MH-60 Pilot

You just earned the most dangerous wings in the Army — and the regiment has already told you that you have not earned them yet. 160th SOAR Green Platoon is over; now comes the decade of flying that makes the designation real.

You completed initial rotary-wing flight training at Fort Novosel (the U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence, renamed from Fort Rucker in 2023), passed the 160th SOAR Assessment and Selection process, survived Green Platoon qualification, and arrived at Fort Campbell as a new MH-60 Pilot Warrant Officer in one of the SOAR's assault or direct-action companies. Your first two years inside the regiment are about building the instrument, night-vision goggles (NVG), and formation-flying precision that 160th considers entry-level for a tactical mission. You fly NVG formation at altitudes and airspeeds the conventional aviation community does not train to, you rehearse deliberate crew coordination to a verbal-challenge standard, and you fly enough live-fire crew-served weapon training to integrate with the assault force rather than just ferry it. Your garrison week alternates between simulator periods, aircraft systems academics, and the PT program that the regiment runs at a pace intended to separate those who belong from those who do not. You are in learning mode — the senior Pilot-in-Command (PC) in your aircraft is your check-pilot and your most important critic, and the read they write on your crew-coordination habits in year one follows you inside the regiment for the rest of your career.

• 01Fly NVG single-ship and formation approaches to unprepared landing zones — 30-foot skids, precise hover, touchdown in restricted terrain — to the TC 1-210 MH-60 Aircrew Training Program standard the regiment publishes over the Army baseline.
• 02Execute deliberate crew coordination per SOAR standing operating procedures: challenge-response calls, positive aircraft transfer, abort criteria — every call made before the decision point, not during it.
• 03Operate MH-60M Mission Equipment Package (MEP) at the crew-member level — FLIR, radar altimeter, GPS/DTED terrain-masking, APIU, and the defensive systems suite — in an NVG/dark-cockpit environment.
• 04Plan and brief a low-level infiltration or exfiltration route — from initial planning point through primary and alternate LZs — using current 1:50,000 / 1:25,000 aviation planning charts and digital terrain tools.
• 05Perform emergency procedures from memory on the MH-60M — single-engine emergency, tail rotor failure, hydraulic emergency, ditching — to the checklist standard without reference to the printed checklist.
• 06Integrate with the assault force during mission brief and rehearsal — understand the ground-force commander's scheme, the abort criteria, and the pick-up order — so the aircraft is never the bottleneck in an abort decision.

• —AR 95-1 — Flight Regulations: the Army-wide regulatory framework governing pilot currency, waivers, and the flight evaluation system. Every flight you log in the Army aviation system is governed by this regulation.
• —TC 1-210 — Aircrew Training Program (Pilot, Utility Airplane): the baseline ATM that the regiment builds its MH-60 Mission Qualification Training (MQT) on top of. Know the baseline before you learn the SOAR overlay.
• —TM 1-1520-285 series — MH-60M Black Hawk operator and maintenance manuals: the aircraft technical authority. As pilot you are responsible for the -10 operator level; the crew chief owns the -23, but you sign the DA Form 2408-13-1 and are responsible for every system the aircraft hands you.
• —DA PAM 600-3 — Commissioned and Warrant Officer Professional Development and Career Management (Warrant Officer chapter): the career framework for aviation warrants. Read the 153E section before your first OER rating period.
• —AR 95-23 — Unmanned Aircraft System Flight Regulations: relevant if your company task-organizes with Group-level UAS during combined operations — know the airspace deconfliction standard.

• —Warrant Officer Basic Course (WOBC) and Fort Novosel initial flight training complete — the entry credential before SOAR assessment and selection.
• —160th SOAR Green Platoon complete and Mission Qualification Training (MQT) on the MH-60M progressing — the institutional combat-readiness gate. Green Platoon is the selection; MQT is the proof.
• —Instrument Rating (PI-rated, not just basic instrument) and NVG currency maintained per AR 95-1 and the regiment's published currency-management SOP — lapsed currency in a SOAR pilot is visible to the entire chain within 24 hours.
• —Flight evaluation on the MH-60M passed at "Q-1 (Qualified)" on all events per TC 1-210 and the regiment's MQT standards — a Q-2 at SOAR is a formal flag event, not the CW2 shrug it might be at a conventional aviation unit.
• —ACFT and physical fitness to regimental standard — 160th PT requirements exceed the Army baseline; lapsed fitness at SOAR means reassignment conversations start faster than anywhere else in aviation.

