T
he crew of Crossbow 31 was lead on an Osprey formation-training flight in eastern North Carolina. Their aircraft’s conversion actuators for the nacelles failed during movement from airplane to conversion mode. During a level turn at 500 feet AGL and 200 knots, the flying pilot and tiltrotor aircraft commander (TAC), Capt. Keith L. Friesen, USMC, began the conversion. The nacelles stopped
moving upward with an associated critical conversion actuator fail posting, leaving the nacelles and the entire prop-rotor system frozen at 44 degrees (90 degrees is up full VTOL; 0 is level airplane mode). Capt. Friesen, also a section leader, leveled his aircraft and made a radio call for the flight to discontinue the turn. After climbing, both pilots tried to move the nacelles, with no
VMMT-204 Left to right, SSgt. Jason A. Davis, Maj. Robert J. Augugliaro, Sgt. Christopher Novak and Capt. Keith L. Friesen.
M
arine 2ndLts. Christopher Stoddard and Kyle A. Maschner of Training Squadron 27 were on their initial T-34C solo flights from NAS Corpus Christi. When low, unforecasted cloud layers moved into the local training area, the pilots received a recall order from the operations duty officer. They promptly started their recoveries. As they turned toward the visual entry point, neither pilot saw the visual checkpoint because of the building cloud layers. Each reported to approach control they couldn’t maintain visual contact with the surface and requested altitudes and vectors to return to base. Second Lieutenant Stoddard was No. 2 in sequence behind 2ndLt. Maschner. While on vectors, each pilot had the situational awareness to use the GPS to determine his position relative to the field, while maintaining 120 knots as assigned. When given vectors to final, they still were above the clouds. The controller gave each pilot instructions to descend through the cloud layer to 500 feet. Second Lieutenants Stoddard and
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Maschner, with 40 and 34 hours, respectively, of militaryflight experience, used their fledgling basic-instrument skills to descend through the layer. Second Lieutenant Maschner broke out over runway 13L at 500 feet but didn’t have enough maneuvering space to configure and land the aircraft straight-in. He decided to circle and landed without incident. Second Lieutenant Stoddard broke out over runway 13L. He was slow enough and had sufficient maneuvering space, so he configured the aircraft and made a straight-in landing. Both student pilots demonstrated exceptional airmanship, situational awareness, and decision-making under hazardous flying conditions.
VT-27 Approach
