32SQN

After a 44 year hiatus, the squadron reactivated, this time at East Sale and now with the Hawker Siddeley HS.748 transferred from 34SQN. The newly reborn 32SQN was responsible to Air Lift Group, through 84WG, for light transport support and navigator and RAN observer training on behalf of what was then called the School of Air Navigation.

Fast forward to today, and the HS.748s have been long retired, the School of Air Navigation is now the School of Air Warfare, navigators are now called air combat officers and observers aviation warfare officers, and the squadron is administered by Air Force Training Wing on behalf of Air Force Training Group (AFTG).

32SQN today operates eight modern, Rockwell Collins Pro-Line 2 glass cockpit equipped Beech King Air 350s leased from Hawer Pacific Aviation. The aircraft are finished in a smart all white scheme and proudly wear the unit’s badge featuring a sulphur crested cockatoo with a Southern Cross background.

The squadron has three main roles: light transport duties and sub-VIP flights, pilot development and the support of the School of Air Warfare (SAW). The great majority of the squadron’s flying time is allocated to the airborne training of SAW students on air combat officer (ACO) courses and the Navy’s aviation warfare officer (AvWO) courses.

School Of Air Warfare

SAW occupies a modern, large complex at RAAF East Sale, in which it carries out its mission to ‘to train and develop Air Warfare professionals for mission command excellence in a networked environment’. During the year, SAW will conduct a maximum of four ACO courses with 11 students in each, in parallel with two AvWO courses for the Navy.

After a common course, students are streamed into various ACO specialisations, such as air battlefield management, maritime patrol and response (MPR) and air combat and tactical support (ACATS). Students from the latter two streams will, upon the completion of their study at SAW, then convert to the Wedgetail, Super Hornet, C-130H and AP-3C.

According to SAW’s commanding officer, WGCDR Jason Ling, the increasing sophistication of the RAAF’s air combat assets means ACOs need to have a broader skillset to enable their given platform to perform successfully. “ACO’s aren’t navigators, they don’t really need to look at a map,” WGCDR Ling said. “We’re looking more at mission commanders and air warriors, if you like, that need to be au fait with systems and how we fight our wars in a network centric environment.”

To further enhance its training processes, SAW will benefit from the Air 5232 ACOTS (Air Combat Officer Training System) program, a definitive, rolling set of upgrades to ACO training, due to be decided upon in the next two years.

But in the meantime, the ACO Capability Assurance Program was initiated to provide a more time critical upgrade to SAW training systems. As part of that program, different solutions to ACO training were studied overseas, including the USAF’s Combat Systems Officer school in Florida. Eventually, it was decided to use software locally developed by Cirrus Technologies, that was fielded under budget and within the relatively short schedule of two years.

At the heart of ACO CAP – also dubbed ACOTS – is the desk mounted, Windows based multifunction display unit upon which future ACOs and AvWOs run practice missions both on land and in the air. Actual flights are taken in the back of a 32SQN King Air, where the console is installed. ACOTS provides the student with simulated aircraft systems and features basic symbology, a rudimentary FMS, ASI, DME readout, weather radar and a FLIR picture.

A typical crew model used on training flights sees two pilots flying the aircraft, a SAW instructor operating software from a laptop and two students at consoles running through various training scenarios.

WGCDR Ling outlines what students are expected to have mastered by their seventh flight:

“We would expect them to brief an instrument departure, takeoff, using these instruments to tell the pilots where to go, keep on track, tell [the pilots] what power settings and airspeed to set the aircraft at, brief what’s happening at turn points. They’ll talk to ATC, work out descent points, participate in the briefs, go through checklists, brief and direct the instrument approach, for example, we might go into Canberra and do an ILS, fly somewhere else on an air route direct. Students will also do all the flight planning, participate in a simulated emergency, do a divert to somewhere else they’re not expecting, do the approach and do a missed approach. And they should be proficient enough to do that without the instructor doing anything, and they should be able to dodge the weather as well. And that’s in the basic phase. And none of that is possible without the excellent support we get from 32SQN.”

Naval Personnel

Navy has five personnel based at the SAW, including one LTCDR and four instructors, maintaining a long established presence at the base that goes back to joint navigator/observer training on the HS.748.

