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From Spring '98 Bronco Flyer
OV-10
Rescues Coast Guard
New Home for U.S.AF Bronco 68-03799
Professional
ferry pilots are an unusually innovative and quick thinking group of men
and women. They fly unfamiliar aircraft all over the world, usually with
few problems and sometimes with a bit of excitement. An OV-10 once participated
in a bit of the latter.
Twenty-four
years ago, Ferry Pilot Charles Quilter (then working for Skyways, Inc.
out of Sherman Oaks, CA) was helping to deliver a group of OV-10Cs to
the Royal Thai Air Force. The ferry flight covered 11,384 miles and required
68 flight hours with scheduled stops at Los Angeles, Seattle, Elmendorf,
Adak, Midway, and Wake Islands, Guam, the Philippines, and finally Thailand.
Charlie Quilter published a letter for the April 1974 North American Rockwell
Columbus Division newspaper which described what happened.
Quilter
and company stopped at Midway Island to refuel where they heard a call
for help from the Coast Guard detachment manning the LORAN site on Kure
Island. There was a tropical storm in the area with surface winds from
the west-northwest at 20-40 knots. Two swimmers had been blown out to
sea beyond the reef and the surf was too rough to launch a boat so the
Kure Coast Guard was requesting assistance.
Quilter
volunteered two OV-10s to search the area. At the same time the Midway
SAR helo crew started installing long range tanks in their UH-46. As he
ran out of Ops, Quilter waved a scramble launch signal to Hank West and
told Ed Birdwell to get in the back seat. They were airborne within 5
minutes and set course for Kure Island. Directions to Kure were rather
vague, something about ""`out the 274 degree radial off the
Midway TACAN." Fortunately they were able to reach Kure and the SAR
center on the UHF right after take-off.
As the OV-10s approached the area they heard the SAR helo report airborne six miles off Midway Island making only 80 knots. They located Kure, got directions from a very shaken operator and located the swimmers on the first pass thanks to their red-orange life preservers. The swimmers almost broke their arms waving as the OV-10s came overhead flying cap until the UH-46 arrived. Quilter was able to direct the helo for a "straight in" approach. The helo tried to pick up the swimmers with a horsecollar sling but the swimmers either didn't know how get in or were too cold and tired. A crewman from the UH-46 finally jumped into the water and assisted the swimmers. Everyone was recovered and after a short stop at Kure for blankets, headed for Midway.
New
Home for U.S.AF Bronco 68-03799
Chuck Burin
The picture below shows the 239th OV-10A (the 125th Air Force OV-10A) manufactured by the Rockwell, Columbus, Ohio plant. The plane was sent from the factory to Southeast Asia and assigned to the 23rd Tactical Air Support Squadron, 56th Special Operations Wing, Nakhon Phanom AFB. It also operated from Ubon AFB, Thailand.
This month's featured aircraft was one of 15 U.S.AF OV-10s configured with the laser designator pods as part of the "PAVE NAIL" project. In 1970, LTV Electro systems modified the Air Force OV-10As for night FAC duties tinder the "PAVE NAIL" code name.
These Bronco's
had Martin laser range finders and target illuminators, a night periscope,
and other equipment. The "PAVE NAIL" aircraft were also equipped
with 100 gallon wing tanks, mounted on the missile pylons, in place of
the standard U.S.AF configured 230 gallon centerline fuel tank. The centerline
tank apparently interfered with the laser pod operations. There is a photo
showing 3799 with wing tanks in Air War Vietnam, Middleton page 138. The
systems were removed from the aircraft after they left southeast Asia
in 1974.
68-0399
was transferred to the 19th TASS/51st Combat Wing, Osan AFB, Korea after
May 1974. Another photo of plane, at Osan, can be found on page 48 in
the Japanese magazine KOKU-FAN #45. I also found a British listing showing
the plane assigned to one of the TASS squadrons of the 601st TACW, Sembach
AB, Germany in 1979. It was later assigned to the TASS/507th (SR) at Shaw
AFB, SC. The aircraft was one of six transferred in 1991 to U.S.MC for induction
into the conversion pipeline for the OV-10D+ Service Life Extension Program
(SLEP) modification. The plane was assigned Navy Bureau Number 683799.
When the Marines canceled the remainder of the SLEP project the plane
was reassigned to NASA and moved to their facilities at Langley AFB, VA.
While at
Langley it was used for parts to keep other OV-10As flying until it was
declared excess to NASA's needs and became available for disposal in 1997.
Texas Air Command Museum, Grand Prairie, Texas requested the aircraft
through government channels and was granted custody of the Bronco on May
19, 1997. With the help of NASA and U.S.AF employees, the aircraft was disassembled
and placed on several pallets for shipment. It was moved from Virginia
to Texas during the week of November 8, 1997 and now resides on those
same pallets at Hicks Airport, Grand Prairie, Texas.
The photo accompanying this article was provided by Mike Richardson a former Marine pilot and current American Airlines pilot.
