FORT RUCKER, Ala. — At a sprawling base set amid the wiregrass pastures of southern Alabama, the Army is teaching its next class of helicopter pilots how to avoid getting shot down when it's their turn to go to Iraq.

Sometimes you fly high, they learn, and sometimes you go low. Vary your speed, and don't fly the same route too often. And always — always — know what's going on around you. That's because it doesn't take much more than a single gun on the ground to take down even the most advanced U.S. helicopter.

"Self-preservation is what the key is," said instructor Chief Warrant Officer Troy A. Wyatt.

The Pentagon has reported eight incidents in the past month in which helicopters were either shot down or landed under fire in Iraq. Military officials say militants are increasingly targeting helicopters, firing simultaneously from different directions with an assortment of weapons, including machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

As helicopter losses mount, instructors at the Army's aviation school at Fort Rucker are teaching the very latest lessons from the Iraq battlefield to the military's newest helicopter pilots, all of whom come through this post at some point.

"We continually work very closely with the units that are in theater in Iraq, and as they return home, we identify how they are doing business, how they are fighting the enemy on the ground in Iraq, and anything we need to do to change or adjust the training here," said Col. Dan Stewart, who is responsible for flight training.

After years of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, more than 90 percent of the instructor pilots at Rucker have recent combat experience. They turn out about 1,150 new fliers each year, and many of them are flying combat missions within six months of leaving the post.

Retired Maj. Donald M. Maciejewski, who trained to fly at Rucker and taught there, said the Army has had to rethink some of its helicopter tactics since arriving in Iraq, where there are few trees or terrain features for choppers to hide behind.

"Some of these weapons are so easy to use you could be an idiot and still bring down a chopper," said Maciejewski, now a lawyer in Jacksonville, Fla., specializing in aviation cases. "Basically it's piloting that gets you out of trouble."

The training at Fort Rucker begins with ground school and advances quickly to learning the basics of flying in simulators. They get their first taste of flight in TH-67 trainers. After months of basics, student pilots move into the Army's most advanced helicopters, such as Apaches or Black Hawks.

Under the training program, the Army can produce a combat-ready helicopter pilot in nine months, or about three months quicker than before.

At first, U.S. pilots went into Iraq thinking they could stop, pop up over a rise or building, and fire at targets. The tactic worked well enough in past conflicts, but not in Iraq.

Now, Stewart said, U.S. fliers concentrate on a tactic called "running and diving" fire. The basic idea: "Not to be a stationary target yourself."