A breed apart – the Mongrel aboard HMAS Stuart

28 March 2010 By LAC Aaron Curran

It is common knowledge that a mongrel can be loyal, reliable and resilient and for a dog they are fine traits indeed.

HMAS Stuart has its own mongrel and one that outshines even the best of the breeds. It is not a canine - it is the ship’s Seahawk helicopter, codenamed ‘Mongrel’.

This helicopter served the ship brilliantly during its deployment in the MEAO as part of Operation SLIPPER, and in the process broke the record for the most flying hours conducted while deployed.

To date, it has flown more than 400 hours in the theatre alone and up to 500 hours since the ship deployed in October 2009.

It is thanks to the maintenance personnel from the Ship’s Flight that this milestone was reached. They took the extraordinary step of changing and adjusting the maintenance routine - within the current guidelines – which enabled the Mongrel to accumulate these huge hours and not miss one days flying due to planned maintenance.

For HMAS Stuart’s flight commander, LCDR Mark Massie and his aircrew, that meant their increased capability and availability to the ship was invaluable.

“I have never flown this amount of hours on deployment before,” LCDR Massie said.

“Due to the ability to fly constantly, we were able to hone certain skills during this deployment - surface search, logistics and just flying to and from the deck. One pilot on the Stuart each month clocked up more than all of his flying hours combined before this deployment.”

The maintenance personnel came up with a novel way of keeping the Mongrel airborne. LSATA Dylan Ewart said that with the Seahawk, every 190 hours a major service must be done. When that service is due it can ground the aircraft for up to six weeks.

They developed a phased service where the crew basically worked around the clock, doing the servicing in dribs and drabs and that way the aircraft was available each morning.

“For the big items that would take the aircraft down for a few days we would do it in port,” LSATA Ewart said.

“We just felt that putting the aircraft down for six weeks during operations was no good.”

Historically, for every hour of flying there are 45 hours of maintenance required. The Stuart dropped that down to 35 hours – a great achievement.

The ship’s mission and the enormous area it covered during the deployment required the Mongrel to fly substantial hours.

“Normally you do one major service on a deployment,” LCDR Massie said.

“We structured our maintenance so we could do two and the maintainers worked hard for that extra one. It took a lot of planning, forward thinking and pre-positioning of stores, especially considering we would be off the coast of Somalia where logistics presented a problem. The plan worked well and kept the aircraft available for operational tasking.”

During the Stuart’s six month deployment the Mongrel was never off line due to the maintenance personnel’s commitment and dedication to their task.

“The maintenance crew worked very closely and supported each other all the way through the deployment,” LCDR Massie said.

“It was a fantastic feeling; everyone worked hard and I am real proud of them.”