attack helicopter with tail number 716. The life cycle of the painted helicopter dubbed “Csőrike" (Beaky) is going to end this year, so it won’t take part in the next air gunnery scheduled for April 2012.

Of course, apart from the aircrews, the live fire exercise conducted between September 26 and 30 provided the joint terminal attack controller (JTAC) staff of the unit with a good training opportunity on the zero point range, the flying training chief said.

Photo: Veronika Dévényi

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