Aircraft Information
Aircraft Make: Grumman
Aircraft Model: E-2C
Aircraft Nickname: Hawkeye
Aircraft Mil Civ Description: Airplane ME Turboprop
Category: Airplane
Class: Multi Engine Land
Engine Description: Twin Engine

First Flown Information
Sequence First Flown: 0
Date First Flown: 06/02/1988
Location First Flown: NAS Patuxent River, MD
Who and/or What Organization First Flown With: Force Warfare, Trudell

Aircraft Experience
As of: 05/09/2020
Number of Hours Flown: 4
Number of Times Flown: 2
Other Aircraft Models Associated:

Recollections:

–Hmmmm….what I remember most about my first flight was how poor–compared to what I had in my trusty P-3–the “Situational Awareness” (SA) was for the pilots up front. My memory was that they were almost wholly dependent on the operators in the back for instructions and information, all passed verbally. But, it was a prop, so it was fun to fly.
–I flew it one more time…this time 3 days into Desert Storm when I conned myself a ride. This experience reaffirmed my impression that the airplane needed a “TAC display” big-time but I also was simply amazed at the skill of the pilots (and the NFO’s) keeping track of a myriad of comm nets. I couldn’t keep track of 2 and I think they were talking to 3 or 4 at the same time.

Aircraft Information
Aircraft Make: Shin Meiwa
Aircraft Model: US-1A
Aircraft Nickname: Kai
Aircraft Mil Civ Description: Airplane ME Turboprop
Category: Airplane
Class: Multi Engine Sea
Engine Description: 3 or more Engine

First Flown Information
Sequence First Flown: 0
Date First Flown: 05/10/1999
Location First Flown: Japan
Who and/or What Organization First Flown With: Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF)

Aircraft Experience
As of: 05/09/2020
Number of Hours Flown: 4
Number of Times Flown: 1
Other Aircraft Models Associated:

Recollections:

