Deck Landings: Soldiers Practicing On The USNS Dahl To Certify As Air Crew Members And Pilots

Soldiers have participated in the recent deck landings practice.

The deck landings practice in which soldiers participated in was to enable them to be certified as air crew members or as pilots. (Photo: Military Sealift Command – Navy.mil)

Practice With Deck Landings

Soldiers from the 2nd Aviation Regiment practiced deck landings with UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters on the USNS Dahl.

Six aircraft crews did single-spot deck landings to certify aircrew members and pilots.

The training for deck landings event aimed to qualify or reset crews on DLQ currency and improve maritime air movement capability and readiness.

The deck landings event also strengthened interoperability between MSCO-K, USNS Dahl, and 2-2 CAB.

USNS Dahl conducted inventory and inspections of flight deck equipment and simulated flight deck operations in preparation for the deck landings event.

The deck landings event was executed safely and resulted in six qualified crews.

According to a published article by PACOM (.mil), Commander Patrick J. Moore praised the joint coordination and collaboration between MSCO-K, USNS Dahl, and 2-2 CAB.

Joint Training Between the Army And Navy

In a published article by Stars and Stripes, army pilots recently conducted deck landing qualifications on the back of the USS Curtis Wilbur, a U.S. Navy destroyer at sea.

The pilots practiced landing on a painted pad to simulate the deck of the ship and learned how to safely escape into the water if needed.

Each pilot had to land at least five times, with helicopter crew chiefs counting down the distance to the deck.

Despite the difficulty of landing on a moving ship, the joint training between the Army and Navy is seen as important in today’s military.

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