Vital Training For Hercules Crew
Ministry of Defence
www.mod.uk
5th September 2007
Operational training is vital for the crews of the RAF's Hercules aircraft who spend much of their time deployed around the world providing a key operational capability to the UK defence effort.

This week some of those crews have been carrying out specialist training on a quiet beach in South Wales. On a three mile stretch of beach at Pembrey Sands in Carmarthenshire a C-130 Hercules from RAF Lyneham flew in to undertake what those in the Hercules world would consider a routine but essential training sortie.

To those who are not so familiar with the intricacies of flying training, landing an aircraft of around 50-tonnes on a beach might have seemed a bit odd. However the purpose of this type of training is to prepare Hercules crews for deploying to operational theatres where there might not always be a 'normal', or conventional, runway.

Hercules crews must undertake these sorties to maintain their currency and to ensure they are ready for deployment. The training can occur at a number of sites around the UK and on a variety of surfaces, both day and night with crews using night vision goggles.

The training takes place around every three to four months, depending on aircrew currency and the training requirement. The key benefits for aircrew are that on open ground a pilot can lose 'perspective' and so it's important to practise regularly in order to ensure crews are familiar with the nuances of landing on non runways. With far fewer visual clues for aircrew to pick up the potential hazards are numerous.

In terms of landing an aircraft on a surface such as a beach, the strip itself must be hard enough for the aircaft to land. Tactical air controllers use a penetrometer to gauge if the landing area will take the weight and also to check there are no other hazards such as debris on the ground.

Squadron Leader Graeme Gault, a Flight Commander on 30 Squadron, described the reasons for using the beach: "A lot of the training during flying is getting used to certain types of 'picture'. When you are flying straight and level, there is a certain 'picture' you get from the pilot's seat and once you have this 'picture' in your mind, you can judge the altitude of the aircraft without reference to the instruments.

"It is the same when you are landing. Because runways tend to be of similar dimensions, you get used to a certain 'picture' throughout your descent. Landing on natural surfaces (ie an unprepared 'strip' which could be sand, grass, snow or ice) means that you no longer have those visual clues to aid your approach.

"We therefore come to places like Pembrey so that the crews can practice the techniques necessary to allow them to land safely in a more austere environment. A 'strip' is marked out by members of Tactical Air Traffic Control using day-glo panels with a touch-down area only 500ft x 90ft and the entire strip is only 3,000ft in length."

For Sqn Ldr Gault this type of training provides welcome variety to more 'conventional' flying: "This makes the flying challenging and requires precise piloting and greater crew co-operation. It is a great feeling to be able to operate in a rather more unusual area and extend our skills!" Another member of the crew involved in the training added: "It is exactly the sort of thing we get involved in every day in Afghanistan. It's a skill that every pilot will need to have these days."

Pembrey Sands Air Weapons Range is primarily an air-to-ground bombing and strafing practice area with 1700 acres of marsh and dunes, 850 acres of forest and 500 acres of tidal beach. A TLZ may be established on the beach, subject to the tides, with a 7000 ft runway