–One of the neatest parts of being an Instructor at USNTPS was being able to “monitor” a student or students doing their Thesis project near the end of the year-long TPS course. This thesis, referred to as the “DT-2” (for “Developmental Testing, Phase 2”) involves assigning the student(s) an aircraft they’ve never flown before. They write an extensive test plan, conduct approximately 4 flights and then document their findings in a large report of test results (RTR). All in the span of weeks. This “graduation exercise” requires an instructor to mentor and eventually grade the test plan and report and that’s where I came in. Evaluating the student’s work requires the instructor to be familiar with the aircraft as well. So, every class–which means every 6 months since classes start twice at year–the instructors have the opportunity to do a “qualitative evaluation” on an airplane they, too, have likely never flown. These airplanes are obtained world-wide in cooperative relationships with test centers, aircraft manufacturers, and operators. Beginning in 1998 I started working on building a relationship with the “Japanese Navy” (the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force or JMSDF). In the end, it was my good fortune to travel to Japan, observe the JMSDF Test Pilot School (Japan has TWO military test pilot schools, just like the USA and the JMSDF school–the only one I have had direct contact with–is every bit as professional and thorough as USNTPS), and fly the US-1A..a truly unique airplane who’s mission is Search and Rescue…to rescue downed airmen and others in need at sea.
–This “Qual Eval” was “top 3” out of all the Qual Evals I’ve ever flown. I could write a book on this experience as well but space is short…so, here are my most distinct memories. It was, frankly, so much fun not because this is a cool airplane (which it most definitely is) but because of the PEOPLE. The hosting was simply incredible…I doubt the Ambassador to Japan is treated better than I was. That’s me in the official photo, with all the professionals of the JMSDF who hosted myself and Joel Walker (the lucky student assigned to this first-ever DT-2 on the US-1…first, but not the last) in such an incredible fashion. I made life-long friends with several people I met on that trip.
–The US-1A “Kai” is an 8 engine airplane: 4 turboprops on the wing, an Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) that provides electricity a second APU that provides pressurized air to blow over the airplanes surfaces to increase lift at slow speed, and two engines on the Zodiac that gets deployed from a door behind the wing by the professionals of JMSDF. Watching the guys in the back take a zodiac that was completely packed-up and collapsed, with no motors….take it, inflate it, install the motors and launch it…all in less than a minute…wow!
–I was allowed to fly the machine for several hours and did several landings….but all the landings were inside the protection of a harbor. To show me the true capability of the airplane, the Plane Commander, Commander Toshitaka Kudoh–the Skipper of FS-71, flew out across the open ocean to show me a REAL water landing…in the open ocean. Prior to the landing, the crew flew a pattern to pick a spot for the landing, all the while mapping the ocean wave forms using a precise doppler radar altimeter. The current, waves, and wind were all calculated and considered. Finally, having picked the spot, and the desired direction for the landing, a flare was launched while airborne to mark the spot. Quite a bit of science had led up to this selection. But that’s where the science ended and the pure skill of a man who had flown thousands of hours in THAT US-1A came into sharp focus. He flew a downwind, turned base, set up for the landing. The flare appeared and then disappeared as it rode up and down on the large ocean waves. I lost sight of it for most of the “final”. Then the Skipper brought the airplane down to the surface, for a perfect water landing. It wasn’t smooth, there was no way it could be in those towering waves, but it was precise. As the airplane bounced slightly from one wave-cap to the next, it slowed down, stopped, heaved up and over a wave crest into the trough beyond, with giant waves all around, RIGHT THERE IN FRONT OF US, maybe 50 feet away, was that flare. It lives in my memory as probably the greatest feat of airmanship (and seamanship!) I have ever witnessed.
–I was in awe…..but then I remembered that I was supposed to go watch the raft deployment so I scrambled down onto the main deck and watched the guys get the Zodiac ready like an Indy pit-crew, shoot some kind of rocket-propelled line out to the flare and launch out for their “simulated rescue”. My over-all feeling was “the US ought to have this capability!” and, for awhile, I actually tried to convince some folks to field a capability like this, with a vision of ME being–someday–a quarter as good as Skipper Kudoh.

Aircraft Information
Aircraft Make: Swearingen
Aircraft Model: SA226-T
Aircraft Nickname: Merlin III
Aircraft Mil Civ Description: Airplane ME Turboprop
Category: Airplane
Class: Multi Engine Land
Engine Description: Twin Engine

First Flown Information
Sequence First Flown: 0
Date First Flown: 03/19/2002
Location First Flown: KMHV, Mohave, CA
Who and/or What Organization First Flown With: National TPS, Rich Duprey

Aircraft Experience
As of: 05/09/2020
Number of Hours Flown: 4
Number of Times Flown: 4
Other Aircraft Models Associated:

Recollections: –This airplane was a staple at the National Test Pilot School (NTPS) for many years. It was successful there for at least two reasons: (1) it had some rudimentary instrumentation with stations for flight test engineers in the back to watch the data and, with apologies to my boss Gerry Baker–who worked as a project pilot at Swearingen–(2) it flies really lousy….a good attribute for a school trying to teach pilots how to evaluate handling qualities.

Aircraft Information
Aircraft Make: Beechcraft
Aircraft Model: T-44
Aircraft Nickname: Pegasus
Aircraft Mil Civ Description: Airplane ME Turboprop
Category: Airplane
Class: Multi Engine Land
Engine Description: Twin Engine

First Flown Information
Sequence First Flown: 0
Date First Flown: 04/29/1981
Location First Flown: NAS Corpus Christi, Texas
Who and/or What Organization First Flown With: VT-29, LT Callahan

Aircraft Experience
As of: 05/09/2020
Number of Hours Flown: 113
Number of Times Flown: 58
Other Aircraft Models Associated: C-90, B-200, B-300, U-21, C-12

Recollections:

