Someone once said "Where do we find such men?" God Bless his family!

Downed Navy pilot honored in Norfolk for sacrifice | HamptonRoads.com | PilotOnline.com

 

I hope someone put him in for the M of H, not sure the amibuity on combat operations, but he should at least be submitted for it.

DFC signed by the CNO, shows you everyone knows his story. Don't be surprised to see his name on the side of a ship some day. Heroic.

 

God Bless he and his family. A true American Hero.

 

The one way back was from VAW-78, just a crew of 2. Lost the cooling fan that cools the comm/nav gear. Lost their 2 primary radios, as well as the only TACAN and transponder. Crappy Wx, plane ran out of gas. One crewmember successfully bailed out, if my memory serves me correctly. This mishap is what spawned the requirement for at least a 3rd crewmember for all flights. Known in some circles as "the stunt mole."

Threre was also an "A" model lost in the 60's out at the ship in the overhead stack. I saw a copy of the plat video that showed the plane cartwheeling into the sea, minus one wing, very scary. Cause was never determined (mishap investigation was a bit different back then) but an A-7 also failed to return to the ship also and was never found. A mid-air was surmized, but never confirmed, again I don't think they spent too much time investigating aircraft mishaps back then, they just bought more planes and ordered in more crew. My how times have changed. Personally, I don't long for the good old days.....

 

The bird that had to be shot down by an F-18 was from VAW-122. It had a fire, I think in the wing, and was heading to Iran when they shot it down.

Rumor on this latest one is that the bird was on an FCF flight. The oil leak was so bad that it caused the prop on the engine not to feather.

I was in VAW-126 back in the early 90's when we put one in the water. Unfortunately all 5 onboard went in with it. I can still remember their names to this day. Oddly enough that was also due to a fire.

The E-2 is a work horse just like the C-2. I remember during the first gulf war we flew one pretty much non-stop for almost a week because the others we had were broke. It would be the first recovery in the cycle, hot seat, and last launch in the next cycle.

 

Hornet guy missed too. Saw the HUD tape. The engine was so on fire the wing finally gave out.

 

What did the Hornet guy try to shoot it down with?

USMCFLYR

 

This website lists quite a few E-2 mishaps, not including the latest. Looks like there have been 6 different fatal mishaps, including this one and the Coast Guard mishap in 1990. The mishap on 14 August 2003 was a friend of mine but they walked away. He was giving a NATOPS check ride to a pilot in St Augustine, Florida when they had a pitchlock and went off the runway. I also knew one of the pilot's in the 9 June 2005 mishap which happened at NAF Choctaw in Pensacola, Florida. Engine fire on that one. Both of those were VAW-120 birds.

http://www.ejection-history.org.uk/A...e2_hawkeye.htm

 

I'm just curious from buys like Bunk and other E-2/C-2 types out there.

What is wrong with the prop system on these things? It seems like pitch lock is a common cause of these mishaps, and I hear nothing but bad things about NP2000. Delamination in the rain? Water in the padeyes delaminating the tips? I had an Egyptian Col tell me there was no way they were buying NP2000.

Just seems with all the prop systems out there that have decades of performance and reliability, why we need to keep reinventing the wheel.

I ask all this from what I'm hearing about this recent incident, and the Hawkeyes inability to stay airborn with a prop pitch locked at fine.

 

I never flew the COD with the NP2000. I thought these new props were not supposed to pitchlock. I had a prop pitchlock in the COD while in the pattern at Miramar and if handled properly, no issue. But that was the old prop.