The Hills are Alive

In the National Police Force training young pilots are introduced to operating at the limits of man and machine in the mountains.

40 years in a cockpit bring a lot of experience and one does not expect to run into any really scary situations after all those hours in the air. Who ever would like to have their mind changed in that respect should join in for a mountain flying course with the National police force. To approach the needle top of a mountain at 7000 ft right at the performance limit of an EC 135 with the intent to land on it is an adventure for cold blooded people. To make it even more interesting we went up just after a cold front with gusts up to 50 knots.

It takes some trust to sit behind the crew, looking down the abyss just after landing on this tiny plateau. Only after several of these maneuvers I gain confidence and start to relax.

This scenario is part of the 27th mountain flying course for helicopter pilots and engineers of the national police force. It is late June and 19 young pilots and 5 engineers are training in the alpine region of Wendelstein just after completion of their commercial helicopter licence. The challenging program consists of 5 modules....