Bravo Zulu

Capt. Patrick Eldridge, USAF, flew as a primary, flighttraining instructor pilot assigned to Training Air Wing Six, NAS Pensacola. He was flying a midshipmanorientation flight as part of TW-6’s ProTraMid detachment at NAS North Island. After completing a series of standard aerobatic maneuvers in the T-6A, the master-warning light illuminated, with an associated chip light.

He completed the immediate-action items for the emergency. Using the GPS, he located and flew to the nearest suitable airfield, Borrego Valley. He flew a precautionaryemergency landing (PEL) to runway 08. The chip light came on intermittently throughout the PEL recovery. He exited the runway at the earliest turnoff and shut down the engine on the taxiway.

The maintenance investigation revealed metallic debris in the severely contaminated engine-oil system. Also, the propeller did not unfeather when maintenance tried to restart the engine.

Lieutenant Junior Grade Andrew F. Murtaugh, a flight student at NAS Whiting Field, Fla., was flying his second T-34C solo flight. When he reached a visual turn point 17 miles from Whiting Field, he saw intermittent indications of an engine-fire light. He completed the engine-fire procedures and determined the engine had an unconfirmed fire.

He immediately turned back toward base and climbed to a safe dead-engine glide altitude for the runway in use. After notifying airtraffic control of his malfunction, he received a vector and handling to runway 14. He completed the landing checks and flew a precautionary-emergency landing. With only 46.5 hours of flight experience, Ltjg. Murtagh used his NATOPS knowledge, airmanship, and decisionmaking ability to calmly deal with this emergency.