Do you have a story to tell ? What your affiliation with the YO was---Those cowlings that were hell to close--a crash--some involvement with the YO--something funny, memorable, personal--a letter home--don't hold out--be a part of this page--tell your story!!!
If you have a tale to tell or trouble getting it down, sketch out the facts and e-mail it to me or call me and I will be glad to help out. e-mail me for the telephone number. Kurt k.olney2@cox.net
Keep the Stories Coming
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From Les Horn: the YO-3A and the FBI
My most graphic memory was when my secretary interrupted a staff conference when she came in with the biggest, shiniest gold badge I had ever seen, clearly emblazoned "FBI" in blue enamel across the center, telling me that there was a gentlemen waiting to see me in the reception area. So I quickly adjourned my meeting, and nearly wet my pants playing the tapes of my life, going back to my first lollypop shoplifting offense, trying to figure out what I had done to deserve this unannounced visit. Then Vance walked in (he had an accomplice with him, his Deputy), glanced over at my YO-3 model sitting on a side table (Schneb had told him that he sent me one), and said over his shoulder, "Yup, there it is. We're in the right place."
It was only then that I realized this was going to be a fun meeting. It was all uphill from there. We met several times initially to scope his requirements; then I took him up to see our Vice Commander, Captain Walt Alt, who cinched the deal.
The Navy had no direct involvement with or knowledge of the FBI's missions on my watch, but Vance did mention to me after the fact that they did some surveillance in support of the Patty Hearst kidnapping, and also of the Wounded Knee incident. Vance apprised me of the fact that the LA basin was at that time the kidnap capital of the free world. The YO had consequently flown several missions hawking ransom recovery sites. The most interesting mission he mentioned was tracking a luxury Chris Craft out of Long BeachHarbor to a night rendezvous with a Soviet AGI offshore, and then back to its slip, where they observed a transfer of stuff to a vehicle which they put ground agents on, who subsequently followed to a house in town.
About the most ambitious activity we participated in together during my time at Pt. Mugu was a joint program we put on with LMSC at a big AIAA banquet. I think it was their annual LAX Chapter meeting -- probably 3-400 people attending,. I recall that Lockheed showed a few excellent marketing documentaries there -- a color film about the QT-2, starring yours truly at Crows Landing, and a really interesting documentary about the entire program, with some beautiful footage of YOs under construction, in flight, and in the landing pattern. I understand that the documentary was made for an early Wings program by WBGH Boston. My brother told me he saw it on TV around that time (1976) -- a full one hour program. I tried to track it down on all the public TV websites (History, Discovery, etc.), but had no luck.
Bill McMillan and Bill Nance told me that they had seen the QT-2 film at MAC-V in late 1968 -- apparently circulated by LMSC, with perhaps some help from DARPA. I tried to locate these films in the DARPA film library, but was quickly discouraged by the stolid, mind numbing procedures, lack of interest, and byzantine access requirements thrown up by the DARPA film archivist.
Karl Grote (SFC U.S. Army Ret.) TI at LTN and BT adds to YO-3A History
I am Karl Grote and was one of the first to arrive FortOrd for this program. I was a Spec5 then and met up with the rest of Army Mechanics, and of course there were Mission Specialists and Army, Marine and Air Force Pilots.
I remember going to the Onion Field private airstrip (I think it was KingCity) for night tests on the aircraft. Then I departed to Sharpe Army Depot to prepare the airplanes for shipment to RVN.
I departed (I believe from Travis Air Force Base, I don't think Sharpe had a runway that handled C-141's) to Rvn in a C-141 with I think 3 YO-3A's on board. I can't remember who else was with me on board the transport. We landed at Ton Son Nhut Airbase by Saigon to assemble the aircraft and then were flown out at night to Long Than North where we met up with the planes.
I was there when one of the planes did the prop strike and go around and land. Also the one that had the engine quit and landed I think just outside of the gate a few hundred yards. Unfortunately it was on my night shift that WO Carl Borcher and a WO Loving (Loving from the 73rd flying as an observer) was killed that night in a crash. The tail number I think was 003. While I was at LTN I was the TI (Tech Inspector.) I worked under CWO Larry Leathers. Then I went to BinhThueyAB near Can Tho with three of us, I think. When I was getting short I was back to LTN to run out my tour.
I have to look in my Military Archives but I have pictures and I think have the Orders of the Detachment that went to LTN. I retired from the ARMY as SFC in May
1987.