Currently, SAW trains 12 Navy aviation warfare officers over two courses a year, where they learn aerodynamics and aviation fundamentals, SAR, navigation, flight safety and emergency procedures, meteorology, basic communications, radar, weapons systems and electronic combat. Students destined for service on Seahawks as AvWOs then fly 28 sorties in the front right hand seat of the King Air, with a pilot in the left hand seat and an ACO instructor in the jump seat. These flights develop copilot and navigation skills, and are followed by an applied, anti surface phase, with 10 ‘events’ or simulated surface contacts.

Upon leaving East Sale as aviation warfare officers, students then progress to Squirrel training with 723SQN at HMAS Albatross. Should they convert successfully, they are posted to Seahawks as a basic tactical coordinator and copilots.

Navy instructors at SAW are also qualified to train not only prospective Navy AvWOs, but also advanced stream Air Force ACOs, who prepare for fast jet conversion by undertaking a series of flights in the right hand seat of the King Air.

There are also two Navy pilots on staff with 32SQN.

32 Squadron

32SQN shares its East Sale base with its parent organisation, the Air Force Training Wing. Both the wing and the squadron are part of the Air Force Training Group (one of the RAAF’s six Force Element Groups) which is based in Laverton, Victoria.

The squadron is currently under the command of WGCDR Peter Donaldson, who comes to the job via assignments on the C-130H, Falcon 900, Boeing BBJ and PC-9. As commanding officer, he oversees the 5700 hours the squadron flies a year, a total split between the unit’s three main taskings: pilot development, air logistical support (ALS) and SAW support missions.

As well as support ACO and AvWO training, 32SQN conducts its pilot conversion courses onto the King Air.

“We leverage off the King Air sim operated by CAE in Dallas. We do ground school here, we do about 9 GF (general flying) and IF (instrument flying) missions: circuits, aerial work, and instrument approaches, and then some low flying. We then do six flights in the sim, then we come back and do an instrument rating test (IRT) and route navigation. The whole process takes about three months.”

While in Dallas, aircrew undergoing conversion to the King Air are instructed by an RAAF QFI, with CAE providing nothing more than contracted simulator hours. While in the simulator, aircrew practice anything from handling to emergency procedures such as engine malfunctions and pressurisation failures.

Upon returning from the US, 32SQN aircrew undergo further training, as explained by XO FLTLT Shane Rowe:

“Post sim flying, there’s elements of low flying and valley flying or mountainous flying as it applies to multi engine flying – we’re not interested in the tactics of trying to fly along valleys and below mountain tops, but what we are interested in is the safety of flight if we lose an engine, for example. The biggest thing that we try to get across to the ab initio student is ‘it’s all about the avionics’. They need to get used to the level of automation on this aircraft, because they don’t get any exposure to that on pilot training.”

32SQN’s King Air conversion process differs from the RAAF’s other main user of the type, Air Lift Group’s 38SQN in Townsville. Due to the differing avionics systems of each squadron’s respective King Air types (38SQN’s aircraft have the more modern Proline 21 suite), a common conversion course is not deemed feasible. Currently 38SQN’s King Air conversion course is provided by FlightSafety International under a long term contract, and is tailored to providing pilots with training for the squadron’s air logistics support mission.

32SQN has begun the process of acquiring a King Air simulator, to be locally based and operated by a private contractor. The force multiplying effect of this capability goes beyond the obvious – Navy AvWOs will be able to conduct a larger proportion of their training in the simulator’s front right hand seat, freeing up 32SQN aircraft for other taskings.

Serving Saw

With the introduction of the ACOTS, more complex training scenarios can be put to students sitting at consoles in the rear of the King Air. Typically, a SAW instructor runs a simulated mission from a laptop connected to the trainee ACO’s station, upon which they can see basic flight instruments and navigation headings and a FLIR image. The pilots of the aircraft are privy to the scenario, and are communicating with the student as he or she directs the King Air as required by the scenario. 32SQN pilots therefore have to manage communications with the SAW instructor and student, while managing to safely fly the aircraft.

“There’s lots of different bits of information coming for different people in the aircraft, and we’re all trying to manage the situation to achieve the best outcome,” FLTLT Rowe said. “I wouldn’t say we’re unique, but what we do have that others don’t is the pressures of it being undergrad training, and because we’re not involved in the instruction we have to do our utmost so that the real world doesn’t interfere with the student and doesn’t cause them problems.”

