Preamble by Ken Sorfleet

The below story deals with initial helicopter training in the early Tac Hel days. It is recounted by Dave Lowdon, the first pilot to be posted to a Kiowa pilot flying position at the time, and well prior to Canada receiving any Kiowas on strength. The photo below of Dave was taken much later in his career as CO of 447 Sqn (on Chinooks) and the complete story predates his service with 427 as SOpsO from Jul 79 to Jun 80 and as Utility Tactical Transport Helicopter (UTTH) Flight Commander (crew photo at end of article was taken May 1981) from Jun 80 to May 82. Nevertheless, his memories of these early Tac Hel days should be of interest to all.

Subsequent to becoming a Lion, Dave also had brief dealings with 427 Squadron and its personnel during his tour as Canadian Forces Liason Officer (CFLO) in Fort Rucker, Alabama, as Senior Staff Officer (SSO) Tac Hel at Air Command, as CO of 89 Rotary Aviation Unit in Honduras (CO after LCol Rick Findey), and as Commander of both 10 Tactical Aviation Group (TAG) and 11 Wing (from Jul 93 to Jul 94). His fondest memories of his tour with 427 were when in Mar 1982 he commanded what was then called the Canadian Allied Command Europe Mobile Force (Land)(AMF(L)) Helicopter Detachment which consisted of almost 75% of 427 and including both Hueys and Kiowas in its first and only full deployment to Norway for NATO Exercise Alloy Express, and in conjunction with similar detachments of Italian, British and German helicopters provided the aviation support to the AMF(L)… but that is another story. On to Dave's memories of his early 'Light Observation Helicopter (LOH) days'. Thanks Dave.

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Back in the Day - One Pilot's Helicopter Story

by Colonel(Ret.) Dave Lowdon

Time is an interesting phenomenon. It certainly goes by fast. It is now over 55 years since I joined the RCAF and 50 years since I reported to my first operational squadron. Looking back 55 years from the date I joined (1965) brings me to the year 1910 - two years after the first flight ever in Canada. That seemed pretty ancient to me at the time and I'm sure I appear equally ancient to someone entering the Air Force today.

I also find it somewhat astonishing to realize we are 50 years on from the inception of the RCAF's tactical helicopter force as we know it today. I was there at the start of this process and the following, although not particularly exciting, will hopefully set out one person's experience as he navigated through some fluid situations to eventually secure a flying position in this new force. Every story needs a title, so I call this,

How to Become a Kiowa Pilot without actually Flying Kiowas

I did not begin my career as an enthusiastic helicopter pilot. My goal, after completing flying training in 1970, was to fly fighters or, as a last resort, transport aircraft for the Air Force. Instead, after a lengthy wait (over a year) at CFB Moose Jaw for an operational posting (which was common for new pilots at that time) I was sent on the Basic Helicopter Course at CFB Portage la Prairie. We learned to fly helicopters on the CH112 Hiller. Small, cramped, slow, with limited tail rotor authority and displaying truly frightening autorotative characteristics, the Hiller did not provide a warm welcome to new helicopter pilots. It was certainly the most difficult aircraft I had encountered so far and in fact it remains the most difficult aircraft I ever flew. Nevertheless, after two months on course and 57 hours of flight time, we graduated as basic helicopter pilots.

As I mentioned, there was a large pool of pilots awaiting operational training at Moose Jaw. As we all patiently waited our turn, it became apparent we were slowly forming into cohorts, based on our length of waiting time, that would move in batches to the next available Operational Training Unit (OTU), whatever that might be. This "first in first out" system may have been the fairest policy in the circumstances but, as time passed, it became highly impersonal and all previous indications of aptitude and/or desire seemed to be subordinated to this singular focus on seniority. In my case, it was apparent that, like it or not, my cohort was heading to the next Sea King OTU. Not wanting (for reasons I cannot satisfactorily explain even today) to fly Sea Kings, I let it be known I would exercise my right, as a former member of the RCAF, not to serve at sea. I was kindly (and as it turned out correctly) advised that this could be a "bad career move." However, at this point in my short career bad career moves were more or less my only talent so I persisted. In the end, no one made me sign a formal declaration. However, my basic helicopter course mates moved on to Sea King operational training and I was posted to 408 Tactical Helicopter Squadron at CFB Edmonton in August 1971 as a Kiowa pilot.