Karl Grote
DICK OSBORNE INVESTIGATES CRASH OF 69-18009
I was storing some of my YO-3A parts etc Friday- and I came across the Army-Lockheed manuals package for YO-3A 69-18009.I can give you the story on what happened to this aircraft.
I had been delayed going to RVN with the unit so I could assist with the Accident Board on the 18009 crash (also my son John had been born the July 4th, just before our scheduled deployment--a great gesture by the command to determine that I could remain behind as part of the investigation team.)
18009 were being flown by an Air Force evaluation crew, Major Sweeney and his Observer Major..... They were doing the last flight test of the entire program--observing and adjusting artillery fire. The flying was in mountainous terrain, inside and just below the ring of the "bowl” at Hunter-Leggett.They were adjusting on the target in the bottom of the “bowl”. There was no moon and the area was absolutely dark. Pilot and Observer were concentrating on :1) Maintaining the correct altitudes for the test. 2) Keeping situational awareness with respect to the terrain and 3) Staying over the target but away from the gun line. All this would become the normal every night YO-3A pilot requirements!
Major Sweeny was requested to descend to a lower observation altitude for the final adjusting fire test-which he accomplished with idle power and spoilers. The level off appeared normal and the spoiler open light extinguished normally, but he soon noticed he needed a lot of power to try to hold the altitude.However, he kept losing speed and altitude!
Maj. Sweeny tried opening and closing the spoilers again electrically , and in fact recalled definitely hearing the actuator motor operating, but - N.G. - Even full power would not arrest the descent.
The plane struck the ground in a most fortunate place, all things considered. They impacted, literally skipping off the crest on the upward slope of a hill and then finally came down on the downward slope of the next small hill. I surmised that anyplace else in that bowl floor -or any other impact point, would have probably been lethal for them.
As I recall, Pilot and Observer both had some spinal injury- but they both eventually returned to flight status.Damned scary night for the Air Force team and I doubt they ever volunteered to adjust artillery again. It certainly was not a normal Air Force job description anyway!
As part of the accident team, I tramped around the crash site (I still have a silk parachute from one of the thousands of illumination flares that were then in use.) The bird was busted beyond repair, but the cockpit section was obviously quit strong and was essentially intact which contributed to the crew's survival. I hoped I would not need to test that crashworthiness myself.
I later observed inspections and demonstrations of the systems mock-ups as part of my investigation. I observed how the spoiler torque tube "could" disengage from the drive linkage allowing the spoilers to "float” (NOT CLOSE) while the rest of the tube activated the micro switch giving a false indication that the spoilers were closed, when in fact, they were not.. Therefore, the extinguished "open light!" on Maj. Sweeney's flight leading him to think that the spoilers were closed. Another "fault" became highlighted as well- the springs that were supposed to close the spoiler system if they failed in the open position. Simply put; they were not strong enough to fully close the spoiler system when "declutched".
When I got to RVN, I eventually had the chance to experiment a bit and demonstrated the "weak spring" problem. Subsequently it was decided to put "double springs" on the spoiler closing linkage to prevent that situation from occurring again.
Dick Osborne
LARRY VETTERMAN KEEPS US IN SUSPENSE
My name is Larry Vetterman, I flew the YO-3A in 1971 at AF bien Tuey. Capt Shryock was the Commanding Officer. I remember flying with Danny Bowen and another pilot whose first name was Rick. I have picture of him, Danny and Capt Shryock. I can tell you a number of stories about flying that AC, but will keep them for another time as this is just introduce myself as a fellow YO-YO pilot. The experience was a long time ago but I still remember many of the missions that I was on flying night after night in the Delta. I just talked to Dick Osborne on the phone and we had a great conversation. I wish I has known about the recent reunion. One more note, my name is very well known in the RV aircraft world as I am the manufacturer of exhaust systems for that line of aircraft. My kindest regards and I hope some one gets in touch with me.
BRUCE ELLIOT OFFERS HELP TO MONTE HODGES (NASA)
Webmaster note: Monte Hodges contacted me about a shipping dolly for the NASA YO. I contacted Dick Osborne and Dick contacted Bruce Elliot. Mr. Elliot's email adds some important state-side history to the YO-3A. The following is excerpted from Mr. Elliot’s email to Monte Hodges :
Hello Monte!
