Sea Training Pacific onboard for Montreal CH-148 Cyclone program

An Air Workup group with the new CH-148 Cyclone.

Fifteen members of Sea Training Pacific had the pleasure of working with  HMCS Montreal to assist in an Air Workup with the new CH-148 Cyclone from March 2 to 4, immediately following a Directed Workup program. 

 
This particular program was a milestone within the Royal Canadian Navy and Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) as it marked the first 100 percent CAF Air Detachment to perform trials and evaluations onboard with the CH-148 Cyclone.  

The Helicopter Operational Test and Evaluation Facility, which is based out of 12 Wing, CFB Shearwater, have been busily testing and developing this new capability since the first models of the CH-148 were introduced.  

This most recent step involves flying the Cyclone through a series of flight regimes and deck evolutions, known as Operational Test and Evaluation, and integrating an Air Detachment onboard HMCS Montreal in order to progress the data collection and trials necessary for further development.   

This Operational Test and Evaluation process is critical to progressing this exciting new capability towards a fully mission-capable maritime helicopter.  

It was fantastic to see the Helicopter Operational Test and Evaluation Facility Air detachment come into its own in the early stages as the new department on the ship. It was also great to see the ship and detachment, sailors, pilots and avionics technicians come to a commwon understanding of the safety and emergency procedures, not to mention the difference in routine flying operations, that will be required when operating with Cyclone onboard.

 
For some junior RCAF technicians onboard, this was their first experience at sea as an Air Detachment, and they needed to leverage the experience of those with more sea time.  This is where the work we did as Sea Training was most enjoyable; it was truly a pleasure for myself and for our team, who have a vast amount of time watching ships operate with Sea Kings, to not only see the new CH148 in action, but to see the newer generation of officers, sailors and aviators start to take ownership of the new problems to solve, to recognize where the work was going to be required to better integrate and to apply themselves diligently to the task at hand.

We wish the Air Det and the crew of the HMCS Montreal all the best and god speed, and we’ll be following your continued work with the Cyclone with great interest.  

MWO Fabian Kenny
Sea Training Air Maintenance Supervisor