It was an interesting time. 408 Squadron had a long and storied history already but it was now re-establishing itself in a completely different and largely unknown field as a tactical helicopter squadron- one of several such re-forming squadrons in the rapidly expanding 10 Tactical Air Group (10TAG). 10TAG itself was part of Mobile Command (the new name for the recently deceased Canadian Army). The RCAF, also recently deceased, did not have a successor at the time (Air Command came later) and seemed to exist more or less only as a concept or perhaps a state of mind. But I digress. 408 Squadron had officially re-formed on January 1, 1971. I am sure a lot of great work had been done since then but to be honest, when I arrived it still looked like it had only started two weeks ago. Our new purpose built hangar was still under construction and unusable. We were operating out of a few offices borrowed from and/or shared with 450 Squadron's western detachment. When I arrived, 408 only possessed four Twin Hueys, two of which were permanently grounded awaiting a post production modification. The first Kiowa was not expected to arrive for another year! Well played, career managers. Everyone was very welcoming but they were all wondering why I was there now and what I was supposed to do for the next year. So was I. However, the Commanding Officer (CO) solved the problem in short order. Within two weeks he advised me there was a spare position on the next Twin Huey operational training course if I wanted it. What a lucky break- of course I did! "Remember, you are still a Kiowa pilot though" he said as I left his office. With that, the 408 Squadron Kiowa Flight (me) set off for training on the Twin Huey in September 1971.

Officially called the Canadian Utility Helicopter (CUH-1N)(1N designation indicates the first twin engine version) Category III Pilot Course, Twin Huey training was conducted by 403 Squadron, then operating out of some of the tank hangars at the northern end of the CFB Petawawa base area. This was perhaps (I'm not sure) the first full Twin Huey course conducted by 403. Most, if not all, previous Twin Huey pilots had been trained by 403 on the single engine Huey and then received a short conversion onto the Twin. There were eight students on my course. Naturally, the other seven were "real" Huey pilots. I saw no reason to mention to anyone that I was not.

The Twin Huey was bigger, faster, better equipped and much easier to fly than the Hiller and the course was interesting and enjoyable. I won't describe the flying in great detail except to say the course was designed to produce a helicopter pilot who could do anything. The curriculum therefore included reconnaissance techniques and a few airborne artillery shoots. It also incorporated a short (about 5 day) Land Environment Training (LET) section. This was designed to introduce Air Force officers, who had not had the benefit of the new unified basic training system, to the Army. Our LET consisted of a visit to CFB Gagetown in conjunction with its big firepower demonstration. We stayed in barracks, drove around to various demonstration sites, helped out by simulating VIPs at the dress rehearsal and then attended (and were duly impressed by) the actual demonstration, which was spectacular. After this pleasant interlude, we returned to Petawawa and graduated as Cat III Huey pilots in mid December 1971.

On my return to 408 Squadron, I simply moved into the Huey Flight. There was nowhere else to go really, as Kiowas were still many months away and no further Kiowa Flight personnel had yet appeared. I received my Category II Twin Huey qualification in short order, participated in the evaluation that declared the Squadron operationally ready and shortly after that, in mid March 1972, the Squadron deployed for a 6 week exercise with the Canadian Airborne Regiment in Jamaica. Jamaica - warm weather, good flying, a well thought out Squadron R & R policy - this Army flying was getting better by the day! On my return from Jamaica at the end of April, I was informed that Kiowa checkouts were now being conducted by 403 Squadron. So on May 1, 1972, after 10 months on squadron and with 140 hours on the Twin Huey, the 408 Squadron Kiowa Flight (still just me) set out to meet its first Kiowa.

