The Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire has contained many secrets over it's thousands of years. The mysterious Stonehenge and even the Big Cats of Edington. But if someone said that a Russian helicopter, flown by Afghan crew and tutored by a New Zealand female pilot was calling Salisbury Plain home, you wouldn't be blamed for laughing. Over the last year I have been documenting the two elusive aircraft and finding out exactly what they were up to...

Project Curium is ran by QinetiQ/MoD at MoD Boscombe Down with the SDS (Special duties squadron). The project is a JHC (Joint helicopter command) inititive using aircrew from all three air arms, though the majority (12) are Royal Navy. During the duration of the project, 27 Afghans have passed, 18 of which were pilots and 9 flight engineers. Karim, one of the students told Rick ingham photography;
"i am very lucky to study here, we will be one step ahead when we return to Afghanistan"
Fellow student, Saeed said he wanted to bring Peace to his country.
The first graduates of the course arrived in theatre in September 2009 and are well respected in Afghanistan.

The Mi-17 Mk.1V is a military transport/gunship, the variant that can be quickly configured to fly a completely different mission at little notice. The Mi-17 is the export version of the Mi-8, the main differences of the two being the tail rotor being on the port side and has engine covers at the intakes above the cockpit. The Mi-17 (the export name of the Mi-8) is powered by two Klimov TV3-117VM turboshaft engines that produces 2,200 shp compared to a Royal Navy Seaking which produces 1,400 shp. The Boscombe examples are 25 years old and have low flying hours. They feature some armour plates at the front, defence aids and larger fuel tanks on the sides which have been added since they were last seen in Bulgaria.

"We came as nothing and now we are pilots and speak English"

The Mi-17 is well suited to operating in hot and high conditions, which makes it an ideal aircraft for Afghanistan.
in May 2007, the international Combined Air Power Transition Force (CAPTF) helped rebuild The Afghan National
Army Air Corps (ANA Air Corps). CAPTF put 18 Mi-17 aircraft immediately into service as well as the United States to purchase 58 V5 variants which are due to be delivered by 2015.
As part of the rebuilding effort, QinetiQ and the Ministry of Defence acquired two Mi-17 helicopters from the
Bulgarian Air force to teach Afghan aircrew how to operate the helicopter. The pair, were painted in the classic Boscombe down 'Raspberry Ripple' by Lithuanian company UAB Helisota before being flown by RAF C-17 ZZ172 into MoD Boscombe Down on 18th August 2008.
As the aircraft is completely different to western european helicopters, other nations such as Finland and Ukraine were contacted to gain their knowledge of the aircraft. When Helisota received the aircraft there were around 900 errors that needed to be corrected in order for the two helicopters to be UK military registered as ZB697 and ZB698. Also a brand new maintenance schedule was drawn up requiring the aircraft to be serviced every 25 hours. Jeff Gardner, Technical Manager of Project Curium described the serviceability of the Mil 17's as; "On a comparison to UK machines, or maybe a bit better..."

"if someone had told me 20 years ago I would be instructing on the
Mi-17 I just wouldn't of believed it...they used to be our targets!"

When the students arrive in the UK they attend an English language course and are taught mathematics at the Defence School of Languages, Beaconsfield as well as flying at RAF Cranwell where they receive 10 hours tuition on the Slingsby Firefly. Once complete they are ready to start at MoD Boscombe down. Here is the authors Point of view of how the course progresses...

	To start with, the students take a ground school in the gazelle, going over the principles of rotary flight. They then spend 60 hours flying the Westland Gazelle AH1, which shared it's call sign 'Cordon' with the pair of hips. The majority of this work was carried out at Netheravon airfield and also several parts at Deptford Down airstrip.
	Once they have passed the Gazelle phase of the course, they then put their new skills such as radio communications and flying techniques into practice with a few very sedate sorties over to Deptford. During this time they get used to the Mi-17's characteristics taking off, hovering and landing then repeated again but with a cross-wind and down-wind. Towards the end of this phase they are then taught the engine-off procedures.
	With basic handling on the aircraft complete they moved on to areas that are less level than an airstrip. This was done over to the eastern side of the plain adapting all previously learnt techniques and adapting them for the ever changing hillsides.
	Once they reach this phase they are fairly competent with the aircraft and begin flying with a bit more of a tactical approach. They practice transitioning into the hover and coming to a stop quickly. The crews then start to prepare for confined spaces training by coming into a hover at a reasonable height and whilst listening to the crewman's directions lower down on the spot.
	After most of the week training at quite a large confined area they then practice at a few tighter confined areas. This took a lot of team work with the crewmen informing them how close they were to the trees and how high they were. On top of this they compensate for the wind and the gust change as they go down into the wood. if they were to over-compensate for the gusts, when they dropped in the cover in the trees the aircraft would be in the wrong position and would lose control.
	With the handling training now complete they moved on to the operational side of the flying. Several Navex's (Navigation exercises) were designed to test their ability to navigate low level and at a height. This then moved on to several scenarios making use of Salisbury Plain's danger areas and FiBUA village (a mock village).
	The final phase of the course consists of flying as a two-ship using callsign "Seaking", in my opinion chosen due to the 'commando Seaking' instructors. This included basic formation flying and tactical landings. One Mi-17 would stay high and cover the aircraft landing guarding it against attack.

in total they spend 45 hours on the Mi-17. Once the course is completed they return to Afghanistan and fly alongside more experienced pilots. The United States are also running similar courses and all nations produce aircrew for one umbrella organization, iSAF.

On the 31st March 2010 Project Curium comes to a close, the two Mi-17 aircraft will be donated to the Afghan National Army. Whilst a spokesman didn't rule out ETPS (Empire test pilot school) acquiring an Mi-17 in the future, he said it was very unlikely as other test pilot schools have Mi-17's and the market is simply too competitive. When asked if Project Curium could ever return he replied;
"if there's a requirement, then we will..."

You can visit my collection of Mi-17 images here.

© Rick ingham 2010