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thedrifter
04-12-03, 09:00 AM
Article ran : 04/12/2003
Osprey training squadron receives new commander
By ERIC STEINKOPFF
DAILY NEWS STAFF
When Col. Richard H. Dunnivan took over as commander of the MV-22 Osprey squadron at New River Air Station, the program was at its lowest point.



Friday Dunnivan was decorated at New River for leaving the program better than he found it. As he passed command to his successor he was honored for helping to improve public perception of the Osprey training program with the nation’s seventh-highest medal — the Legion of Merit.



The decoration comes three years and three days after the first of two fatal Osprey crashes that claimed the lives of 23 Marines in 2000. Dunnivan is retiring after heading the Marine Medium Tilt Rotor Training Squadron 204 since January 2001, when the Osprey was grounded and the previous commander was relieved for falsification of the aircraft’s maintenance records.



Dunnivan was replaced by Lt. Col. Richard B. Preble, the MV-22 program coordinator for the tiltrotor aircraft from 1997 to 2000. In that role, Preble reported directly to the Marine Corps deputy commandant for aviation.



The change of command took place in an empty aircraft hangar. A narrator read a citation from Marine Forces Atlantic Commander Lt. Gen. Martin R. Berndt explaining Dunnivan’s accomplishments during the final tour of his 31-year career.



“His professionalism and technical acumen played a key role in restoring faith in the V-22 tiltrotor capability,” Berndt wrote. “He implemented a highly successful four-module public relations program designed to rebuild public trust and confidence in the MV-22 tiltrotor aircraft.”



Trust was low in the Osprey after a December 2000 crash in the Hoffman Forest outside Jacksonville that killed four Marine aviators. A month later, the training squadron commander was relieved. At least two investigating boards were established to study the aircraft and chart its future.



After the last Osprey crash, maintenance specialists from VMMT-204 worked with aeronautical engineers to redesign the two 7,000-pound nacelle structures that house each gas turbine engine.



The nacelles rotate the 38-foot diameter propellers from the horizontal to vertical position so the aircraft can take off and land like a helicopter or fly like an airplane.



Inside the nacelles, what once looked like a web of electrical wires draped over the engine and gearbox now resembles the wiring of a highly engineered race car.



The hydraulics system also was completely redesigned, putting most of the lines along the top of the nacelle and moving a switching valve away from driveshaft vibration. The new technology includes a special Teflon-coated, environmentally sealed spindle canister, which resembles a doughnut full of wires designed to eliminate wearing.



These and other changes were intended to avoid the chafing that caused a hydraulic line to rupture in the Dec. 11, 2000, crash — one that could have claimed Dunnivan’s life.



After an hour behind the controls earlier that day, Dunnivan gave up the pilot’s seat to Lt. Col. Keith Sweaney, an experienced Osprey pilot who was visiting from Quantico, Va. Sweaney was scheduled to take over the squadron, but he died in the crash.



After the December crash the aircraft was grounded for about 17 months. During that time, Dunnivan and his staff are credited with improving maintenance procedures and rewriting the manuals for the Osprey.



“Over 14,000 individual maintenance tasks were reviewed,” Berndt wrote in the citation. “His guidance was directly responsible for publishing the new Naval Aviation Training and Operations Procedures manual with over 1,300 changes.”



According to the citation, more than 33,000 mistakes in the earlier manuals were corrected.



Last fall, instructors at New River Air Station began teaching classes in aviation electronics and mechanics along with classes for MV-22 Osprey crew chiefs. The students are expected to be future instructors when the aircraft arrive and the program goes into full swing as soon as next fall.



For now, flight tests at Patuxent Naval Air Station, Md., have resumed and could be completed as early as this summer.



Dunnivan said these tests would address every complaint and negative report related to the Osprey’s performance, such as its tendency to roll unexpectedly or drop suddenly.



“We will be the experts on vortex ring state,” Dunnivan said. “They pushed the testing up to the front.”



For the next couple of years, the Osprey squadron will be in the hands of Preble who was transferred to New River Air Station in 2000 and served with Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 266 until last month.



“The Osprey is the future of Marine Corps assault supportÂ… (and) that is a responsibility that I do not take lightly,” Preble said. “Every pilot or aircrewman that will fly the MV-22 will pass through the VMMT-204 gateway.”



Contact Eric Steinkopff at


esteinkopff@jdnews.com or 353-1171, Ext. 236.



Sempers,

Roger