FORT INDIANTOWN GAP, Pa. - The Pennsylvania National Guard’s Eastern Army National Guard Aviation Training Site, or EAATS, is where pilots from across the country and partner nations learn to fly the modernized UH-60M Black Hawk.
Each year, more than 100,000 service members from across the country come to Fort Indiantown Gap to complete training and attend schools offered there.
“We fall under the Pennsylvania Army National Guard, but we're a National Guard asset overall,” said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Adam Garrison, the aircraft qualification transition course manager at EAATS. “Unlike other locations that teach these courses, we do all of the podium instruction and all of the flight instruction ourselves. So we have that rapport that we build with the students.”
The UH-60M is the latest modernized variant of the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk utility helicopter, offering modern controls and equipment that students at EAATS can fly.
“We started off in the simulator, seeing what the aircraft can do by pushing buttons and just seeing what the automation and the aircraft can do for you,” said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Matthew Chasin, an EAATS student based out of the General Service Aviation Battalion, Rhode Island National Guard.
The first 11 days of the six-week course are conducted using a flight simulator.
“We actually have 11 days on the front end of the course. That is all in the simulator,” Garrison said. “We're in there every single day because when learning a new aircraft, especially coming from an old analog aircraft to a more digital cockpit like we have in our MC model, there's a lot of things that we can accomplish in there.”
“When we run the aircraft up for the first time, it takes a while because they move things around,” Chasin said. “So, to be able to do that in the simulator, and ask questions without wasting fuel, that's been extremely helpful. So I think the simulator is key.”
The rest of the course is spent in the aircraft or the classroom.
“The course is doing what it's intended to do, which is to make sure we're all qualified on a much more advanced set of avionics in the same airframe,” said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Harrison Yi, a student from the Wisconsin Army National Guard. “And to teach us the different systems that you should pay attention to.”
Students attending EAATS also expressed their appreciation for the schoolhouse and how enjoyable their experience there was.
“I do think that the instructors we have are super knowledgeable on the topics,” Yi said.
"The instructors here are extremely approachable,” Chasin said. “They have a huge background and awesome experience coming from the active component, the Guard and the reserve.”
“We do all the podium instruction, we do all the cockpit instruction, so we know exactly what those students are being taught,” Garrison said. “We're all subject matter experts in those things. And we hold not only our students to high standards, but ourselves as well.”