Osprey Improvement

This is an improvement, the others made a "Hard Landing " from 1200 feet!! Hope the "Blottle" was working properly. 70 million could buy couple helicopters. SF PM

Hard Landing

Corps investigates Osprey mishap at air station
March 29,2006
CHRIS MAZZOLINI
DAILY NEWS STAFF
The Marine Corps is investigating an MV-22 Osprey mishap that had the tiltrotor aircraft accidently taking off then crashing back to the ground.

The accident occurred Monday at New River Air Station during a routine maintenance check, said Maj. Shawn Haney, a Marine Corps spokeswoman. The aircraft — which is capable of taking off like a helicopter and flying like an airplane — inadvertently lifted off the ground while the engine was on and being checked.

“When the engine was being tested, there was some kind of malfunction that caused the aircraft to lift off the deck,” Haney said. “From what I understand, the aircraft lifted off about 30 feet.”

When the aircraft dropped to the ground — described as a “hard landing” in a Marine Corps statement — it suffered damage to its right wing and engine.

It’s still unclear why the aircraft was unable to properly land. That information is part of the investigation, Haney said.

“All we know is that it came down hard and sustained major damage to the right wing and engine,” she said.

The extent of the damage also remains unclear and is part of the investigation. So far, it’s been described as “major.”

Two pilots and a crew chief were inside the aircraft at the time of the accident. They were unharmed, and there were no injuries to any of the ground support personnel, either, the Marine Corps said.

The Osprey belonged to Marine Medium Tiltrotor Training Squadron 204 (VMMT-204), a New River-based unit that trains pilots and crews to operate the $71 million aircraft. The Marine Corps plans to introduce 360 Ospreys into the fleet as it decommissions its Vietnam-era CH-46 helicopters.

Because of the accident, the training squadron has temporarily halted flights, Haney said.

“Right now, they are postponing their flights until they have a better understanding of what happened,” she said. “But there’s no Marine Corps-wide grounding of the V-22 at this point.”

The Marine Corps has high hopes for the Osprey, which has been under development by Bell-Boeing for decades. But the Osprey’s rise has not been without tragedy.

In April 2000, a crash in Arizona killed 19 Marines, and a crash in Jacksonville killed four New River Marines eight months later. Following the crashes, some feared the program would be abandoned.

But the Osprey made a comeback and passed its operational evaluation early last summer. In July, Marine Corps officials showed their confidence in the aircraft when they invited members of the media to ride in it.

The Defense Department approved full-scale production of the Osprey in September. While the Marine Corps is purchasing the largest number, the Air Force is slated to get 50 and the Navy another 48.

Earlier this month, the first operational Osprey squadron, Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263, stood up at New River.

That squadron is expected to be ready for combat deployment sometime in 2007.

As taken from the military.com discussion on this....
Apparently a PMCF following an engine change and replacement of a wiring harness in the nacelle following an earlier coanda/bleed air line leak. Spool-up and unintended liftoff occurred as the crew switched from FADEC A to B. Inadvertent liftoff and subsequent hard landing in a not-level attitude. RH nacelle impacted the deck. No injuries, but pretty substantial damage. The right wing broke off at the root.

The base at New River is overseen by the 2nd Marine Air Wing at Cherry Point, NC. Maj. Shawn Haney, a spokeswoman at Cherry Point, said the incident has been labeled a class A mishap, which is the most serious and expensive kind. By definition, any mishap costing more than $1 million is in this category.

Just glad the crewmembers are ok, minus the skid marks...

I'm with you Ryan, glad the troops got out OK. They are worth more than the bird!
S/F
Tim 🙂

Fadec

Ok, for us older folks, just what is FADEC.

Ray,
FADEC is the electronic fuel control computer controlled. Full Authority Digital Engine Control is a computer with usually 2 channels A & B for fail safe operations. It takes all kinds of input and controls the fuel control, N1,N2, temp, lever angle etc. They are pretty reliable and most problems I have found could be fixed just by removing and reinstalling cannon plugs, sometimes just bad contact on the pins.
S/F
Tim

Unplanned Hover

A CH-46A from HMM-265 lifted off the Iwo Jima when the SAS box switch was moved to "Pitch". Luckily the pilot managed to keep things right side up until the switch was returned to "Null" at which time the plane dropped to the deck. Quite a ride from under the hood.

Wayne Stafford

Frank T wrote: Re-kindled some old friendships and learned that the V-22 cannot pull shipboard duty until both the FADEC and flight deck warpage issues are resolved.

Deck issue resolution as well? I was under the impression the shipboard restriction was due to FADEC issues only. Did you old friendships give a timeframe for either?

Frank T wrote: No, but they report life raft activation by the exhaust also an issue but lesser. Read elsewhere the Navy wants the MC to mod the V-22 exhaust rather than mod every ship in the fleet that the V-22 may land on.

Where was that Frank?

I can still remember in the early 80's when the V-22 was first talked about. I can still remember when those new Hangars were built at Tustin and the F/L was even marked out for them.

Now its been over 20yrs, I'm retired now and the Phrogs are still going stronger than ever,, my wife still laughs at me when I go running out the house to watch a phrog go cruising by 😀

I still have a hard time believing that my H-46 is going to be replaced by something thats not combat proven, doesn t like a dusty enviroment and didn't even have a gun mount the last time I saw one.

I distictly remember all them wires,,, man I feel sorry for AVI 😮

The Marines should have purchased the Latest H-60 platform, call it the War Hawk and save a TON of money!

S/F
Bill
Ret. H-46FL Mech.