After a mountaineer had a serious accident on the Dachstein massif on August 25, the crew of an Alouette III from Aigen im Ennstal (Militär Aktuell reported) had to carry out a difficult rope rescue at night to save the life of the accident victim.
To ensure that pilots are familiar with the special conditions of operations in alpine areas and can carry out such missions successfully, the Austrian Armed Forces regularly conduct high mountain landing courses. These are planned and led by the Air Force and Air Defense Troop School. The courses generally take place twice a year – summer and winter. This year’s high mountain landing course/summer was held from August 24 to September 4. The course was used on the one hand for pilots in training to obtain the operational pilot qualification and on the other hand for further training for operational pilots.
During this course, the pilots practiced take-offs and landings at high altitudes. The performance parameters of the helicopters differ significantly from those of a flight in the lowlands. In the mountains, there are also special meteorological conditions, such as foehn winds, downdrafts and rapidly changing weather conditions – the pilots must be familiar with these conditions. The training courses also serve to familiarize the pilots with the terrain, to explore existing obstacles such as ropes, high-voltage power lines or lifts and to explore and fly over prepared landing sites (e.g. near mountain huts). A total of eleven helicopters of the S-70 Black Hawk, Agusta Bell 212, OH-58 and Alouette III helicopter types used in Austria were deployed, flying and landing in Austria’s alpine terrain above the tree line in the federal states of Tyrol, Salzburg, Carinthia, Styria and Upper Austria. The training area was so large in order to be able to react to bad weather and also to keep noise pollution to a minimum in individual regions.
The training course was based at the Hochfilzen military training area. A special field airfield was operated there. This meant that, in addition to the helicopters, the necessary ground services such as weather advice, air traffic control and a rescue column were also available, ensuring smooth and safe flight operations. “It was a special training course. Despite some poor weather conditions and the coronavirus-related restrictions, the training objectives were achieved and the course was carried out without any accidents,” summarizes course commander Lieutenant Colonel Herbert T.
