thedrifter
11-21-06, 01:05 PM
November 27, 2006
Onboard with Osprey
Fliers, crews shift to the tilt-rotor aircraft
By Trista Talton
Staff writer
MARINE CORPS AIR STATION NEW RIVER, N.C. — Capt. Keith Friesen had one thing in mind when he chose to begin his aviation career flying CH-46 Sea Knights.
He wanted to fly the MV-22 Osprey.
“The whole tilt-rotor concept really intrigued me,” he said. “It’s been on the horizon for so long.”
After flying “phrogs” for five years, he got his wish about 18 months ago when a Marine Corps headquarters aviation selection board picked him to move into the Osprey program.
These days, Osprey squadrons are racing to become deployable as early as next summer. Ospreys neatly lined along a portion of the flight line are getting air time. In fact, these eye-catching aircraft with their whalelike bodies and two massive, 38-foot-diameter propellers can be spotted in the skies over eastern North Carolina almost daily as more Marines enter the Osprey community.
Despite suffering numerous setbacks through its development and testing phases, the Osprey program continues to grow. Thirty-five Ospreys have been delivered to New River. Twenty enlisted Marines have completed aircrew training, and 32 are in classes. There are more than 50 Osprey pilots.
Osprey fliers are being trained by members of Marine Medium Tiltrotor Training Squadron 204. Along the squadron’s long hallway, walls peppered with pictures of tilt-rotor aircraft and the medium-lift helicopters they’re replacing, are pilots who’ve flown F/A-18 Hornets, EA-6B Prowlers, AV-8B Harriers and the C-130 Hercules. There’s also an Air Force detachment.
In classrooms, Marines are learning how to become Osprey crew chiefs and mechanics. Pilots are logging hours in state-of-the-art simulators, where a majority of flight training takes place.
The simulators are where pilots learn things like overcoming “collective dyslexia,” or proper arm movement when controlling the lift and speed of the Osprey.
Kurt Miller, one of nine flight simulator instructors, said helicopter pilots spend about 10 hours “unlearning” collective dyslexia.
Another major change for pilots, as well as crew chiefs and mechanics, is the MV-22 cockpit itself.
“It’s a glass cockpit and so you’ve got, I guess, the challenge of knowing where all the information is. It’s kind of like learning a computer in a way,” said Col. Mark Clark, commanding officer of VMMT-204.
For crew chiefs such as Staff Sgt. Mike Stumpf, a former UH-1 Huey crew chief, the work can be complicated some days.
“It’s a roller-coaster ride,” he said. “The technology on this aircraft is so advanced it pushes us to really know it. It’s definitely not a system you can take a break from.”
In a nearby building, a small group of Marines watches intently as a crew chief instructor goes through the computer layers in an Interactive Cockpit Learning Environment — the ICLE — which Marines call the “icicle.”
Sgt. Christopher O’Neil said about five to six months passed before he could do it quickly.
“It takes a long time,” he said.
There’s a lot more to learn about the Osprey than the CH-46, said Friesen, who’s logged nearly 100 hours in Ospreys.
“In the 46, you had steam gauges. You didn’t have all the layers,” he said. “The most challenging thing — changing my thought process from 100 knots to 200 knots.”
For him, that means remembering things such as contacting the control tower twice as far out.
These new concepts are being learned in a place where units are born.
Gone are the days of VMMT-204 training the individual Marine. The training squadron takes a large number of individuals and molds them into a unit, Clark said.
New River will welcome its third Osprey operational squadron — Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 266 — early next year. The Corps’ first operational MV-22 squadron, VMM-263, flew to El Centro, Calif., for training earlier this fall.
And, there’s plenty more to learn, Clark said.
“I don’t even think we’ve begun to scratch the surface of the capabilities of this airplane,” he said.
Ellie
Onboard with Osprey
Fliers, crews shift to the tilt-rotor aircraft
By Trista Talton
Staff writer
MARINE CORPS AIR STATION NEW RIVER, N.C. — Capt. Keith Friesen had one thing in mind when he chose to begin his aviation career flying CH-46 Sea Knights.
He wanted to fly the MV-22 Osprey.
“The whole tilt-rotor concept really intrigued me,” he said. “It’s been on the horizon for so long.”
After flying “phrogs” for five years, he got his wish about 18 months ago when a Marine Corps headquarters aviation selection board picked him to move into the Osprey program.
These days, Osprey squadrons are racing to become deployable as early as next summer. Ospreys neatly lined along a portion of the flight line are getting air time. In fact, these eye-catching aircraft with their whalelike bodies and two massive, 38-foot-diameter propellers can be spotted in the skies over eastern North Carolina almost daily as more Marines enter the Osprey community.
Despite suffering numerous setbacks through its development and testing phases, the Osprey program continues to grow. Thirty-five Ospreys have been delivered to New River. Twenty enlisted Marines have completed aircrew training, and 32 are in classes. There are more than 50 Osprey pilots.
Osprey fliers are being trained by members of Marine Medium Tiltrotor Training Squadron 204. Along the squadron’s long hallway, walls peppered with pictures of tilt-rotor aircraft and the medium-lift helicopters they’re replacing, are pilots who’ve flown F/A-18 Hornets, EA-6B Prowlers, AV-8B Harriers and the C-130 Hercules. There’s also an Air Force detachment.
In classrooms, Marines are learning how to become Osprey crew chiefs and mechanics. Pilots are logging hours in state-of-the-art simulators, where a majority of flight training takes place.
The simulators are where pilots learn things like overcoming “collective dyslexia,” or proper arm movement when controlling the lift and speed of the Osprey.
Kurt Miller, one of nine flight simulator instructors, said helicopter pilots spend about 10 hours “unlearning” collective dyslexia.
Another major change for pilots, as well as crew chiefs and mechanics, is the MV-22 cockpit itself.
“It’s a glass cockpit and so you’ve got, I guess, the challenge of knowing where all the information is. It’s kind of like learning a computer in a way,” said Col. Mark Clark, commanding officer of VMMT-204.
For crew chiefs such as Staff Sgt. Mike Stumpf, a former UH-1 Huey crew chief, the work can be complicated some days.
“It’s a roller-coaster ride,” he said. “The technology on this aircraft is so advanced it pushes us to really know it. It’s definitely not a system you can take a break from.”
In a nearby building, a small group of Marines watches intently as a crew chief instructor goes through the computer layers in an Interactive Cockpit Learning Environment — the ICLE — which Marines call the “icicle.”
Sgt. Christopher O’Neil said about five to six months passed before he could do it quickly.
“It takes a long time,” he said.
There’s a lot more to learn about the Osprey than the CH-46, said Friesen, who’s logged nearly 100 hours in Ospreys.
“In the 46, you had steam gauges. You didn’t have all the layers,” he said. “The most challenging thing — changing my thought process from 100 knots to 200 knots.”
For him, that means remembering things such as contacting the control tower twice as far out.
These new concepts are being learned in a place where units are born.
Gone are the days of VMMT-204 training the individual Marine. The training squadron takes a large number of individuals and molds them into a unit, Clark said.
New River will welcome its third Osprey operational squadron — Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 266 — early next year. The Corps’ first operational MV-22 squadron, VMM-263, flew to El Centro, Calif., for training earlier this fall.
And, there’s plenty more to learn, Clark said.
“I don’t even think we’ve begun to scratch the surface of the capabilities of this airplane,” he said.
Ellie