…I used to visit you at NASA Ames whenever I was in the Bay area (sometimes in the company of my Lockheed friend Doug Smith) to check up on "your" YO -- and to see if there were any surplus parts -- and new technical advice -- to scrounge! You were always very helpful to us, and I've missed being in touch with you these several years since the move... I'm happy to know you are still very much involved with the airplane and the program.
I got into the shipping dolly loop via Dick Osborne and Kurt Olney, that you are looking for one to facilitate the move of your YO back to Ames. I know Dick has one he would be happy to loan, but it's currently under his airplane on the east coast, and would be quite a chore for him to make available. Dick, in turn, contacted me, and I told him about the one I have that may be a bit easier to lay hands on, and he suggested a direct response to you.
As you may recall, I acquired 005 many years ago up here in WA State and a bit later 001 in CA when the Smithsonian released it to Fred Patterson. 001 was on a dolly when it was moved (on loan) from Fred's hangar at Nut Tree to the Hiller Museum in San Carlos which, as you well know, is conveniently just up the road from Moffett. Once there, the airplane was reassembled and cosmetically restored, and I presume the dolly was placed in storage (along with some other items pertaining to 001) somewhere in the San Carlos/South Bay area.
Monte, by all means please feel free to contact the Hiller organization and express to them my authorization (for what it's worth!) to borrow and use this dolly. At the very least, it may help us find where it -- and the other items -- are located and stored. And downstream, I have in mind a need for it also to move 005, so it would be helpful to me to get a handle on it as well, and hopefully everything will fall into place…
Best regards,
Bruce Elliot
GERRY SIBLEY SHEDS MORE LIGHT ON YO-3A PROGRAM
I was at Long Binh for 24 months and went to Long Thanh North several times with LTC William V. Bournes. I was at Long Binh as technical advisor to the Aviation Division of ACTIV, the Army Concept Team in Vietnam. ACTIV was the unit responsible for the field evaluation of the YO. It was not in the YO operational chain of command however. I was a civilian working for Booz Allen Applied Research Inc which had been hired by the Army to provide technical advice to ACTIV. I had no contact with Lockheed. LTC Bournes was the ACTIV project officer responsible for writing the report on the operational evaluation of the YO and I worked directly with him.
Gerry Sibley
(Gerry has made contact with William V Bournes 2/22/04)
GENERAL WALKER TELLS THE CHILLING CRASH STORY OF YO-3A 002
Approximately 10 PM on a November night in 1970, I was taking off to the Southwest at Long Thong North in Aircraft # 18002. I believe Jim Dreska was in the front seat, but I'm not sure. We were over the perimeter lights about 50 to 100 feet up when it felt like we stopped accelerating. (Not that we ever felt a lot of acceleration) That was the first indication of an engine stoppage. I got out a "MayDay" call and decided I had better try to restart the engine. Note: I had experienced three other engine stoppages before this one and I got all of them restarted in the air. I got this one restarted too, but at a bad time because it started just as the aircraft hit the ground. When I realized that the engine had quit, I turned the aircraft toward where I knew the road should be, but I could not see it because it was completely dark, I also tried to get the landing gear down so if we made the road we might be in better shape, in addition as you may recall, the taxis light was mounted on the gear and I was desperately needing some light. The right wing hit some "Elephant" grass, causing the A/C to turn right bringing the nose forward and down. This in fact caused us to "Cartwheel" over the 8 foot road embankment and skid down the road backward coming to a stop with the tail hanging off the other side. As we were skidding down the road backward, I saw fire coming out from under the engine on the right side just in front of the right wing. After coming to a stop and getting out of the aircraft I found no fire. In fact what I saw must have just been sparks caused by the a/c metal coming into contact with gravel on the road.
After getting out of the a/c, I was talking to the tower on my emergency radio on the "Guard" frequency when I heard the tower operators talking to the security force about gunfire on the East side of the airfield. I enquired about that situation and was told the entire field was going on alert. I had been involved in airfield alerts before and knew it was very likely that the troops on the perimeter would shoot at any thing they saw or thought they saw. I told the observer to get in the ditch and to stay down. From the look he gave me, I know he thought I had hit my head, or otherwise had lost all the sense I may have ever had, however he did as he was told. I also told the tower to be sure he informed the security force that we were on the road and for them to keep anyone from shooting our way.
Since we were talking on "Guard" everyone flying that night was overhearing our conversation. Several flights of Air Force and Navy attack aircraft offered to assist by way of diverting and dropping their ordnance in our defense, but I was more worried about the soldiers on our perimeter than I was about the enemy.