• —Busting a currency window and trying to manage it quietly. AR 95-1 and the SOAR SOP both have prescribed reporting procedures — the pilot who does not self-report a lapsed currency and is caught by the unit standardization pilot on a flight-status check is in a different conversation than the pilot who came forward. The conversation is hard either way; one of them is recoverable.
• —Calling "ready" in a crew-coordination challenge when you are not: briefed the abort criteria wrong, uncertain about the LZ dimensions, unsure of the engine limits. The SOAR's verbal challenge system exists because the aircraft does not have time for the silent-cockpit culture that kills conventional-aviation crews. Speak up before the decision point, every time.
• —Under-briefing the assault-force element on aircraft capabilities and abort criteria. The ground-force sergeant major expecting the aircraft to hover in a 40-foot gap surrounded by trees because nobody said otherwise is a planning failure that originated in the mission brief — and the pilot signed the brief.
• —Letting DA Form 2408-13-1 discrepancy entries accumulate without coordinating with the crew chief before the next scheduled flight. The pilot who signs the aircraft as airworthy over an open -13 entry the crew chief asked about is the pilot the production control officer and the safety officer discuss by name after the maintenance test flight.
• —Treating simulator periods as administrative time. The regiment's Simulated Flight Training (SFT) periods are the only place you can fail a FLIR-degraded approach scenario without a Safety Center report. The WO1 who shows up to the box unprepared is the WO1 whose emergency-procedure reflexes are not there when the aircraft makes the scenario real.

The good WO1 or CW2 Night Stalker is the pilot the company standardization officer schedules for the first multi-ship NVG deliberate assault of each training cycle — not because they asked for it, but because their crew-coordination calls are exactly what the SOAR brief expects, their emergency procedures are faster than the checklist, and the ground force never waits on them during the rehearsal. Their flight-evaluation record is Q-1 every event. Their MQT is complete inside the window. The senior warrant in the right seat is already recommending them for the Pilot-in-Command evaluation progression.

You are the regiment's institutional knowledge in the cockpit. The commander plans the mission; you tell him what the aircraft can actually do at 0200 in a 9,000-foot-elevation objective area with two engines running at contingency power in a brownout. When you say it can happen, it happens. When you say it cannot, the conversation ends.

At CW3 you are a qualified Pilot-in-Command (PC) flying the full spectrum of 160th SOAR missions: deliberate infiltration and exfiltration, personnel recovery, direct action support, CSAR under degraded conditions. At CW4 and CW5 you are a company or battalion-level Standardization Pilot (SP) or Instructor Pilot (IP), the technical authority who signs flight evaluations, writes the Mission Training Plan input for the SOAR's MH-60 community, and advises the battalion commander on the training posture and operational risk of the aircraft and aircrew pool. You sit in the mission planning cell for complex operations, you evaluate route plans and LZ selection for technical risk that the ground-force planner does not see, and you are the final technical authority the battalion commander has in the room before the order is issued. You mentor the WO1/CW2 pilots through their MQT and the PC upgrade, write the OER support forms that the Aviation Branch board reads to decide whether to continue or broaden career, and you are actively managing your post-Army positioning — airline ATP pathway, federal agency flight programs, defense contractor special-operations aviation support — because SOAR CW5s are among the most marketable pilots in the federal workforce.

• 01Evaluate a WO1/CW2 pilot on a flight evaluation across the full MH-60M ATM task list — grade each task at the current standard, write the evaluation record with technically precise language, and deliver the debrief in a way that improves the pilot rather than just records the grade.
• 02Plan and brief a complex multi-ship deliberate assault route — primary and alternate LZs, threat envelope overlays, NVG formation geometry, abort criteria for every phase — and defend the plan's risk assessment to the battalion commander.
• 03Manage the company or battalion flight evaluation and currency-management program — SP/IP records, ATM task-list currency tracking, check-ride scheduling, Q-2 remediation and Q-3 administrative actions — with zero expired evaluations in the program.
• 04Advise the senior commander on operational aviation risk: density altitude effects on the MH-60M Mission Equipment Package load, NVG visual meteorological minima at the objective area, single-ship vs. multi-ship abort trigger thresholds — in plain language the non-aviator can act on.
• 05Serve as the mission pilot-in-command on personnel recovery or CSAR operations — coordinate with SERE, SOF ground elements, JSOC-level fires and deconfliction — and lead the crew through degraded-environmental approaches the conventional aviation community does not train to.
• 06Mentor CW2 and CW3 pilots through PC upgrade and SP/IP candidate progression — technical mentorship, career-management counseling on follow-on assignments, and honest OER narrative input that the Aviation Branch board can trust.

