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U.S. Pilots, High-Tech Aircraft Triumph Over Afghan Weather, Terrain
Thursday, July 18, 2002
By Linda D. Kozaryn
American Forces Press Service

Because of its unique capabilities, the MH-47E has been incredibly successful in the Afghanistan theater, he stressed. "The return on investment ... for what it can do for us, the special operations ground force, is so incredible," Capt. Cochie said. The aircraft has a digital cockpit with redundant navigational systems. Flight routes are planned on a laptop computer at the tactical operations center, put on a card and uploaded into the aircraft. A moving digital map display supplements standard maps. "It's a great process and a great airframe to maintain situational awareness," he said.

WASHINGTON -- AFIS
"The Taliban was our greatest threat, but the weather was our greatest challenge and hazard," an Army helicopter pilot told reporters at the Pentagon today.

Horrible sandstorms and dense fog plagued elite Army elite special operations MH-47E Chinook helicopter crews in the early days of Operation Enduring Freedom, said Capt. Kevin Cochie of Ashland, Ohio. But U.S. pilots took advantage of Chinook's high-tech radar and other features to break through the weather and put special operations forces on the ground, he said.

Cochie is with the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment at Fort Campbell, Ky. Last October, he was with the first wave of U.S. soldiers to go to Afghanistan. Planning and coordinating air missions involving Green Berets, Navy SEALS and other ground forces was his order of the day.

Accompanied by two soldiers from the 5th Special Forces Group, Cochie met reporters today to describe some of the equipment they used in Afghanistan and to talk about some of their personal experiences. The briefing marked the 50th anniversary of Army Special Forces and the 20th anniversary of the aviation regiment.

Prior to operations in Afghanistan, Cochie said, the 160th's Chinook pilots had never penetrated zero visibility weather at training flight altitudes. "When we started trying to get teams on the ground, we ran into close to zero visibility weather every single night and we ended up turning the aircraft back."

In the training environment, the pilots observed ceiling and visibility safety minimums. "To go into combat is one thing," he said. "To penetrate weather that's almost down to zero visibility without ever having done it in training was a pretty steep learning curve for all of our crews."
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2002 © The United States Department of Defense.

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