I can still picture in my mind the Crash-Rescue truck arriving at the compound gate with all its lights rotating and blinking. It stopped at the gate because the gate was locked and they could not find the key. The gate was approximately 200 to 300 yards from us straight down the road. We could see all kind of people milling around trying to get the gate unlocked. I still question if they would have broken through the gate with the crash-rescue truck if we had been burning. Thank goodness we were okay.
I can also vividly recall seeing Maj Jack Schlater leading a group of YO-3A people, climbing up and through the gate, carrying an M-60 Machine Gun and coming to us to establish a defensive position around us. That was a very big relief. Maj Schlater should have received some type of recognition for having the intelligance and guts to come to our aid.
You can see pictures of 18002 elsewhere on this website.
General George Walker (retired)
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FRED BAUMERT CHECKS IN
I was a mission equipment specialist along with Steve Ford and another guy whose face I can still see but whose name escapes me now. I was in the first YO-3A group that departed from Stockton with three sassembled YO's and a group of about 10-12 persons in a huge airplane of the kind you showed on the website. That was a neat trip. I remember going up to the cockpit in the middle of the night and the navigator was checking out the plane's position using celestial navigation to back up the radar and other electronic positioning devices. Interesting stuff.
Following initial work at Long Thanh, a group of us were sent to Binh Thuy Air Base near Cantho, where we flew missions and finished out the remainder of our tours. Some of those I remember there were Kurt Corbett, Mark Crampton, Roger Edwards, Irv Gossman, Robert Chitwood, Jim Dretzka . . . as well as pilots Captain Walker, R.E. Osbourne and others.
My brother, who was an electronics technician in civilian life, accused me of being a mere black box puller. I had to continually remind him of the danger and importance of this special mission in Vietnam.
Fred Baumert
WALKER AND BLACK IN CAMBODIA
I got out of Viet Nam on the 16th of June 1971. I never went back stateside with the YO-3As. You guys went to Viet Nam first. We packaged up the remaining YO-3As and rode over with them from Sharp army Depot to Long Than North. There we spent our time.
I flew mostly with Mr. Carpenter. We had the fuel problem with 002 after a mission.
If you ever talk to Cpt Walker ask if he remembers our jaunt into Cambodia when we went up the wrong river at the Parrots beak. We never said much about it after the flight.
It was Capt. Walker and Jim Dreska who crashed over the Burm at Long Than. In 002 also. I believe that was the last flight of 002.
I thought it was Jim Dreska and Mr. Osborn who did the wheel up landing at the naval base when we flew out of there for a little while. The NVAP never made a good landing Gear.
Thank for the Memories
Alvin Black
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SONNY MORROW BALANCES THE PROP ON YO-3A 007
I am the new pilot that Richard Emery is talking about in his hair raiser story. When you look at the tail number, you are going to flip. The information below is a direct quote from a carbon copy of the incident report I have which was submitted at 060700Z by CW2 Kenneth M. Kunke, Unit ASO.
1. 6 Apr 71 0145 night 2. Runway 05 Long Thanh North AAF 3. YO-3A 18007 4. 73rd SAC APO 96530 5. Incident, damage to propeller tips, estimated cost unknown 6. Pilot: Morrow, Sidney H., Cpt, 73rd SAC, APO 96530 No Injury 7. N/A 8. N/A 9. DCS, VFR, MR4, Zero 10. Takeoff 11. On takeoff roll just prior to lift off the propeller contacted the runway. Lift off was completed, pilot remained closed traffic and landed without further incident or damage. 12. No 13. None 14. None 15. None 16. a. N/A b. N/A c. N/A d. Aircraft not equipped with crash resistant fuel cells and fuel lines e. None 17. Kenneth M. Kunke 73rd SAC APO 96530
Recall that on takeoff, if we did not have sufficient airspeed and the runway takeoff decision point was nearing, we as pilots could drop the nose slightly to get a bit more airspeed or make the decision to abort the takeoff. In the YO, the throttle, prop and mixture were in the left hand for take off and the stick was in the right. Unfortunately, the trim tab was on the right side of the cockpit and you had to take your left hand off the throttle to grab the stick and then adjust the trim tab with your right hand then reverse the procedure. This procedure had to occur in a few seconds.
I can also recall numerous missions aborted by pilots at the decision point and then asking the tower permission to turn around on the overrun and try a takeoff going the other direction. Usually you could do this procedure only once and if you did not get off on the second try, then we had to shut down the engine due to overheating. With the 6 bladed prop mixed with the high DA and zero or minimal winds, late night takeoffs were always a thrill a minute.
