By Martin Patience
BBC News, Kabul
In a small classroom 20 or so men, all middle-aged and most sporting moustaches, pored over their textbooks.
One of the men read aloud: “The beach ball is bigger than a base ball.”
They would not immediately strike you as the most likely English students.
In fact, they were ace Afghan pilots with decades of flying experience among them.
But they were now back in the classroom for the first time since their youth, learning how to read manuals for the helicopters they have flown for years.
And under the watchful eye of an American tutor, pilots who once relied upon their raw instincts also learned the mechanics behind their aircraft.
“When they get in the clouds or the dust and they can’t see anything - they don’t have any training in that”
Col Curtis Wickers
The men represent the cream of the Afghan military but elsewhere America is struggling to create a disciplined and modern force.
Most of the pilots were trained by the Russians in the early 1980s to fight against the mujahideen, who were trying to topple the Russian-backed regime in Kabul at that time.
But many have not received any training since that period.
“They are outstanding visual pilots,” said Col Curtis Wickers, one of the American trainers.
“You tell them to go anywhere in the country outside the clouds and during the day - and they’ll amaze you - they’re fantastic pilots.”
“But when they get in the clouds or the dust and they can’t see anything - they don’t have any training in that.”
Troop transport
Flying in the Russian built helicopter, two of the Afghan pilots took turns at the control. Col Curtis sat beside them in the cockpit and was ready to take over in a moment if something went wrong.
They flew to a deserted helicopter pad 30km east of the city where they practised landings for two hours with the engine switched off. It was to simulate what would happen if the engine had been disabled by gunfire.
That training is crucial as the Afghan pilots know better than most.
Afghan pilot Abdul Tawab’s helicopter was shot down in the early 1980s.
“I was on a mission flying soldiers to the east of the country when my helicopter was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade,” he said.
“I was then captured and held by a group for eight years before being freed.”
To have an effective fighting force here you need helicopters to ferry troops around this rugged and mountainous country.
That is why training the Afghan air force is crucial, if international forces are to leave.
Much has made been made of the need for Afghan soldiers to take a greater role in providing security.
The Afghan Defence Minister General Rahim Wardak says progress is being made.
“I think that in four or five years we will be in very good shape,” he said, talking about the Afghan security forces.
“And I hope that by then the drawdown of the international forces will have commenced.”
The West has already said that it wants at least some of its troops out even sooner than that and control to be handed to Afghans.
But it is a huge challenge training soldiers, officers and pilots, in a country where even the best are left struggling.