{"id":62509,"date":"2025-12-21T09:45:30","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T08:45:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=62509"},"modified":"2025-12-31T21:08:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T20:08:16","slug":"the-cockpit-of-a-spanish-army-ec-135-helicopter-explained-in-detail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/12\/21\/the-cockpit-of-a-spanish-army-ec-135-helicopter-explained-in-detail\/","title":{"rendered":"The cockpit of a Spanish Army EC-135 helicopter explained in detail"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Airbus Helicopters EC-135 (now called H135) is a light helicopter that has Spain as its largest military customer.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/11\/27\/acaviet-the-past-and-present-of-the-center-where-the-spanish-armys-aviators-are-trained\/\">ACAVIET, the past and present of the center where the Spanish Army's aviators are trained<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/12\/18\/spain-buys-100-military-helicopters-from-airbus-including-50-h145ms-for-the-famet\/\">Spain buys 100 military helicopters from Airbus, including 50 H145Ms for the FAMET<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p><strong>Spain has already acquired three batches of EC-135\/H135 helicopters, totaling 47, for its Armed Forces.<\/strong> The first batch consisted of 16 EC-135s for the Army, the second of 18 H135 P3Hs for the Navy and Air Force, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/12\/18\/spain-buys-100-military-helicopters-from-airbus-including-50-h145ms-for-the-famet\/\">a third batch of 13 units announced this week<\/a> (12 for the Air Force and 1 for the Navy). <strong>In addition, the Ministry of the Interior has acquired 51 units<\/strong>, the second batch of which is currently being delivered (25 for the National Police, 22 for the Civil Guard, and 2 for the Directorate General of Traffic).<\/p>\n<div class=\"foto_piedefoto\"><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54996830871_78bf54b9f3_o.jpg?s=eyJpIjo1NDk5NjgzMDg3MSwiZSI6MTc2NjMwNzgyNSwicyI6ImZiNDJjZDZlYWM1MTU5ZGM4Y2MyYWFlYzMyZjUyODI5MDM5NGEyNjEiLCJ2IjoxfQ\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54996830871_16fcee49b9_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"piedefoto\">One of ACAVIET's EC-135T2+ helicopters, the HE.26-21 (ET-188, cn 0990), at its base in Colmenar Viejo, Madrid (Photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/EjercitoTierra\/status\/1061305016294752256\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ej\u00e9rcito de Tierra<\/a>).<\/div>\n<p>Yesterday, the YouTube channel <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@flybywire-aviation\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fly By Wire Aviation<\/a> (which I recommend you subscribe to if you're interested in aeronautical topics) <strong>published an excellent video in which an instructor from<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/11\/27\/acaviet-el-ayer-y-hoy-del-centro-donde-se-forman-los-aviadores-del-ejercito-espanol\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the Spanish Army Aviation Academy (ACAVIET)<\/a> <strong>shows the cockpit of one of its EC-135s<\/strong> (this training center has 2 EC-135 T2s and 10 EC-135 T2+s), explaining in detail its instruments and their handling (the video is in Spanish; you can activate automatic English subtitles in the bottom bar of the player):<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u00a1Descubre la cabina del EC-135 HE.26! Una Vista Inmersiva\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5qP7GBmO8tI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>The EC-135\/H135 is a helicopter equipped with what is called a \"glass cockpit,\"<\/strong> meaning it has digital displays to show flight and navigation data, in addition to analog instruments as a backup in case of failure. <strong>This configuration allows ACAVIET students to become familiar with their future aircraft<\/strong>, as the Army's CH-47F Chinook heavy helicopters, NH90 tactical transport helicopters, and EC-665 Tiger attack helicopters also have digital cockpits.<\/p>\n<div class=\"foto_piedefoto\"><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54997130300_5d05cf65a3_o.jpg?s=eyJpIjo1NDk5NzEzMDMwMCwiZSI6MTc2NjMwODM1MywicyI6ImMxMzRhMWIyMTc5MWZlZDYwODUwNzRiNjExYjlmMTBmNDk2MjFkNGEiLCJ2IjoxfQ\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54997130300_45d533b5c5_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"piedefoto\">The interior of the cockpit of the ACAVIET EC-135 T2+ HE.26-22 (ET-185, cn 0801) during an instruction flight (Photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/EjercitoTierra\/status\/1391287597264252930\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ej\u00e9rcito de Tierra<\/a>).<\/div>\n<p><strong>Before the actual flight in a helicopter, each student's training takes place in a flight simulator<\/strong>, which reproduces with considerable accuracy and realism the flight conditions and potential problems a pilot might encounter while flying an EC-135. <strong>ACAVIET has flight simulators for different types of helicopters:<\/strong> the EC-135, the EC-665 Tiger, the CH-47F Chinook, and the NH90.<\/p>\n<div class=\"foto_piedefoto\"><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54996853701_b9fa28f88d_o.jpg?s=eyJpIjo1NDk5Njg1MzcwMSwiZSI6MTc2NjMwODMwNSwicyI6IjEwYTk3ZTcyZTQyYmE2YmNlZTgyYjFiNWNmNGY5NzEyYTc1YzcwYmIiLCJ2IjoxfQ\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54996853701_a5f956c745_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"piedefoto\">The crew member of an ACAVIET EC-135 holding the collective stick with his left hand, which controls the pitch angle of all the main rotor blades, causing the aircraft to ascend or descend (Photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/EjercitoTierra\/status\/1391287597264252930\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ej\u00e9rcito de Tierra<\/a>).<\/div>\n<p><strong>The video published by Fly By Wire Aviation allows us to appreciate the complexity of flying a helicopter<\/strong>, as the pilot has three different instruments to control the aircraft's movement: <strong>the collective stick<\/strong> (operated with the left hand) controls the pitch angle of all the main rotor blades, causing the aircraft to ascend or descend; <strong>the cyclic stick<\/strong> (operated with the right hand) resembles the control stick of fixed-wing aircraft and controls the direction of movement of the helicopter by tilting the main rotor; finally, <strong>the anti-torque pedals<\/strong> (operated with both feet) control the tail rotor, allowing the helicopter to rotate about its vertical axis.<\/p>\n<p>---<\/p>\n<p><small>Main photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/EjercitoTierra\/status\/1013863659741827079\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ej\u00e9rcito de Tierra<\/a>. One of the ACAVIET's EC-135T2+ helicopters, the HE.26-21 (ET-188, cn 0990).<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Airbus Helicopters EC-135 (now called H135) is a light helicopter that has Spain as its largest military customer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19534,11544],"tags":[12234,7490,1048,10557],"class_list":["post-62509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-defense-portada-eng","category-army","tag-academia-de-aviacion-del-ejercito-de-tierra-acaviet","tag-airbus-helicopters-h135","tag-famet","tag-spanish-army"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-15 04:37:48","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62509\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}