–One could argue that I shouldn’t break out the King Airs from each other in my airplane count. From a “are they similar?” perspective, I agree….”a King Air is a King Air is a….” I say that having flown several models, including the Beech Starship that, while not strictly a King Air…reminded me so much of one that it was easy to forget you weren’t in a King Air.
–But, I split them up (into 6 models…the U-21, the T-44, the 90, 200, 300 and C-12), because each model represents a different part of my flying career. I will say I could’ve gone overboard and counted the “A” model, the “B” model, etc..and the “350”, etc. So, I showed SOME level of control.
–The FIRST King Air I ever flew was the T-44, in Advanced Navy flight training. I got my wings in it. The King Air is an amazing plane and the T-44 served it’s mission well. But, I didn’t have a “Passion” for the airplane. Creating this record, I had to lookup the nickname….”Pegasus”…I’m pretty sure I NEVER called it that. While a sturdy and capable workhorse it–at least for me–did not inspire the use of a nickname.

Aircraft Information
Aircraft Make: Grumman
Aircraft Model: OV-1
Aircraft Nickname: Mohawk
Aircraft Mil Civ Description: Airplane ME Turboprop
Category: Airplane
Class: Multi Engine Land
Engine Description: Twin Engine

First Flown Information
Sequence First Flown: 0
Date First Flown: 03/31/1986
Location First Flown: NAS Patuxent River, MD
Who and/or What Organization First Flown With: Chris Wheal, USNTPS Instructor

Aircraft Experience
As of: 05/09/2020
Number of Hours Flown: 175
Number of Times Flown: 11
Other Aircraft Models Associated: OV-1B and OV-1D

Recollections:

–I’m one of the few (maybe only) Fixed Wing Syllabus students at TPS who flew the Mohawk as one of their “Group airplanes”. I flew the OV-1 instead of the A-4 because my Fam 1 in the A-4 I just did NOT fit in the machine. This was early in the year for me and I was sure I was going to get kicked out of the school. Instead, they dual-qualified me in the OV-1 AND the T-38. Along with (like everybody else) the T-2. I flew ALL THREE airplanes ALL YEAR. Lemonade out of lemons.
–My first flight in the Mohawk was with Chris Wheal. Chris was one of the finest pilots I ever flew with. Not everybody got along with him…he could be demanding. And impatient. But, if he liked you, you were golden. And he liked me. Every flight with him was a huge learning experience. My first four flights with Chris were in the T-38, NU-1B (2 flights), and the OV-1. Guess I didn’t scare him too badly.
–My relationship with the Mohawk was a “love/hate” relationship. I loved how unique it was (ejection seat Army airplane, left seat flew left-hand on stick with right hand on throttle; fully aerobatic twin engine prop machine, unique flight control system with springs and other unusual features.
–And I hated it because it killed two of my classmates, Captain Scott Paul, USMC and LT John “Mike” Yandell, USN. They died when the OV-1 they were flying got a small piece of “stuff” in the oil system, plugging the auto-feather oil supply line (which was used to “sense” or “determine” if an engine was running…in this case the engine was running just fine but the partially-blocked oil line told the auto-feather system the engine was bad and the system feathered a perfectly good engine), right as they were taking off from NAS Norfolk. They were unable to control the full asymmetry and we lost them. July 15, 1986. Many who heard about the mishap thought it was me in the airplane, because I (with my classmate Dave Porter) were the only ones on the schedule that morning in a Mohawk…Scott and Mike had “added on” and so when people checked the schedule to see “who was in the OV-1?” the answer was “Stoney/Porter”. Dave and I got a radio call from the Duty Officer (who had better SA on what had happened) to “Return to Base immediately”. I was sure we’d done something wrong and were in trouble. When we pulled back into the line, we learned the terrible news. That loss motivated in many of us a passion for safety, to honor Mike and Scott with our actions, that lasts to this day. While that passion is good…it was not worth the cost.