Missions in support of SAW take the squadron’s King Airs far and wide, with deployments to Townsville and Nowra being used to test students in unfamiliar airspace. Typically, however, the bulk of SAW training sorties are flown over the large tracts of uncongested airspace surrounding East Sale, with Bass Strait being used to familiarise SAW students with low level overwater operations.

Hawker Pacific

Like 38SQN’s aircraft, 32SQN’s King Airs are leased from Hawker Pacific under the terms of contract that expires in 2016. Engineering support and contract management is the remit of DMO’s TASPO, or Training Aircraft Support Project Office, while Hawker Pacific is the aircraft’s Aircraft Engineering and Maintanace Organisation, performing phased servicing at RAAF East Sale and modifications at its facility at Bankstown. The contract stipulates a fixed amount of flight hours, but WGCDR Donaldson is quick to point out, the flexibility of the relationship between the squadron and service provider allows a quick response to unforeseen operational demands.

“We have three configurations,” WGCDR Donaldson said. “We have the five aircraft which have the sims and the ACOTS in the back, and we have the transport configuration, which has the jump seat and seats in the back and that’s used for Navy and Air Force Front Right Hand Seat training.

“As a result of the Queensland floods, TASPO and Hawker Pacific did an absolutely fantastic job and gave us a flexible configuration which meant we could carry passengers and light cargo. The engineering calculations were made in Bankstown, and the adjustment to the aircraft’s seating layout was done here at East Sale. It gave us the same seating configuration as the 38SQN King Airs and they turned that around in a couple of days.”

Given the squadron’s taskings, aircraft utilisation and the careful management of scarce airframes occupies the minds both the squadron’s CO and Hawker Pacific greatly. On any given day, one of the squadron’s eight aircraft is off-line, undergoing its 200 hours phased maintenance. Of the remaining aircraft, four aircraft are used to meet SAW training requirement, two are used for 32SQN training, and one is available as a spare.

Pilot Development

Another important role undertaken by 32SQN is pilot development. In effect 32SQN acts as a lead in squadron to heavier types operated primarily by Air Lift Group, such as the C-17 and C-130. In order to acclimatise pilots, the King Air is not flown as a King Air as such, but rather a generic large aeroplane, weighing, as it does, above 5700kg and having full autopilot, GPS/FMS and pressurisation. According to WGCDR Donaldson, the aircraft is “a great learning aircraft. It does the same speed as a Herc, it feels like a Herc”. He explained that procedures and practices are being standardised with 38SQN in an effort to facilitate the conversion of King Air aircrew onto larger air lift types and in some cases, the AP-3C.

Pilot development has been greatly accelerated by a recent decision to allow first tour pilots to conduct ‘Front Seat Aviation Training’ of SAW students. In short, over the course of 18 months, newly converted aircrew undertake simulator training courses every six months aimed at upgrading a their categorisations. Within three years of leaving pilot training, flightcrew are earning valuable command hours in the King Air and instructing front right hand seat students in the fundamentals of copiloting.

“Instead of importing our supervisors, we’re transitioning to being self sufficient,” said FLTLT Rowe. “We have a first period of boggies (first tour pilots) coming up to the two year mark now and they will fill in those senior pilot jobs in the next year. It’s good for the guys because it gives them development and they go onto bigger aeroplanes, and it’s good for the Air Force because it has a resource where it’s getting guys who have good quality hours on a modern aeroplane, early command and a great development. That’s what we’re about.”

The Future

Next year will see the celebration of a number of milestones for the squadrons – it will pass 35,000 hours of accident free flying, it will receive squadron colours marking 25 years of continuous operation, and it will celebrate the 70th anniversary of its establishment with a function at the squadron’s headquarters.

With a multirole aircraft type that is steadily growing in stature in the eyes of the ADF, and offering range of vital missions that demand intense flying from its aircrew, 32SQN is carving out its unique place in the RAAF’s Order of Battle. As WGCDR Donaldson sums it up: “There’s SAW and there’s 32. 32 is an independent squadron, and our primary customer is SAW, but we think of ourselves as an independent squadron, with a proud war history. 32 was on a merry-go-round of being a SAW flight, part of ALG, part of ATW, we’re really working hard now to develop that culture of independence and being proud of who we are.”