Page 34 - Australian Defence Magazine May 2022

34 DEFENCE BUSINESS PLAN CORELLA
MAY 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
OTHER CONTRACTS AND TRAINING
Toll Helicopters operates a fleet of eight AW139s on behalf of the NSW and ACT Ambulance Services and also holds a contract to provide a pair of Bell 412 to the Army Avia- tion Training Centre at Oakey, primarily for Search and Rescue coverage.
Like the AW139s, the Bells are on contract until June 2023 with the option of two one-year extensions and be- yond that, the ADF is looking to streamline its civil-con- tracted SAR operations around the country and this may provide future opportunities to expand the
AW139 fleet.
Toll also maintains a state-of-the-art
training centre at Bankstown, which in- cludes an AW139 Full Flight Simulator (FFS) – the only OEM-endorsed FFS of its kind in Australia – and a Helicopter Under- water Escape Trainer (HUET).
“The key impediment to achieving a genuine Army Re- serve aviation flying capability has been the risks associ- ated with aircrew operating two highly complex helicopter types and the potential for negative habit transfer, and also operating under two different airworthiness and regula- tory regimes,” Gunn explained. “However with the AW139 proving its non-combat, multi-role effectiveness over the last 12 months, and Army’s AICH crews being trained to, licenced under and operating predominantly to a civil rule set, this constraint is fading.”
The Plan Corella contract was signed on a
Friday and the first course of pilots and air-
crew arrived at the ACE Training Centre on
the following Monday to begin a two-week
AW139 type rating course ground school
period, followed by two weeks of simulator
flight training and then a two-week Operational Type Tran- sition (OTT) course on the real helicopter in Townsville.
“So, the question is, how can we make the best use of that latent capacity to generate more effort, par- ticularly for domestic tasks? To have a similar – or the same – aircraft for those people to fly when they put their uniform
on makes a lot of sense to generate additional capacity.” ■
BELOW: Army aircrew from the 5th Aviation Regiment prepare one of the AW139s at RAAF Base Amberley as part of Operation Flood Assist 2022
“A SECONDARY ROLE FOR THE TWO AW139S IS TO PROVIDE SUPPORT FOR ARMY AND HUMANITARIAN AID AND DISASTER RELIEF (HADR) EFFORTS”
In his From The Source interview in ADM’s June 2021 issue, Head Land Capa- bility Major General Simon Stuart said that Plan Corella is a “neat way” of addressing a range of current and emerging require- ments. “We are, through our Future-Ready Workforce efforts, taking a really close look at what we call the Total Workforce model. That’s better use of the combination of full- and part-time soldiers,” MAJGEN Stuart said. “We know that ex-Army aviators work in industry and generally fly certain types of civil helicopters.
FUTURE OPPORTUNITIES
In addition to the aforementioned ADF SAR helicopter contract and the possibility of the third AW139 option be- ing taken up, Defence has flagged the possibility of har- nessing the potential of the ex-Army and Navy helicopter crews now working in the civil sector.
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