USAF 3638th FTS Patch

USAF 3638th Flying Training Squadron Patch

Circa 1960

During the summer and fall of 1958, the USAF Helicopter School was moved from Randolph AFB to Stead AFB and designated the 3638th Flying Training Squadron (Helicopter). The base provided ample facilities and unencumbered airspace in which to operate the flying training mission. The base had also recently undergone a large building project of all new Capehart family housing which lent well to the accompanying military families.

The pilots would undergo training in the H-19B and H-21B helicopters. The syllabus would contain basic transition training and instruments as well as advanced operational techniques in high altitude confined area and mountain operations. Most pilots would also attend the USAF Survival School in preparation for overseas assignments.

The flying training would be conducted at Stead as well as an auxiliary airfield, Sky Ranch, located about 10 miles east of the base. A number of unprepared ridgetops and pinnacle landing spots at altitudes up to 8,100 feet MSL were located on Peavine Mountain directly south of the base. A similar number of tree-lined spots were located in Dog Valley, southwest of Peavine, to conduct confined area landing and takeoff procedures. The area north of Stead to Pyramid Lake was used for instrument training.

The first students to go through helicopter pilot training were rated fixed wing pilots. In fact, all pilots undergoing helicopter pilot training since 1944 had been rated pilots. In 1965, students were entered into helicopter pilot training having received approximately 120 hours in T-28's but had not received their wings. They would receive their wings upon graduation from helicopter training.

The 3638th Flying Training Squadron (Helicopter) trained not only USAF pilots but also many from foreign countries. At least a dozen countries, including Japan, Argentina, Pakistan, India, France, Bolivia and China (Taiwan), sent pilots to basic helicopter pilot training as well as instructor pilot upgrading. There was an Exchange Program with England's Royal Air Force and the Royal Australian Air Force for a 2-year tour by the Exchange pilots. Two U.S. Marine pilots flying H-34's were given a short course in high altitude mountain flying techniques. Four RAAF helicopter pilots also received several hours of mountain indoctrination on their way from UH-1 training at Ft. Rucker and returning to Australia to fly their own "Hueys". From 1958 through 1965, the Helicopter School trained over 1252 USAF and 384 foreign helicopter pilots.

Part of the School included the Instructor Training (IT) Section of the Squadron. Experienced line pilots assigned to the Squadron to be instructors had to be indoctrinated into the standardized techniques and grading procedures used in the School. This sometimes required some rethinking on the part of the new instructors that had been used to doing it "their way" when in the field. They were reminded about how they handled the controls when they had only 5 hours of helicopter time and relate it to their students. Standardized procedures were necessary for scoring of the student's progress and if a change of instructors might be required.

The Helicopter School was tasked with many other missions.

From February through July 1962, eleven pilots and 6 H-21B helicopters where airlifted by C-124 aircraft to Christmas Island, South Pacific in support of Operation Dominic atomic tests. They would provide personnel airlift and search and rescue. They also conducted recovery of rocket nose cones shot through the clouds of an atomic device detonation by Research agencies. This required entering ground zero within 20 minutes of detonation and flying 15-25 miles over the shark-infested Pacific Ocean without any flotation device on the helicopter. All nose cones were successfully recovered. From March 1962 to March 1963, the 3638th FTS (Helicopter) flew 213 hours on search and rescue missions and rescued 15 persons.

On 3 September 1962, an H-43B made an extremely difficult and hazardous rescue of an injured mountain climber in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. The rescue was accomplished at nightfall at an altitude of 11,900 feet on a 70-degree slope and is possibly the highest rescue ever performed by a helicopter in the contiguous United States.

In October 1962, two H-19B's were sent to Susanville, California to assist in the search for an evacuation of hunters stranded following heavy rain and snow.

In December 1964, unseasonable rainfall of over 12 inches in the Northwestern states created regional flooding. H-19, H-21, H-43, and CH-3 helicopters and crews were dispatched to Yreka, California to conduct rescue and humanitarian aid missions. Three of the H-21's were sent to Lakeview, Oregon to carry bales of hay to hundreds of starving cattle stranded on dikes above thousands of acres of flooded land.

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