At this time 403 Squadron was in the process of moving to Gagetown but my Kiowa checkout took place in Petawawa. The trip into Petawawa was interesting in that the Highway 17 bridge in the village was swept away that day. There was no bypass at the time so the Greyhound bus dropped me off on the village side of the Petawawa River. On the advice of locals I completed the trip to the Base on foot using the tracks of the CP main line railway bridge about a kilometre upstream. To be fair, they did mention that CP was still running a full train schedule - whatever that was. Don't try this at home kids - it's a lot more nerve-wracking than you might think in the middle of what turned out to be a pretty long span of an active railway bridge. It was not my smartest decision but after 10 months as a Kiowa pilot I guess I was determined to see an actual Kiowa. The rest of the checkout was more straight forward. It was a very basic syllabus designed to qualify me (and a few staff officers on separate but similar checkouts) to start and fly the aircraft in order to pick up Kiowas from the Bell factory in Fort Worth and deliver them back to various squadrons. The 403 Squadron instructors themselves had mostly received training from Bell Helicopter, while my future Kiowa colleagues all received their qualification on the Basic Helicopter Course, where the Kiowa had by now replaced the Hiller. There were no autorotations on this course as the 403 instructors were not yet qualified to instruct on them. Ten days and 12 hours later I returned to 408 as a (at least officially) qualified Kiowa pilot. No one seemed to care - still no Kiowas in sight. The second half of May was taken up with Huey flying. At the end of May I left for Gagetown to undergo LET II training.

Remember my previous Twin Huey LET training? Well Kiowa pilots were obviously a lot more serious about it. For them there were two courses - LET I and LET II. LET I seemed designed to replicate infantry basic training and involved a month of running, standing in the rain, night marches, mud, inconvenience, etc, It all sounded very unpleasant and I understand there were some near mutinies during this month - a lot of the new Kiowa pilots were already experienced aircrew and not all of them fully appreciated the opportunity to experience basic infantry training at this point in their careers. As a method of incentivizing new Army pilots, Jamaica seemed the better idea. However, this was all somewhat theoretical for me as my previous LET experience on the Twin Huey course meant that, unlike these far more senior guys, I was excused LET I. I joined my fellow Kiowa pilots for the more gentlemanly LET II. This involved two weeks of skulking about in tracked armoured personnel carriers learning ground recce techniques and tactics and two weeks of directing artillery fire. Actually for the most part this was 81MM mortar fire and, when not directing fire, we set up and fired the mortars as other students observed and directed. My course mates and I would have made a pretty good mortar platoon by the end of June.

I checked back into 408 Squadron but a week later I was off to Portage la Prairie for the Kiowa autorotation check I missed earlier. My biggest problem here was remembering how to start the Kiowa, a subject on which I was presumed to be knowledgeable - ("Go ahead and start it up Dave, I'll be out shortly"). For my first start I enlisted the aid of the servicing fireguard, who was quite helpful, and the two of us managed to get the rotor turning. After that I was OK by myself and the autorotations were easy. I don't mean to go on about this but I have to say that doing autos in the Kiowa at the same place I had done them in the Hiller less than a year previously was a revelation. It almost felt like the Kiowa could autorotate upwards. In any event, after two days and 3 more hours on the Kiowa I was good to go.

Meanwhile, back at 408, actual Kiowa Flight activity was starting to occur. Kiowa pilots, some of them my LET II course mates, started to arrive and organizational activity began. I missed all of this though as I returned to the Huey Flight, where I was now part of the Huey air demonstration crew. This was not necessarily an indication of skill. I think the main reasons for my selection were being in the right place at the right time and alert volunteering. Nevertheless it was a great summer. Three Huey crews from three different squadrons made up the team, which was in turn part of a larger (about one hour) flying demonstration of pretty much every aircraft in the Air Force inventory. Through July and August 1972, this group attended the four major Canadian air shows at Moose Jaw, Abbotsford, Moncton and Toronto. In addition to the demonstrations, the Hueys did a lot of air show VIP flying and performed two life saving medical evacuations from Wiarton to Toronto, incidentally making the first operational landings on the newly built roof top heliport of the Toronto Sick Kids Hospital. September and the first half of October were spent in Wainwright with the Huey Flight in support of 1 Brigade's summer concentration.