Sonny Morrow
QUENTIN BURDEN CONFIRMS YO-3A WAS ROLLED
Was the YO-3A rolled? Yes! I talked with Quentin Burden (QB) today and asked him that question. He said that it first occurred when we were demonstrating the YO-3A at night at Ft. Belvoir, VA near D.C. Our goal on that trip was to fly every flag officer that we could find, let them operate the NVAP Sensor, and fly over as many ground observers as possible. We would typically buckle our guest in, launch, and then make a low pass over the crowd with the aircraft lights ON. We'd extinguish the lights directly over the crowd and the YO-3A would just disappear! We'd fly straight through, turn either way, do a 180, or circle overhead. No one could track the aircraft. They were awestruck! On one flight USN Captain Lindberg (sp?) was aboard and was given the aircraft controls and he abruptly rolled the aircraft in an unplanned maneuver! QB described the maneuver as follows: The YO-3A rolled about 180 degrees, hesitated, sorted itself out, and then continued through 360 degrees (probably shocking QB). The YO-3A (and all of the Quiet Aircraft) was known to have an adverse roll/yaw couple. The USN Test Pilot School (NTPS) exploited the adverse yaw/roll characteristic to teach their pilots the phenomenon: They preferred to teach the phenomenon at relatively low speed in the Quiet Aircraft, rather than relatively high jet fighter speed.
DRS (Jan 2004)
BRENT SILVER (LOCKHEED): YO-YO NUTS AND BOLTS
I worked at Lockheed on the design of the YO-3A. The YO-3A was kind of an ugly beast, wasn't it?
Don Galbraith was the boss of the group that originated the idea of a quiet airplane -- for DARPA, I believe. Sherm Seltzer was brought in later on as one of the honchos. Both nice guys.
Galbraith's group at LMSC was supposed to come up with neat ideas that could be further developed by other groups. There was a need for a covert observation aircraft in V.N. "Covert" in those days meant not undetected by radar, but rather, undetected by humans -- as the V.C. side of the war was pretty unsophisticated.
To be undetected, the aircraft had to be unseen and unheard. Flying a dark airplane on a dark night tended to take care of the first requirement. The second meant quieting the airplane -- a lot!
Galbraith's group asked: what's a quiet airplane? "A sailplane," was the answer. So, that's how they started the idea of modifying a sailplane.
I had been working at LMSC on space stuff but jumped at the chance to get on an airplane project. Everyone on the project (hush-hush, literally) was saying how the QT was "state of the art." First thing I did was to go back through old NACA reports and I found a ton of literature on quiet aircraft technology during WWII. In fact, we (Americans) had modified some observation aircraft during WWII to make them quiet. (So, the QT and its successors were "state of the art" only if you forgot 25 year old technology.)
I soon realized that it wasn't necessary to start with a sailplane to make it quiet. We could have (and I think, should have) started with an existing observation aircraft -- such as the Helio Courier.
The trick to making a piston-powered aircraft quiet is this:
1. Reduce the propeller tip speed. So, gear the engine and use a multi-bladed prop. (BTW, the Courier already had a geared engine -- and a change of gearing would have enabled the prop to turn even slower.)
2. Muffle the engine exhaust.
3. Make sure there are no other noise sources -- such engine intake noise, aerodynamic "whistles," etc.
4. Keep the power requirements low (light wing loading and fairly clean aerodynamics).
Most of our problems in creating the YO-3A were not in making it quiet, but in making a sailplane into a powered airplane -- and a "military" one at that. The military always had more requirements to meet. The YO-3A ended up way too heavy! (Frankly, it was a dog in the performance department).
My big contribution to the project was to redesign the muffler. The first engine muffler had been designed by an engineer whose background was in architectural acoustics. His muffler didn't work well at all, because he didn't address low frequency noise. I designed a new muffler and achieved a noise reduction of 20 dB of the fundamental (low freq) beat -- with negative back pressure. (It was a great muffler and it saved the project, in my not so humble opinion.)
Looking back on it -- the YO-3A was an interesting airplane but it could have been so much better (and cheaper) -- if it had evolved from an existing airplane, not a sailplane, and if the military hadn't demanded so much stuff on it. At least, that's my opinion.
Brent Silver (I was at LMSC from about 1963 to 1969).
I worked at Lockheed on the design of the YO-3A. The YO-3A was kind of an ugly beast, wasn't it?
