Flying the Chinese flag from a chopper not as easy as it looks, say pilots
Police officers from Shanghai salute the Chinese flag displayed by Shanghai Police Aviation Force to celebrate the National Day on Friday.
Once again, a national flag was flown over Huangpu River against the backdrop of Shanghai's skyline, sending greetings to the National Day.
The flying of the flag is a job of the Shanghai Police Aviation Force which also functions as Shanghai Government Aviation Force. The tradition originated in 2009 and is the longest in Chinese cities.
The force was formally established in 2009, but training of the pilots started earlier. While some of its first pilots were skilled former army men, others were recruited from the police force, including Tan Jie, 38, now head of the No. 2 pilot squad of Shanghai Police Aviation Force. Tan served as a co-pilot for this year's flag flying.
A traffic police officer, Tan was recruited in 2008 and was then trained in the United States in 2008 and 2009 to get his helicopter pilot certificates.
"The training focused on the skills of pilots in dealing with emergency situations in operation, especially useful to us who work in Shanghai," he said. "Shanghai is a densely populated city with limited space for the landing of helicopters in central districts, and this poses a critical challenge to pilots."
The daily tasks of the police aviation force include patrolling for traffic accidents, taking part in fire and road accident rescues, assisting SWAT members in their training and providing security assistance at various events.
With six helicopters and 30 pilots, it has the largest number of experienced pilots and longest patrolling hours annually among police aviation forces around the country. Each pilot spends 60 hours in the cabin every year.
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The hangar of Shanghai Police Aviation Force.
Chen Huizhi / SHINE -
The hangar of Shanghai Police Aviation Force
Chen Huizhi / SHINE -
The hangar of Shanghai Police Aviation Force
Chen Huizhi / SHINE -
The hangar of Shanghai Police Aviation Force
Chen Huizhi / SHINE
The flying of flags with helicopters, which is not among the routine tasks of aviators, is not as easy as it might look.
Gao Bo, 42, head operator of Shanghai Police Aviation Force and formerly a SWAT officer, said the team drew initial experience from colleagues in Hong Kong who have a longer history of flag flying with helicopters, but also had to devise their own solutions.
"The national flag we fly is much larger, and most importantly we need to ensure that it will not be torn apart during an operation," he said.
At the police aviation force, an operator is a crew member who closely cooperates with pilots to perform all tasks and ensure safe operations. For flag flying, Gao has been in charge of solutions since 2009 and he still remembers the first-ever operation.
"The flag was 4 meters by 3.8 meters in size, with 25 kilograms of weight added to it, and we had to keep the window of the helicopter open all the time to grab the cable to keep the flag in a vertical position as much as we could," he said. "We were fortunate because the flag was not ripped apart, but it was all frayed after the operation."
Solutions have evolved over the years. The flag demonstrated this year was 6.24 meters and 4.16 meters in size, to be more visible from afar, and had 190 kilograms added to it. Also, it was the first use of a flag made of a kind of reinforced nylon that is typically used to make parachutes.
A task group to fly the flag, which includes up to 10 pilots and other crew members, usually trains for two to three weeks before the trial flights and the final show.
"Our ceremonial formation has two or three helicopters, and it's very challenging for pilots in the helicopters behind the major one to keep the formation amid air flows," said Tan.
