June 2006, Issue 71 [pdf 2.8mb, 40 - Royal New Zealand Air Force

A RNZAF C-130 Hercules makes a ponderous
but safe landing on Bamian’s rough airfi eld.
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FAT ALBERT’S BAMIAN FORAY
Flying the Air Force’s bulky C-130 Hercules,
affectionately known as ‘Fat Albert’, into Afghanistan
demands excellent training, full concentration and
confidence in your abilities. But for No.40 squadron
flying into ‘difficult’ places is just part of normal
operations. Pilot FLTLT Andy Scott describes the
flight into Bamian airfield.
The fl ight to Bamian takes just over 3.5 hours with the last 10 minutes
being conducted at low level. This is obviously the portion that
disturbs some of the passengers and has caused many of them
to be sick over the course of these fl ights. So many that we do not keep
track any more!
On deciding whether or not to fl y low level, the crew will take into account
the prevailing weather conditions, threat level, intelligence updates and
common traffi c routing, before deciding which method of transit will be
the safest for the day’s conditions. Contrary to popular belief the main
purpose of fl ying low is not to make the passengers sick, but to provide
the most tactically sound way of getting from A to B. When you’re the fat
kid who is not very fast at running you have to learn to be sneaky to avoid
getting caught!
The crew’s initial Tactical Flying Qualifi cation is gained at Exercise
Skytrain, with advanced tactics then honed on regular courses.
The terrain around Bamian is up to 16,500ft, which can provide problems
in inclement weather when trying to get below the cloud base safely. The
main issue this has for us is the aircraft handling and performance characteristics.
The altitude means that the true airspeed of the aircraft is a
lot higher than normal so it takes a lot longer to slow the aircraft and the
turning radius is a lot larger than it would be at sea level. This is something
that could potentially catch out inexperienced pilots. We ensure all crews
are fully briefed prior to departure. The temperature has a huge impact on
C-130 operations out of Bamian also, as the heat of the summer means
that the engines will only put out about 60% of their sea level power. This
means that the payload we can carry out of Bamian in summer can be up
to 10,000lb less than in winter.
The threat of ground to air fi re is still a major issue with any fl ight into
Afghanistan. There is still an enormous number of Man Portable Surface
to Air Missiles (or MANPADS) unaccounted for in Afghanistan. The threat
of one of these being used against an aircraft is still very real and so the
aircraft is fi tted with Countermeasures, to combat this threat.
The time spent on the ground can be anywhere from 15 minutes to 2
hours depending on the amount of cargo we have to offl oad and timings
for the next leg of the mission, as some airfi elds still have designated slot
times that you have to arrive within.
No fuel is available in Bamian so we often need to go to one of the
main coalition bases to get a refuel before proceeding back to our
staging base.
The cargo we carry is in direct support of all NZDF missions in
Afghanistan, so we carry everything from passengers to construction
equipment to high explosives.
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‘When you’re the fat kid who is not
very fast at running you have to learn
to be sneaky to avoid getting caught!’
The actual runway at Bamian is very rough. It is a semi prepared gravel
strip, however the size of the gravel and the amount the strip is prepared
varies enormously along its length, with the fi rst and last 1000ft at each end
being effectively unusable. This coupled with the large drop offs at each
end and off each side, plus the proximity of houses and a small hill within
75 ft of the centreline of the runway make it one of the more impressive
places we land a C-130. A lot of damage has been done to the aircraft over
AFN71 JUNE 06 www.airforce.mil.nz