// Postcard From Germany
- NH-90 Crewman Exchange
F/S Beaven in front of the NH-90
By F/S Matt Beaven
Guten tag, ich bin!
For the past eight months, I’ve been living a Helicopter Crewman’s (HCM) dream. I am working at the Heersfleigerwaffenschule at Achum in Buckeburg, a small town on the border of the Lower Saxony, North Rhine/Westfalia regions of Germany, on a helicopter exchange to the German Army. The school is an international school for initial pilot training onto the EC-135; however they also train Pilots and Flight Engineers onto the CH-53 and the NH-90.
My adventure began in January 2009 when, along with my wife Jo (SGT Jo Beaven) and our two daughters Stella (3) and Ava (2 months) we packed up our lives in New Zealand and set off to Germany. The first month was a blur—a cold, harsh German winter; buying a car; getting bank accounts; searching for a house and getting the lay of the land—not to mention trying to pick up the language, which of course is ongoing, and settling the family into a new country and culture.
Arriving at work for the first time where everyone speaks a different language is a little intimidating. Luckily for me most of the Flight Engineers and Pilots speak English, to varying degrees. With my ever improving German, I can now understand most conversations.
Learning the NH-90 systems was initially quite daunting, particularly the electrical side of the aircraft. However, after a little bit of hands-on work it all became quite user-friendly—until, of course, the computer says, “No”. Luckily, like with any computer, you can just power it down and turn it on again to fix a lot of things—not recommended when airborne, obviously!
My first flight in the NH-90 lasted for three hours and I was shown things that a helicopter just shouldn’t be able to do. Coming from the Iroquois it was a little disconcerting watching the helicopter do all of the flying—and I mean all of it! Since that time I have flown 80 hours on the NH-90. The aircrafts capabilities continue to amaze me. I can see that it will be a great platform for an HCM to operate from and with features like the fly by wire, and the automatic flight control systems, it is a great piloting experience.
The NH-90 is a great aircraft. It possesses speed, power, and agility and, having operated it in Germany, I really look forward to operating it in the New Zealand landscape. I believe the NH-90 will greatly increase the capability that we currently have with the mighty Huey. It’s a lot of fun to operate—I’m hooked!
Viele Grüße.