Annual RNZAF Exercise Wise Owl takes off at Base Auckland
For the next two weeks (August 10th through 21st), the RNZAF is carrying out a pilot training exercise out of RNZAF Base Auckland called Exercise Wise Owl.
Wise Owl is part of the 18-month pilot’s ‘Wings’ course, which develops fully qualified pilots for the Royal New Zealand Air Force and Royal New Zealand Navy under No. 14 Squadron.
According to an post on the NZDF Community Alerts Facebook, flying will take place Monday to Friday from August 10th and 21st between 0830 and 1630.
Four T-6 Texan II aircraft performing a buzz and break before landing back at Whenuapai after a photo mission with a fifth Texan | Photo: Noah Stohr-Waldren
The exercise requires students, in T-6C Texan II aircraft, to undertake flight training away from their more familiar airspace at RNZAF Base Ohakea. T-6C Texan II aircraft are used to train Royal New Zealand Air Force pilots during their Wings Course and pilot instructors during the Flying Instructor Course.
It is an advanced pilot training exercise conducted as part of the 18-month basic Wings course, designed to develop student pilots' formation flying, and all the associated aspects of flying in multi-aircraft formation. This includes planning and decision-making whilst leading or following others in a formation, and during emergency situations which could arise in formation flight.
It also exercises working together to achieve a formation sortie’s objectives within constrained time limits.
Each iteration of Exercise Wise Owl is held at a location unfamiliar to the pilot course, to add an additional layer of complexity and pressure on the students who now have to deal with unfamiliar airspace, geography, procedures, traffic, communications, aviation zones that they must avoid and other considerations that may be new to them.
Military pilots must be exposed, and adapt quickly, to operating in unfamiliar environments at short notice, while maintaining a high level of professionalism and the ability to meet required objectives, which is why this iteration of the exercise was held at RNZAF Base Auckland instead of their home base at RNZAF Base Ohakea.
One of the No. 14 Squadron T6II’s landing back at RNZAF Base Auckland after a formation sortie | Photo: Noah Stohr-Waldren
Additionally, the exercise tests logistics and ground support elements, allowing them to also achieve training objectives. For example, the Refuelling section is able to conduct qualifications and training for their personnel while supporting the exercise.
There are six Texan’s involved with the exercise at RNZAF Base Auckland, provided by No. 14 Squadron based at RNZAF Base Ohakea
Wise Owl provides several challenges for student pilots, including “close flying” - an important skill pilots need to know to be operational in the next step of their career as they move to their fixed wing or rotary squadrons after graduation in December. On the course, seven student pilots are elevating their skills with two daily flights, six days a week, in the T-6C Texan II.
One of the five student pilots on a previous Exercise Wise Owl course, Pilot Officer Phil Percy, said learning to fly solo as part of a formation was a highlight of his course, as well as being a huge confidence booster.
Flight Lieutenant Fothergill said “They go from never having flown in close formation, to by the end of those 14 flights, being comfortable doing high-angle bank turns and aerobatics following each other”.
A NZDF spokesperson said “The more we can expose a student to diverse and challenging environments and scenarios, the better prepared they will be when confronted with similar situations in the future, and the better chance they will have at achieving the tasks required of them.”
The pilots on the course are expected to ‘gain their wings’ later this year, following their around 18 months of flight training.