The Sea King - A Fond Farewell

By Peter Mallett, Lookout Newspaper at CFB Esquimalt

When the Royal Canadian Air Force’s remaining Sea King helicopters are phased out, retired Major Paul O’Reilly admits it will be akin to losing a close friend.

That’s because he spent much of his 34-year career flying the Cold War-era, Sikorsky-built twin-engine amphibious helicopter—first acquired by Canada on May 24, 1963—on and off the decks of Royal Canadian Navy warships.

Onboard a ship at sea, a Royal Canadian Air Force CH-124 Sea King helicopter is silhouetted by the sun setting at deck level. PHOTO: Sergeant René Dubreuil

Major O’Reilly, 71, believes saying goodbye to them will be a teary affair. “You can’t help but get a little bit misty-eyed. For any pilot who flies an aircraft,” he says, “you grow attached to it as the years roll by, and you would forever recognize it instantly.”

Today, he spends two days a week volunteering at the Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt Naval and Military Museum. He is a military history buff and a founding member of the Vimy Flight group, which, in 2017, took First World War replica planes to the 100th anniversary ceremony in Vimy, France.

His love of history, and living some of it, gives him an interesting perspective on the Sea King.

In 1987, Major O’Reilly was a pilot on board Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship Huron as she sailed through the Panama Canal from 12 Wing Shearwater, Nova Scotia, heading to Esquimalt, British Columbia’s harbour with two Sea Kings onboard. They were the first two helicopters to arrive for naval operations on Canada’s West Coast.

“I’m surprised they are still here,” he says. “When I came out to the West Coast with the first Sea Kings, the whole idea was these aircraft would last three or four years and a new, more modern helicopter would show up and we would move to that.”

A hasty replacement for them in Canada did not happen, and so the decades went by.

“One of the reasons why they lasted so long was because with constant technological upgrades over the years they could still do the job. Why would you change and get a new aircraft when the one you are using does everything the Navy wanted it to do?” he asks.

The Sea King’s compact design, combined with fold-up rotor and tail, enabled it to fit neatly in the hangar of a warship after landing on the deck, and its amphibious hull enabled it to conduct water landings in an emergency.

“They got the job done because they handled well,” says Major O’Reilly. “The flight deck on most ships was about 48 by 78 feet [14.6 x 23.8 metres], so the biggest challenge with the Sea King, as with other helicopters of their size, was landing it as the ship bobbed up and down in the water, especially in stormy seas. Your timing had to be perfect so the ship’s company could hook the helicopter in with its Beartrap system.”

The Beartrap haul-down mechanism was developed in Canada. It uses a line and probe lowered from the helicopter to the deck and then attached to the ship; the Beartrap then winches the helicopter down to a solid and safe set-down.

“The Royal Canadian Navy was at the forefront of learning how to put a big helicopter on a small ship,” he continues, “and these helicopters were much more capable than smaller ones because they could travel longer, carry more supplies, and had a more sophisticated suite of detection equipment.”

CH-124 Sea King technicians work on HMCS Iroquois’ embarked Sea Kings in the deck hangar on February 1, 1981. PHOTO: DND Archives, HSC81-74-29

But their usefulness has gradually been eclipsed by new helicopters with modern technology. Today, very few countries still use Sea Kings. That includes the British military, which said farewell to its remaining Sea Kings in 2016, and the U.S. military, which replaced them 12 years ago.

“The main reason the helicopter is being phased out,” says Mr. O’Reilly, “is because nobody makes the engines or replacement parts anymore, making it next to impossible to make repairs.”

2018 marks the replacement of the Sea Kings with CH-148 Cyclones, which are being phased into service. As the future generation of aviators prepares to take to the cockpits of the new Cyclone, Major O’Reilly’s advice to them is “expect the unexpected”, as with any new technology. “But I have a feeling this one may also stand the test of time.”

The final Sea King flight in the RCAF will take place by December 31, 2018. The official retirement ceremony is Saturday, December 1, 2018 at 443 Maritime Helicopter Squadron in British Columbia; where a fly past will take place. The Sea King has operated for 55 years in Canadian military service. As part of the celebrations, there will be a fly-past, according to the Canadian Forces.

Report: RCAF Must Speed-Up Delivery of Cyclones

By: Murray Brewster, The Canadian Press

OTTAWA – Canada’s air force must speed up crew training and the delivery of CH-148 Cyclone helicopters in the next two years to avoid a shortage as five decade old CH-124 Sea Kings are finally retired, said a senior defence official.

A senior defence official has told The Canadian Press they are looking at ways to do both, starting next year.

Concern that the Sea Kings may be phased out faster than the Cyclones have the equipment to be fully capable of replacing them has been around since the former Conservative government announced last June that the old helicopters would be slowly retired by 2018.

The Sea Kings fly off the decks of warships and there is fear that some Canadian naval vessels might have to go to sea without helicopters.

The possibility that the Sea Kings would be pulled out of service faster than they can be replaced is something defence planners are scrambling to mitigate, said the senior official with knowledge of the program.

“We’re looking at ways to accelerate the training process to make sure we have enough aircrew available to man the aircraft. And we believe we will,” said the official who was not authorized to speak to the media. “We’re also looking at having an accelerated delivery of some aircraft in the 2016-17 time frame to give us more aircraft on the ramp in (Canadian Forces Base) Shearwater.”

Only four of the 1960s vintage airframes have been retired thus far and the official could not commit to a specific timetable on when the rest would go. The official did say, however, that the decommissioning program was not on hold.

The 28 Cyclones have faced repeated development delays since being ordered in 2004 and are not expected to be fully operational on both the East and West Coasts until 2021.

There are six aircraft at Shearwater, with another two on the way before the end of the year.

Documents, obtained by The Canadian Press under access to information laws, show that in addition to ensuring an overlap between the fleets the road to retiring the Sea Kings will be bumpy.

Many of the setbacks relate to the development of the sophisticated software for the Cyclones that runs everything from flight controls to weapons systems and the documents show defence officials believe not all of the bugs will be worked out by the time the aircraft is declared fully operational.

The software is being introduced in two blocks. The first phase allows the helicopter to fly in a limited capacity including search and rescue, and the second tranche will bring the aircraft up to the full warfighting, submarine-hunting version.

“While Block 2 represents a fully functional, operationally relevant Maritime Helicopter, there is insufficient time within a realistic schedule to inject all remaining Maritime Helicopter Requirement specification elements,” said a Nov. 28, 2013 planning document. “Accordingly, it is anticipated that certain capabilities will need to be added during the in-service support (regular maintenance phase), which nominally begins post-Block 2 delivery.”

The significance was downplayed by the official who insisted that by the end of the second phase the air force will have the helicopter it ordered in 2004.

One of the significant changes the Harper government allowed was to deem the Cyclone a developmental program, much like the oft-maligned F-35 stealth fighter. That means, as opposed to expecting a fully completed helicopter, the government was willing to accept the risk and delays associated with the trial and error of development.

The official said National Defence believes it has been able to mitigate the risk and the program is on track.

But defence analyst Dave Perry, of the Global Affairs Institute, says the problem of training highlights that project delays are not just an accounting nuisance and they have real consequences.


“On this project, that schedule has been continually slipping further into the future since 2008, which must be presenting a complete nightmare for the RCAF that needs to figure out when it can actually stop training people to operate the Sea Kings and start learning how to use the Cyclone,” he said.