11-09-2008, 23:53
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חבר מתאריך: 04.10.06
הודעות: 408
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בתגובה להודעה מספר 26 שנכתבה על ידי FiReBall שמתחילה ב "הותר לפרסום שמו של הטייס השני, רב סרן יובל הולצמן ז''ל"
Yuval Holtsman was my instructor during the early phases of the “Rishoni” – and was responsible for bringing up to speed to solo capabilities. His flying and teaching skills were magnificent. His ability to systematically install confidence in his pupils was extremely unique. I remember him during flight # 20 or so sitting with his leg hanging out of the helicopter and his arms crossed across his chest while I descended for landing somewhere – I remember glimpsing at him and thinking to myself: “ The guy has a lot of courage if he thinks I can land this thing!” hehehe…
He would stop by the “hiltonim” once every 2-3 days to see that I was up to speed in terms of preparation for the next day, and how things were in general. He did not do so for gaining popularity with the students, but rather out of clear genuine interest in our success.
I was struggling to understand the importance of the pre-flight checks performed – due to lack of technical grasp of the subject. One day, Yuval told me to join him at 5:30 in the morning, and for an hour and a half before the day started, in a empty squadron – we ran over the checks over and over and over with crisp explanations by him to me regarding why we check this and that. I consider this to be a monumental lesson –When undergraduate students come to me now admitting lack of understanding of certain processes, I tell them to come by the lab at 5:30 – and we sit for 2-3 hours in a quiet environment trying to solve and understand problems….
During the Solo flight, we flew to an area outside Hatserim, we landed, and he secured the sand bags to his seat. His last comment was:”If during landing you are not confident in your touchdown, just pull the collective, hover, and try again…don’t worry about getting it the first time”…This is exactly what happened during landing…I had to pull up to 5ft due to insecurity in touching down. Later during the flight home he told me he was happy I kept my cool – and that he knows how stressful of a situation that is….His openness with “everybody being human” was refreshing (to say the least) in the pressure-cooker of Hatserim.
After being kicked and dumped with water, Yuval waited for me with his personal extra flight suit, and gave it to me “so I wouldn’t get cold walking back to the megurim”…hehehe…
I am a bit shocked that Yuval and Shai were unable to save themselves. Yuval was a MASTER pilot, capable of manoeuvring a helicopter better than most peoples’ ability to operate their front door…
A truly unique person, not just in the IAF, but in Israel as a whole…
Ihiye Zichro Baruch
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