• —AR 95-1 — Flight Regulations: at SP/IP level you are the unit's enforcement authority for the regulation. You know the waiver process, the currency exceptions, and the reporting requirements before the question arrives in the commander's inbox.
• —TC 1-210 — Aircrew Training Program (Pilot, Utility Airplane): you are an authoritative user of the ATM and, at CW5, potentially a contributor to its SOAR-overlay revision through the Training and Doctrine Command / Aviation Center of Excellence working groups.
• —TM 1-1520-285 series — MH-60M operator and maintenance manuals: at senior warrant level you should be able to answer technical questions about the MEP suite, engine limits, and performance planning that the junior pilots are still learning from the checklist.
• —DA PAM 600-3 — Warrant Officer Professional Development chapter for aviation: the career-management framework you use to advise your junior warrants on follow-on assignments, broadening tours, and the Aviation Branch board-readiness criteria.
• —AR 385-10 — Army Safety Program: the investigative framework that any Class A/B mishap in your battalion will run through. Senior IPs and SPs are routinely placed on safety investigation panels — know the process before you are assigned to one.

• —Warrant Officer Advanced Course (WOAC) complete at CW3 — the institutional credential that marks the transition from junior technical practitioner to senior technical advisor and evaluator.
• —Standardization Pilot or Instructor Pilot designation current and on file — the formal credentialing that authorizes you to conduct flight evaluations and sign DA Form 7122-R (Army Aircrew Training and Evaluation worksheets) with the authority of the commander.
• —Flight-evaluation program current across all assigned aircrew — zero expired evaluations, zero Q-2 remediation plans past their suspense date, Q-3 administrative actions documented and forwarded in the window specified by AR 95-1.
• —OER profile at "Most Qualified" or equivalent senior-rater stratification — in a regiment this small, the OER narrative that the Aviation Branch board reads is not anonymous; what the battalion commander writes about the senior Night Stalker warrant is read with full context about the regiment.
• —At CW5: documented institutional contribution to the 153E community — SOAR ATP/doctrine working group participation, Aviation Center of Excellence curriculum advisory role, or mentor-record of WO1/CW2 pilots who reached PC and SP designation under your evaluation chain.

• —Letting a Q-2 remediation plan drift past its AR 95-1 suspense date because the pilot is a strong performer overall and "we will catch it at the next check ride." The SP/IP who allows a lapsed Q-2 remediation to slide is the SP/IP explaining the gap to the battalion commander when the pilot's next evaluation surfaces the same deficiency.
• —Softening the risk brief to the commander because the mission is important or the ground force has waited weeks for the weather window. The senior warrant's authority to say "the aircraft and crew cannot execute this at acceptable risk" is the hardest and most valuable thing you carry in the regiment. Use it. The commander who overrules you after a thorough brief owns the decision; the commander who overrules you because you were vague about the risk owns nothing useful.
• —Writing OER support forms for junior warrants in generic language because you did not track their specific outputs during the rating period. The Aviation Branch board reads dozens of narratives where the senior rater says "top pilot." The narrative that says "Mr. Jones executed three personnel recovery missions as PC, zero aircraft incidents, led the company MQT program to full MQT completion two months ahead of schedule" — that one gets read twice.
• —Treating the ATM currency-management program as an administrative function delegated to the unit S3 sergeant. The SP/IP who is not personally tracking the company's evaluation currency is the SP/IP who faces an AR 95-1 violation report from the battalion AMO after an Aviation Resource Management Survey.
• —Allowing the SOAR institutional culture to close off technical disagreement from junior pilots in the cockpit. The regiment's verbal challenge system is designed to surface technical dissent before the decision point; the senior warrant who creates a cockpit culture where the WO1 does not speak up is building toward a crew-coordination accident.

The good senior Night Stalker warrant is the officer the battalion commander brings into the planning cell when the mission is at the edge of what the aircraft and aircrew can do — not because this officer will say yes, but because they will say exactly what is possible at exactly what risk and be right about it. Their evaluation program is current, their Q-2 remediation plans are closed inside their windows, and the WO1s who flew their left seat for two years arrive at their PC evaluation technically capable rather than technically marginal. At CW4 or CW5 the warrant community outside the regiment knows their name from the ATP working group or the NTC liaison billet, and the airline, federal law enforcement, or defense-contractor pilot market knows their record. When they retire, the SOP they last revised is still in use two years later — because it was written from the cockpit, not from a conference room.