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Edwards’ squadron writes book on CV-22 training

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Francesca Carrano
  • 95th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AFMCNS) --  By combining the capabilities of two distinctly different aircraft, the Air Force, working with the Navy and Marine Corps, is closer to providing warfighters advanced and reliable tools to accomplish their mission.

Although the CV-22 Osprey is still undergoing developmental tests, it began moving into operational testing with Air Force Special Operations Command, headquartered at Hurlburt Field, Fla., crews in December here.

At that time, crews began training in this unique hybrid aircraft.

“The CV-22 is a tilt-rotor aircraft designed to take off like a helicopter — either vertically or on a short-roll takeoff — then move what we call the nacelles or the prop-rotor engine combination from a vertical to a horizontal position gradually so it converts into an airplane,” said Maj. Percy Dunagin, 18th Flight Test Squadron, Detachment 1 commander. “The CV-22 flies most of its mission with the props facing forward. Then when you prepare to land, it can tilt the nacelles back up to land like a helicopter.”

The aircraft’s agility makes it capable of high-speed, high-altitude flight.

This aircraft brings the capabilities of a medium-lift helicopter and the speed of a medium-lift, fixed-wing transport together, giving the operators capabilities to do long-range, deep infiltrations and exfiltrations in small areas that otherwise they would not be able to get done quickly enough, Major Dunagin said.

The 18th FLTS, Det. 1 is primarily performing training missions on the two Air Force CV-22s that call Edwards home.

“We’re taking the airplanes, learning how to fly them and learning how we are going to employ the aircraft for use by the U.S. Special Operations Command in future conflicts,” said Maj. Steven Breeze, 18th FLTS, Det. 1 director of operations.

Training the actual Special Operations crews at Edwards has allowed the test team to gather valuable data that can be passed on to the 71st Special Operations Squadron at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., Major Breeze said.

“Since most of us have never flown this aircraft before, you have to start a pyramid of training,” Major Breeze said. “The top of the pyramid has to become experts so they can pass that knowledge all the way down to the actual students who will come out of pilot training to start flying the airplane.”

As part of the training in the last few weeks, the CV-22 crews have been conducting formation flights here. During this training, flight engineers, pilots and maintainers gather information on the CV-22 to increase understanding about the unique capabilities this plane will bring to Special Operations.

Aircraft preparation and preflight times are probably half of what it used to take on previous airframes — helicopter or fixed wing, said Tech. Sgt. Matt Pipal, 18th FLTS, Det. 1 flight engineer.

“In the air, the cockpit management system keeps the flight engineer and the rest of the crew aware of all the aircraft’s systems,” Sergeant Pipal said. “You can use this system data to make the proper decision on each particular aircraft discrepancy. Also, this data can be downloaded after the flight, so the aircrew and maintainers can get a good cross flow on how the aircraft performed during the flight.”

Much like the preflight times for the flight engineers, turn-around time for CV-22 maintainers has also been cut nearly in half, said Tech. Sgt. Dennis Hudon, 18th FLTS, Det. 1 CV-22 quality assurance.

With integrated avionics, the CV-22 can troubleshoot itself and provide information via a control panel where maintainers can check hydraulic, oil and other levels without having to go into the gear boxes to visually inspect each level, Sergeant Hudon said.

“This is a very reliable aircraft,” said Sergeant Hudon. “We’ve been doing the formation flights these past few weeks and we’ve actually been able to take the two aircraft and turn them each day to make these flights. For a normal aircraft squadron, doing this without a spare is pretty much unheard of; it just proves the reliability of this aircraft and how easy it is to maintain.”

The CV-22 is the Air Force Special Operations variant of the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft. Modifications to the Osprey aircraft made for the CV-22 variant are concentrated in the areas of communication, navigation, mission management and aircraft survivability.