Army to create 4 copter landing sites within training grounds on Mauna Loa

The Army plans to create four mountain landing zones for helicopter training on Mauna Loa within Pohakuloa Training Area on Hawaii island — a step that removes applying for permits on state land, which was problematic for the Army two years ago.

The additional touch­down spots at between 8,520 and 8,800 feet would increase PTA’s landing zones to 35 from 31 on the 132,000-acre military training grounds.

The four landing zones, an access trail known as the "Pioneer Trail," and a trail linking the four would be constructed on the northern slope of Mauna Loa, a newly released environmental assessment states.

Current PTA landing zones "do not provide these conditions or training opportunities," the report said.

"Military helicopter pilots need to train on varied terrain, under diverse conditions, and at multiple altitudes," the assessment said. "This includes austere (i.e., harsh, severe) environments such as mountainous terrain with its associated high wind, turbulence and atmospheric instability."

Training flights would not be increased, and the new landing zones would be incorporated into regularly scheduled exercises at PTA to meet mountain-flying proficiency requirements, the Army said.

The environmental study was produced for Schofield Barracks’ 25th Combat Aviation Brigade and the Hawaii Army National Guard.

The Guard flies Black Hawk, Chinook and Lakota helicopters, while the aviation brigade uses Chinooks, Black Hawks and Kiowa Warriors.

Another helicopter, the AH-64 Apache, which is currently not based in Hawaii, is mentioned as an attack helicopter that "would be used" by the active duty or Army Guard here.

Lt. Col. Eric Shwedo, PTA’s commander, said more than just Oahu-based helicopter units would use the new PTA landing zones.

"I would not want to speculate on who would be coming (for exercises), but we have units from the mainland that come here to train. We work with coalition partners at PTA. There are coalition partners that have Apaches, (and) there are obviously mainland units that have Apaches," Shwedo said.

The environmental assessment said in Hawaii, active Army and National Guard helicopters are used to support operations including disaster surveys, transporting military and emergency personnel, and for fire suppression and search and rescue from sea level to 13,796-foot Mauna Kea.

In 2011, delays caused by environmental requirements to train at high-altitude sites on state-owned land on Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa cut short the 25th Combat Aviation Brigade’s ability to do required exercises ahead of a deployment to Afghanistan.

As a result, the Army said, it had to spend $8 million to send some Hawaii-based helicopters, pilots and crews to Fort Carson in Colorado to make up the training.

Those big budgets for overseas training are long gone, and the watchwords in the military now are "home-station training."

The state granted the Army a short-term "right-of-entry" permit to conduct some high-altitude training on Hawaii island, but it also said that if it wanted to do so again, the service would have to conduct a more comprehensive environmental impact statement.

"The old (mountain-training sites) weren’t on PTA," Shwedo said. "It was a one-time permit, and with this new (environmental assessment), as opposed to being a one-time permit, once these (new landing zones) are approved, they are approved, and they become part of PTA’s infrastructure."

Shwedo added: "It gives, obviously, the aviators new types of training capability. But what it does not do is increase the amount of personnel training at PTA."

Overall flights to the proposed landing zones are estimated to be a maximum of 420 flights a year and a maximum of 20 flights a day, representing 10 percent of the current total training flights at PTA.

To construct the landing zones, a single-lane access trail would be created south from Saddle Road so a bulldozer could level the landing areas and create a trail linking them, according to the environmental assessment.

On one of the landing areas, a "pinnacle feature" would be built to replicate a mountain crag.

No cultural sites were identified within the landing zones, the Army said. Cultural practitioners in areas near PTA may perceive noise as an annoyance, the study said. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the project may affect, but not adversely, the Hawaiian petrel and band-rumped storm petrel birds, and the Hawaiian catchfly plant.

The Army issued a draft "finding of no significant impact" for the project. Written comments can be submitted through Jan. 18. The environmental documents are available online at www.garrison.hawaii.army.mil/NEPA/NEPA.htm.