Returning from all that I found that our first five Kiowas had arrived in August and, although no one was operationally trained as yet, the Kiowa flight was starting to make itself useful as a non tactical air taxi service. Business was picking up rapidly. Moreover, I and seven other Kiowa pilots were leaving tomorrow to pick up the next four Kiowas. This trip was another interesting experience. The Bell factory at Fort Worth Texas was huge and then turning out Kiowas and many different versions of the Huey at astonishing rates. We picked up our four brand new aircraft (mine was 136268) and set off for Edmonton. The trip was more interesting for its stops than for the actual flying. We had a five day weather delay at Fort Riley Kansas, where we learned how to navigate the extremely complex state drinking laws of the day. After that, unforeseen headwinds necessitated an emergency diversion to Offut AFB. Offut was the headquarters of SAC, then at the height of its power and fame, and our short notice diversion ended with us surrounded by a large number of armed and very serious guards. We were advised that it was bad form to just "pop in" to Offut but since we were (a) Canadian and (b) Army we were presumed to know no better and were let off with a warning (and some fuel). The last stop of note was Regina. When asked "Anything to declare?" we all said "Yes - our aircraft." Each Kiowa was subject to import duty on arrival in Canada (about $200,000 each I understand). Fortunately it was all prepaid and did not count against our personal allowance. After a large burst of customs paperwork we were off again and arrived in Edmonton with 408's sixth to ninth Kiowas on October 25, 1972. This little adventure added 19 more Kiowa hours, which more than doubled my total Kiowa time.

At this point, my own situation came into question. The first Kiowa Flight Commander had arrived and was starting to ask why I did not seem to be working for him. My Category I upgrade on the Huey was being deferred as a potential misuse of time and resources on a future Kiowa pilot. Meanwhile, because I was a Twin Huey pilot I was not being scheduled for any Kiowa flights. As a Kiowa pilot, I now had by far the greatest amount of time on Squadron and by far the lowest amount of time on type. Overall, I had somehow managed to become stalled simultaneously in two different flights. A Kiowa operational training course in Gagetown was on the horizon for some time in 1973. To be honest, I was deeply uninterested in starting anew on another round of courses, conversions and op evals leading to operational readiness a year or so later. Once was enough for me, The situation had to be resolved so, armed with a ringing endorsement from the Huey Flight Commander (actual words - you can tell him I'm OK with it) I sat down with my Kiowa Flight Commander, Maj Frank (Straight Arrow) Bayne, Frank listened patiently while I told him that my returning to the Kiowa world would be a huge loss to the Huey Flight without a corresponding gain to the Kiowa Flight, a severe set back for the Squadron and that it might (I wasn't sure) upset the cosmic balance of the universe. At the end of all this and more he said OK. Again, I was lucky. Other bosses might well not have been so indulgent. Two OKs were all I needed though. The CO agreed and interceded with the career managers. At the end of December 1972 I was officially transferred onto the strength of the 408 Squadron Huey Flight.

Thus, after 16 months and with 34 hours on type (plus 442 hours on the Twin Huey), my official Kiowa career came to an end. I logged a few more Kiowa hours over the rest of my career, most of them in two tours at HQ 10TAG, where they were a common mode of staff transport. I eventually became the 10TAG Group Commander and my last flight in the Air Force (and now that I think of it, my last flight at the controls) was on July 25, 1994 in Kiowa 136234. That made my total time on type 165.5 hours (plus 3,574 hours on the Huey, but that's another story) and was a fitting end to the career of 408 Squadron's (and possibly 10TAG's) first official Kiowa pilot.