(Australian) Army pilots earn stripes in France

The Australian ^ | January 11, 2008 | Peter Wilson

[sukhoi-30mki]

Army pilots earn stripes in France

Peter Wilson

January 11, 2008

THE growing role of Europe in Australian military planning has taken another step with the first two Australian pilots completing a French military training program on Eurocopter's new Tiger helicopter.

The training of Captain Paul Donaldson and Captain Hamish Felton-Taylor at a French-German base at Le Luc in southern France follows a string of victories for European arms makers in outgunning their US rivals for major Australian contracts.

The US remains unchallenged as Australia's main military ally but if the two Australian Army pilots at Le Luc had their way, more of their colleagues would find themselves working closely with the French.

"It has been an absolutely fantastic experience," said Captain Donaldson, 28, who will be based in one of the two planned Tiger squadrons in Darwin and may eventually find himself flying in Afghanistan alongside French NATO pilots.

"We have got on tremendously well with the French trainers and the aircraft itself is just awesome."

Other Australian Army pilots have had civilian-run training on the heavily armed reconnaissance helicopter, but Captain Donaldson and Captain Felton-Taylor, a flying instructor at Oakey in Queensland, lived in Provence for four months while going through the same military program as French and German pilots.

"It has been a little challenging because they are the first pilots we have ever trained entirely in English but we have all enjoyed the experience," said their main instructor, Captain Thierry Hartmann.

"They are both excellent pilots and they seemed to enjoy themselves so much that I don't think they had any trouble adjusting to living in France," Captain Hartmann added.

The Australians were invited to the European academy after expensive delays in training pilots for the Australian Army's new Tigers.

[sukhoi-30mki]

Australian Tigers testing Hellfire-II missile(Dec of 2005)

[alfa6]

Looks kinda like Airwolf:-)

Regards

alfa6 ;>}