1st American HIND Combat Pilot
(Source: US Department of Defense)
http://www.militarynewsnetwork.com/mili ... ws1199.htm
Story by Petty Officer 1st Class Elizabeth Burke
KABUL, Afghanistan - U.S. Air Force Maj. Caleb Nimmo is the first American Mi-35 HIND attack helicopter pilot to fly in combat. He is deployed to Afghanistan advising the Afghan National Army Air Corps' rotary wing squadron as part of the 438th Air Expeditionary Wing, Combined Air Power Transition Force.
The 377th Rotary Wing Squadron of the Kabul Air Wing is advised by CAPTF's coalition partners from the Czech Republic, Hungary and the U.S. The squadron flies the Russian made Mi-35 attack helicopter and the Mi-17 transport helicopter.
Nimmo received his Mi-35 training from a civilian contractor in the United States. The training consisted of 40 hours of basic familiarization: maneuvers, emergency procedures-engine fires, failures and autorotation. He also received instrument training and mission specific escort and weapons training. He followed that up with ten hours of military training with the Czech Republic in close air support, escort, formation with reference to high density altitude and also mentor training.
Nimmo began flying in 2000. In the last ten years, he has flown Huey helicopters in Minot , N.D., T-6 trainers as an instructor pilot for Undergraduate Pilot Training at Moody AFB, Ga., Huey gunships with the Marine Corps in HML/A-167 light attack squadron and the MV-22 with the Marine Corps in VMMT-204 in Jacksonville, N.C.
The Mi-24 is the Russian HIND attack helicopter. The Mi-35 is the export version and all controls are in English. The pilots sit in line as opposed to the traditional side by side cockpit. The front seat is for shooting the 12.7mm turret and deploying anti-tank guided weapons. When in the shooting mode, the flight controls for the gunner disengage and the pilot in the rear is in control of flying the aircraft and can also employ rockets with other fixed-forward firing munitions.
The Air Force uses the Mi-35 as the aggressor at their Red Flag weapons school at Nellis, AFB, Nev. and the Marine Corps uses it at the Marine Corps Air Weapons and Tactics School in Yuma, Ariz.
Nimmo has great respect for the coalition team and the pilots which he advises.
"It has been absolutely an honor and a surreal experience to work with the Afghans, the Czech Republic teams and now the Hungarians... The Afghans are very skilled pilots and they teach me things all the time. They teach me a lot about the tactics that helped when they were working with and against the Russians and the Mujahedin and the Taliban."
He believes that personal relationships are crucial to a successful mentoring relationship.
"I spend a lot of time after hours to get to know them on a personal level. I have found that it is absolutely critical to find other areas that we have common ground such as families, hobbies, and things that we like to do. Those commonalities translate directly into a more effective relationship inside of the office as well as in the cockpit. One thing that you have to understand is when I go up and fly, there can be as much as four languages being spoken: Dari, Russian, Hungarian or Czech and English. If you don't have an outstanding relationship then you exponentially increase your risk in the air and when you are talking about employing ordinance, it is absolutely critical that I know what you are thinking, even if I don't immediately know what you are saying."
Afghan HIND Helicopter
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