Advanced Helicopter Training

The flight line of Millington Regional Airport in 2004, the parked TH-57 Sea Rangers were evacuated from NAS Whiting Field to avoid Hurricane Ivan.

Advanced Helicopter Training is the last phase of flight school for Navy and Marine Corps helicopter pilots. Training is accomplished at NAS Whiting Field in Milton, Florida. All training is done in Bell TH-57 Sea Rangers. Advanced training is approximately six months long, and is divided into ten phases:

• Ground school: aircraft systems, local course rules, emergency procedures
• Familiarization: hovering, basic helicopter maneuvers
• Tactics: confined-area landings, external load operations, high-speed landings
• Trans-fams: familiarization in the instrument capable TH-57C model
• Basic instruments (BIs): common instrument scans
• Radio instruments (RIs): instrument approaches, basic instrument navigation
• Visual/instrument navigation: cross-country navigation
• Low-level navigation: visual navigation below 500 feet AGL
• Formation: section formation maneuvers
• Night familiarization/NVGs

Three squadrons perform advanced helicopter training: HT-8 Eightballers, HT-18 Vigilant Eagles and HT-28 Hellions. Training is also done for the United States Coast Guard and for the navies and marines of several allied countries, including Italy, Spain, and Germany.