Lance Cpl. David Rogers

MARINE CORPS AIR STATION FUTENMA, Okinawa (January 25, 2008) -- Helicopter pilots and aircrew with Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 262 completed their qualifications in helicopter insertion/extraction missions Jan. 18 at Camp Hansen; they also helped Marines attending Special Operations Training Group's Helicopter Rope Suspension Training receive their qualification in fast roping and rappelling.

The pilots flew two CH-46 helicopters to Hansen where they met with a class going through an HRST course. The HRST Marines slid down ropes while the helicopters hovered at 30-40 feet. The qualification continued with rappelling out the back of the aircraft and through a hole in the center of the helicopter known as the "hell hole" while the helicopter hovered at 60-70 feet.

Pilots and aircrew of HMM-262 have not performed HIE missions with the use of fast roping or rappelling in more than a year even though the unit returned from a seven month deployment to Iraq in August, according to Maj. Robert Sweginnis, operations officer with HMM-262.

"It wasn't a skill that was required for the mission we were doing in Iraq," Sweginnis said. "So, for a lot of people, it's been a long time since they've actually flown this mission."

For 1st Lt. Topher Koreis, a CH-46 Sea Knight pilot who joined HMM-262 in November, it was his first time to qualify in HIE.

"I think this is why a lot of pilots want to be assault support pilots and (CH-46) pilots," Koreis said, "because you get to do these kinds of things. You get to see Marines jumping out the back of your helicopter and sliding down ropes - the things you see on TV or in the movies, and it's pretty cool to do."

Qualifying to fly an HIE mission is important to helicopter pilots because it requires the pilot to hover the helicopter for an extended period of time, one of the capabilities that make helicopters a crucial addition to the Marine Corps arsenal, according to Sweginnis. Maintaining a helicopter's position at a rappelling height is difficult for the pilot because it is harder to use visual points of reference to judge and make corrections for which direction the helicopter may be drifting.

"The biggest challenge is holding a steady hover," Sweginnis said. "It's critical that the pilot keep the aircraft in a fixed position in space so that the Marine sliding down the rope has a stable platform. But the slower (the Marines rappelling) are, the longer that pilot has to hold that stable hover at high altitudes and that's challenging and it can be fatiguing."

Fast roping is typically used to implement the element of surprise, according to Sweginnis. Rappelling is reserved for urban environments where there are no landing zones and obstacles prevent getting low enough to fast rope.

"Not only do they have to be confident that we're going to get them from point A to point B," Sweginnis said. "They have to be confident that when they're hanging on the end of that rope that we're going to hold a perfectly stable hover."

http://www.okinawa.usmc.mil/Public%20Affairs%20Info/Archive%20News%20Pages/2008/080125-hrst.html