This is another Flight story.
FCF over Southwestern Germany
Sembach AB, West Germany
Circa: 1980
I was the Noncommissioned Officer In charge (NCOIC) of the jet engine inspection section of the aircraft phase inspection dock. My job was to perform aircraft engine inspections, manage/supervise several technicians, and sign-off all the engine work done.
I was responsible for it.
One of my duties was too fly on some of the Functional Check Flights (FCF) after the aircraft had completed it’s phase inspection and was all put back together.
These FCF’s were a blast to fly on as the aircraft was put through all it’s capabilities except for live weapons firing. Flight control checks including: rolls, loops, and stalls; engine checks including feathering shutdown and restarts; and com radio checks.
As usual I most always carried my pocket Kodak 110 camera, as you never knew what was going to happen on a FCF or what you might see.
I followed the pilot (1st Lt.) around as we did the preflight walk around inspection. We then talked a bit about the flight, where we were going, and went over the safety issues and the emergency ejection procedures. I had never flown a FCF with a Lt. before.
We climbed into the aircraft and the crew chief assisted us in strapping in. We started engines and we pulled the ejection initiator pin and held it up for the crew chief to see. Then we secured it in its canvas pouch.
We received clearance to taxi to the runway and the crew chief pulled the wheel chocks for us.
Out of the bomb blast revetment we taxied, down the taxiway, and stopped short of the runway. After receiving clearance from the tower to take-off we pulled out onto the runway. The pilot pushed the throttle up and up to full power and the engine propellers were just singing to us with a nice smooth hum. All sound good and within 20 or 30 seconds the pilot released the brakes and we were rolling down the runway.
Part way down the runway we lifted off and started a smooth climb out with a left turn over one of the local villages. Our assigned airspace was about 40-45 minutes flight time southwest of the base. Reserved airspace was required for a FCF as we would be doing all types of aerobatics, which required big changes in altitudes.
Once we reached our assigned block of airspace we got out our FCF manuals and put the aircraft through it paces. Banks, turns, rolls, stalls, and high speed dives all with putting G-Forces on the aircraft. I did not mind the positive G-Forces, but those negative G-Forces sometimes flipped my stomach. I always carried an airsickness bag just incase.
During the FCF flight control maneuvers we were always too busy for me to take pictures, but once that part of the flight was completed the pace slowed down and the flight was no longer violent.
On this FCF all was going extremely well until we got to the engine portion. We were required to feather the propellers thus making the engines shutdown. This was done one engine at a time. We were flying along and feathered number 1 propeller and the engine shutdown. When the propeller is in feather position it is straight into the wind and will not rotate (see attached pictures). To restart the engine the propeller is taken out of feather and as the propeller blades turn the air stream starts spinning the propeller and the engine and when fuel and ignition is added the engine will light off and start operating.
Well the number 1 engine feathered perfectly and we flew along for a minute and then it was time to restart the number 1 engine. The pilot selected un-feather and the propeller did not move out of the feather position. Repeat attempts had the same results.
I was sitting there thinking to myself, “****, as soon as we land my crew and I have work to do, likely overtime!”
Just then the pilot said something that shook me up. “Well, at least we can complete the FCF, going to feather number 2 engine.”
I snapped quickly and said, “No wait, don’t.”
The pilot said, “Why we can finish out the FCF?”
I replied, “What if, the problem with number 1 engine is also on number 2 engine and we sure as hell can’t glide 45 minutes back to base.”
The fact was if number 2 failed to restart for any number of reasons we would be forced to eject from the aircraft risking injury. The canopy on the OV-10 Bronco does not eject off the aircraft, the crewmembers eject through the canopy plexi-glass, something I really did not want to experience.
We headed for the base and declared an in-flight emergency do to one engine shutdown.
We hoped that before we landed that engine did not fail us for any reason. The 45-minute flight was uneventful and the pilot made a nice smooth, safe landing.
, smiling at me and others gave the 
