Edwards Lost a T-38

Occamsrasr · by **Occamsrasr** » 22 May 2009, 01:48

Somone told me that Edwards just had another crash - this time a T-38. Anyone confirm?

Roscoe · by **Roscoe** » 22 May 2009, 16:48

http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123150668

TPS student test pilot was killed, backseater (nav) ejected and OK...damn.

VarkVet · by **VarkVet** » 22 May 2009, 20:12

Very tragic and sad … Edwards’s community is still trying to heal from the last mishap a couple months ago.

Rest in Peace sir. :salute:

Sometimes that dark cloud stalls over a single base … lived through it before (30 years of crewing) and it’s always painful.

This all went down during my stint @ Bentwaters/Woodbridge:

http://warthognews.blogspot.com/2009/05 ... tomer.html

parrothead · by **parrothead** » 23 May 2009, 03:09

My prayers go out to the pilot, his family, friends, and colleagues.

Rest in peace, Sir.

huggy · by **huggy** » 23 May 2009, 07:24

Mark Graziano was a friend of mine. I helped hire him into the U-2 about 3 years ago, with the goal of getting a young, bright guy into the Test World with U-2 experience in his background. It took a bit of convincing: not everyone was thrilled about investing the time and energy to get him up to speed in the U-2 and T-38, only to have him leave after getting only about 18 months of "work" out of him. But we got buy-in, and everyone agreed it was a good thing.
Back in Sept '07, I had just gotten a new hip. It had been about 3 weeks, but I wanted to go to Reno. My wife said "no way", but what did I care! Finally I agreed not to drive. So Mark drove me up there, and I hobbled around for Sat and Sun. We had a great time.
Very unusual guy. Absolutely brilliant in a practical engineering kind of way. Could build anything. Converted his crappy car to burn vegetable oil.
So much I could write here. But I'll pass. Check out www.markdashgraziano.com
Oh,... and I was there when he earned the "Dash" callsign.

VarkVet · by **VarkVet** » 30 May 2009, 08:53

huggy wrote:Mark Graziano was a friend of mine. Check out www.markdashgraziano.com

I feel your pain Sir! … I did not know Dash personally (I’m on the F-16 side) but went to his memorial out of my deepest respect for a Team Mate.
Very touching service as he had some very loving friends that said some very good things about him!
When Beal showed up with their Black T-38’s and did the missing-man … simply BRILLIANT!

:salute:

VarkVet · by **VarkVet** » 30 May 2009, 08:59

On a side note for people that don’t know … as painful as a Class A fatality can be for an air base community… as a crew chief … when your sh*t does not come back home? It’s equal to the loss of a genetic family member.

huggy · by **huggy** » 01 Jun 2009, 02:36

Very touching service as he had some very loving friends that said some very good things about him!
When Beal showed up with their Black T-38’s and did the missing-man … simply BRILLIANT!:salute:

Thanks: I was the flight lead for that. While I wanted to be at the service, I wanted to do that flight for Dash, and make it look good.

VarkVet · by **VarkVet** » 25 Oct 2009, 03:07

Eye opener
Source: http://www.airforce-magazine.com/SiteCo ... report.pdf

Roscoe · by **Roscoe** » 25 Oct 2009, 04:30

I flew that same student sortie in the same tail number in 92. Terrible shame...

huggy · by **huggy** » 26 May 2010, 04:34

Hard to believe this past Friday makes it 1 year.

VarkVet · by **VarkVet** » 11 Jul 2010, 06:46

Good news sir

http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123212777

The seat was never an issue in Marks class A ... nevertheless we had 2 other T-38 class A's that fiscal year where the seats didn't support life.

Good jet now with better seats!

Rumor is some Raptor bases are getting 38's to keep pilots current!

tbarlow · by **tbarlow** » 22 Apr 2011, 01:57

http://usaf.aib.law.af.mil/T-38A_Edwards_21May09.pdf

This is the link to the AIB report

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
AIRCRAFT ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION
T-38A, T/N 68-8153
EDWARDS AIR BASE, CALIFORNIA
21 MAY 2009
On 21 May 2009, at 1319 local time, a T-38A aircraft assigned to the 412th Test Wing, tail number (T/N) 68-8153, impacted the ground 12 miles north of Edwards Air Force Base (AFB), California, while participating in a United States Air Force Test Pilot School (USAFTPS) training mission. The mishap navigator (MN) ejected from the aircraft and sustained serious injuries. The mishap pilot (MP) did not initiate ejection and died upon impact with the ground. The mishap aircraft (MA) was completely destroyed upon impact. The mishap caused minimal damage to unimproved private land.

The MP and MN, both students at the USAFTPS, were conducting a Flying Qualities Longitudinal Static Stability Data mission. This sortie required flying a series of test points at 0.9 Indicated Mach Number and 20,000 feet Mean Sea Level. The MP performed a series of “Pushover” data points, stabilizing the aircraft for level flight and then pushing the nose over to achieve various stable gravitational “g” loadings: 0.7g, then 0.5g, and finally 0.0g conditions. During the last of these tests, the MP’s unsecured hand-held force gage floated up and landed on the ledge above and behind his ejection seat. The MP told the MN he was going to attempt to get the force gage to float back forward to retrieve it. The MN felt a sudden sharp, unexpected nose down (negative “g”) onset, and saw the MP rising up, hitting his helmet on the canopy. The MN experienced total or near-total loss of consciousness. Upon regaining awareness, the MN could see only white. The MP did not respond to the MN’s repeated calls and did not appear to be on the controls. The MN could not sense aircraft movement, and upon making stick control inputs felt the aircraft was not responding. After calling for the MP to eject, the MN ejected from the aircraft. All egress equipment worked properly, but the MN sustained serious injuries due to the out-of-envelope ejection. The MP did not initiate ejection and died upon impact. Site recovery operations indicated at impact the engines were at idle, gear and flaps were up, ailerons and horizontal stabilizer were neutral, and the rudder was 30 degrees left full limit.

The AIB president found clear and convincing evidence that the cause of this mishap was the failure of the rudder operating mechanism, causing the rudder to deflect 30 degrees left. This hardover rudder induced an uncontrollable yaw and a resulting roll, causing the aircraft to depart controlled flight. This condition is unrecoverable in the T-38. The AIB president found substantial evidence to conclude that due to a maintenance error, one of the seven bolts securing the rudder operating mechanism “Critical Safety Items” was improperly secured. The unsecured bolt worked its way free over an unknown period of time, eventually backing out of its location sufficiently to allow the two critical components to separate, thus disconnecting the flight controls from the rudder actuators. The pilot’s properly-executed zero-to-negative-g input was the final—but not causal—condition that allowed the bolt to finally work free, disconnecting the rudder’s controls. The pilot-induced pitch down, followed immediately by a non-pilot-induced rapid yaw and roll, incapacitated the MP, from which he never recovered. Improper maintenance practices, including training, documentation, and oversight of maintenance personnel, were a factor in allowing this mishap.