Facebook post on Osprey accident

[Oldguy]

I waited to post this until I could think of the right way to say it, although I will still likely offend someone.

 

A Facebook post yesterday about the Marine Osprey accident in Hawaii lamented the fact it must be nice to have a PR department that can get what we in GA get tagged with as an accident called a “hard-landing”.

 

Folks, it may just be me, but anytime I read about an aviation-related incident where someone dies, the last thing I am concerned about is whether a PR department for anyone gets it labeled a crash, hard-landing or mishap. Someone is dead. In my opinion, an aviation accident – whether military, commercial or GA – diminishes us all. During my short time flying, there has never been a pilot I met who was a stranger after 5 minutes whether they flew a Gulfstream, Apache or J3. I am saddened by the loss of any of those of us and our passengers who take to the air. And to find a way to use such an event to publicly post a snarky comment about it saddens me.

 

It might do us well to remember a call also gets made to let someone know their child/spouse/parent will not be coming home.

 

Okay, end of venting. Let the flames begin; I’m a big boy.

 

John

[Piloto]

How do you land an Osprey in full airplane configuration without a prop strike in an emergency situation gliding to a nice long runway ahead. Unlike an airplane or helicopter there is no safe escape if it looses power. Not even jumping out with a parachute because the blades will slice you out, ouch!

José

[chrisk]

How do you land an Osprey in full airplane configuration without a prop strike in an emergency situation gliding to a nice long runway ahead. Unlike an airplane or helicopter there is no safe escape if it looses power. Not even jumping out with a parachute because the blades will slice you out, ouch!

José

You've got me thinking now.  Maybe it lands like a gyrocopter?  It seems like someone must have thought about how to land the thing when it loses one engine.

[omega708]

You've got me thinking now.  Maybe it lands like a gyrocopter?  It seems like someone must have thought about how to land the thing when it loses one engine.

As I understand it, the engines are linked with some sort of drive shaft that allows one engine to power both rotors if necessary.  I have no idea what happened with most recent crash however.

[Johnnybgoode]

The program has been fraught with problems since the first one took to the air. If everything goes right it's a capable platform, but problems are somewhat unforgiving and the PR surrounding the fleet has been working hard, sometimes too hard, since its introduction.

Patrick

[chrisk]

The program has been fraught with problems since the first one took to the air. If everything goes right it's a capable platform, but problems are somewhat unforgiving and the PR surrounding the fleet has been working hard, sometimes too hard, since its introduction.

Patrick

As I understand it, the main appeal of the Osprey is range and high speed cruise vs a helicopter.

[MB65E]

There is no auto rotation capability. The emergencies are treated like run on landings. There is not a way to land the machine in airplane mode. Hopefully there is enough realestate. It's an incredibly complex machine. I think it's an awesome tool that we have.

Well spoken thoughts John!

God Speed,

-Matt

[MyNameIsNobody]

I would not fly on one. Soldiers and Marines have no choice...they go where they are ordered. A waste of tax payer money and in too many cases...lives.

[Johnnybgoode]

Do a little research into program testing around 2000 - I was in UPT with a few Osprey-to-be Marines. Midway through the program various aircraft problems surfaced and an attempt was made by the Corps, if memory serves correct, to cover them up. Once uncovered, the pipeline shut down and the Marines went and flew traditional helicopters.

[fantom]

Do a little research into program testing around 2000 - I was in UPT with a few Osprey-to-be Marines. Midway through the program various aircraft problems surfaced and an attempt was made by the Corps, if memory serves correct, to cover them up. Once uncovered, the pipeline shut down and the Marines went and flew traditional helicopters.

 

Yep....an 0-6 Marine, at Navy Dallas IIRC, who was in charge of the test program was busted for a several year cover up. Found out after about 21 Marines were killed in a similar crash.

 

Not the way those boys should die. 

[MyNameIsNobody]

Another Marine died today in the "hard landing" incident...

RIP

[AndyFromCB]

It's a very complex machine, but my understanding is, fatalities per flight hour, it does about as good/bad as marine helicopters and covers twice the distance. Saw it at Oshkosh last year and the capabilities were fairly impressive. It can land like an aircraft in an emergency, but IIRC the approach speed is somewhere in the 140knot neighborhood as it has no wing devices, so hardly survivable on anything but the salt flats or a long runway. It doesn't exactly autorotate, but will land just fine on one engine if everything goes according to plan, but I think you could drive a humvee thru the HV chart during the transition phase. My assumption is power loss during combat take off and landing will most likely result in casualties.

 

It does what it does extremely well and the upper ranks could not care less about the HV chart…Don't shoot the messenger. Remember, if it was up to me, our defense department would be just that, with 1/10th the current size.

[Danb]

Andy. We're on opposite side on this one..I feel it's just a shame to lose another comrade in an aircraft that's been a dog since inception..semper fi to my brothers..my god bless there families..ie..I wish our military was extremely stronger along with our governing bodies...

[AndyFromCB]

Andy. We're on opposite side on this one..I feel it's just a shame to lose another comrade in an aircraft that's been a dog since inception..semper fi to my brothers..my god bless there families..ie..I wish our military was extremely stronger along with our governing bodies...

 

Our military is about strong as a military can get. We already spend more than the next 27 nations combined. Osprey is another tool that makes it stronger. No other army can move troops from one unimproved area to another unimproved area as fast and in as large numbers are we can. Compare Ospreys per hour death rate vs helicopters and the rates are about the same. Compare per mile, and they are twice as good. Many marines' lives have been saved in combat due to Osprey both as a resupply ship and evacuation ship. Nothing will ever be perfect and especially not military aircraft.

 

As to my other comment, well, to each their own. If we didn't have a military this size, we would not start a new war every year (to a hammer everything looks like a nail) and we would not be bankrupt.