[Auth. note: AMST-16 has necessary background.] As of November 2023, 16 V-22 Ospreys have been damaged beyond repair in accidents that have killed a total of 62 people. Four of the crashes occurred during developmental flight tests; these killed a total of 30...
A Story About a Certain Aviation Technology in Two Parts At last we come to the almost end… too much aerodynamics to put this all in one post. “There are no solutions. There are only trade-offs.”―Thomas Sowell in “A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of...
[Auth. Note - For ease of understanding and full context, you may want to read some or all of the preceding pieces in this series: AMST Intro, AMST 1, AMST 2, AMST 3, AMST 4, AMST 5, AMST 6, AMST 7, AMST 8, AMST...
Another day at the office… “Buddy, you flew that one like Steve McQueen.” Clark ‘Swab’ Cox wasn’t a man of many words - laconic might as well have been made just for him - so it caught me off guard and I laughed. I had just finished my second landing to the...
The venerable CH-46 Sea Knight, the mighty Battle Phrog, now replaced by the tilt-rotor MV-22 Osprey In (at least) Episode 9 of this series, I stated the following: Always remember, Kids! Even under the best of circumstances, it can all go to shit in an instant.One of...
Not Today, Satan! Shortly after Squire’s crash, our squadron got tasked with providing a test pilot - a post-maintenance functional check pilot - to go to MCAS Yuma, AZ, for the upcoming Weapons and Tactics Instructor (WTI) course. Given staffing at the squadron...
Note: Prior pieces in this series can be found at AMST 1, AMST 2, AMST 3, AMST 4, AMST 5, AMST 6, AMST 7, AMST 8, AMST 9, AMST 10] I. An Alpha, Omega, and Alpha… Ron "Wiggy" Walkerwicz’s death on February 16, 1996 (AMST 10), cast a pall over the deployment for me....
I. Prologue - Requiescat in Pace Life got in the way - I had an important motion due in a case - and thus there was a brief hiatus from writing my aviation mishap stories. Now we return with even more gusto! WARNING - the next few episodes, unfortunately,...
[Auth. note - for better context, these are the previous “episodes” in this series: AMST 1, AMST 2, AMST 3, AMST 4, AMST 5, AMST 6, AMST 7] A Collection of Tales Always remember, Kids! Even under the best of circumstances, it can all go to shit in an instant. - One of...
More Stuff Top Gun Never Mentions [Note: Prior pieces in this series can be found at AMST 1, AMST 2, AMST 3, AMST 4, AMST 5, AMST 6, AMST 7] PostScript to a Crash After “the crash” - as I like to think of it - the squadron performed...
Part 7.
Part 6
Part 5
Four.
Spring 1993 - Beginnings and Endings... [Author note: It will probably help if you read AMST-1/Intro and AMST-2 before reading this one for background and context.] When Marines Still Wore Choker Whites - in the background, the CO holds our newest daughter We are...
Part 2.
I'll get to this story (eventually) There I was… in the Ready Room When I was a youngling wanna-be pilot in the post-Top Gun Era of the early ‘90s, there was a military aviation magazine called “Approach” that populated all of the Ready Rooms where we wannabes sat and...
1.2%
6.5 seconds
No? Whattaya mean “no”?!
Still timely!
Well, more like “breaking analysis”.
Fin.
10. We are at Part 10.
Part 9.