OV-1

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.