Galbraith was the boss of the group that originated the idea of a quiet airplane -- for DARPA, I believe. Sherm Seltzer was brought in later on as one of the honchos. Both nice guys.
Galbraith's group at LMSC was supposed to come up with neat ideas that could be further developed by other groups. There was a need for a covert observation aircraft in V.N. "Covert" in those days meant not undetected by radar, but rather, undetected by humans -- as the V.C. side of the war was pretty unsophisticated.
To be undetected, the aircraft had to be unseen and unheard. Flying a dark airplane on a dark night tended to take care of the first requirement. The second meant quieting the airplane -- a lot!
Galbraith's group asked: what's a quiet airplane? "A sailplane," was the answer. So, that's how they started the idea of modifying a sailplane.
I had been working at LMSC on space stuff but jumped at the chance to get on an airplane project. Everyone on the project (hush-hush, literally) was saying how the QT was "state of the art." First thing I did was to go back through old NACA reports and I found a ton of literature on quiet aircraft technology during WWII. In fact, we (Americans) had modified some observation aircraft during WWII to make them quiet. (So, the QT and its successors were "state of the art" only if you forgot 25 year old technology.)
I soon realized that it wasn't necessary to start with a sailplane to make it quiet. We could have (and I think, should have) started with an existing observation aircraft -- such as the Helio Courier.
The trick to making a piston-powered aircraft quiet is this:
1. Reduce the propeller tip speed. So, gear the engine and use a multi-bladed prop. (BTW, the Courier already had a geared engine -- and a change of gearing would have enabled the prop to turn even slower.)
2. Muffle the engine exhaust.
3. Make sure there are no other noise sources -- such engine intake noise, aerodynamic "whistles," etc.
4. Keep the power requirements low (light wing loading and fairly clean aerodynamics).
Most of our problems in creating the YO-3A were not in making it quiet, but in making a sailplane into a powered airplane -- and a "military" one at that. The military always had more requirements to meet. The YO-3A ended up way too heavy! (Frankly, it was a dog in the performance department).
My big contribution to the project was to redesign the muffler. The first engine muffler had been designed by an engineer whose background was in architectural acoustics. His muffler didn't work well at all, because he didn't address low frequency noise. I designed a new muffler and achieved a noise reduction of 20 dB of the fundamental (low freq) beat -- with negative back pressure. (It was a great muffler and it saved the project, in my not so humble opinion.)
Looking back on it -- the YO-3A was an interesting airplane but it could have been so much better (and cheaper) -- if it had evolved from an existing airplane, not a sailplane, and if the military hadn't demanded so much stuff on it. At least, that's my opinion.
Brent Silver (I was at LMSC from about 1963 to 1969).
GREAT STORY FROM RICHARD "WHISPERDICK" OSBORNE
Dale put me onto your site- Very Good!!!!!!!!
I did not make it into Phu Bai- I went to Binh Thuy instead- plenty of adventures there-
I particularly appreciate your memorium to Bill Borchers- and Marty Loving-a great personal loss to me- Bill and I had been classmates for a time- and Marty and my hooch mate Sam Osborne were great friends in the photo lab-
We all certainly went to our war with trepidation- so untried the concept- so naked and slow in flight- but- I came to respect the capabilities of that small aircraft- and eventually looked into the teeth of the tiger- and the tiger didn't even know we were there!!! And that was when we were only 100 feet overhead!. I wasn't the first to do that- That honor- as far as I know goes to Captain Bob Shryock- he took over for me on a mission I had been working until my fuel ran low- I refueled and returned to the AO and he had finally gotten clearance to fire on the target! I had been unable to verify who- and what the target was- there were over 80 campfires buring on the ground- and many personnel around them. Finally- out of frustration- he powered back and glided down to about 100 foot overhead and visually identified "my battallion of NVA troops" drring off their equipment and themselves after a thunderstorm! He was able to fire one round from a 155mm battery- when I returned to relrelieve him as he was running low on fuel- Having seen the first round flash so far away from the NVA that they didn't even bother to get up- I made a call of "drop 1000, fire for effect"!
The luckiest call I ever made as the round exploded in the middle of one of the fires! Well- that got their attention- !
A night to remember- but one that Capt. Shryock should have gotten some significant recognition for -along with his observer , of course for their brave dedication!
I do have a substantial amount of spares for the aircraft-as does Bruce Elliott.
I am in the process of completeing what has been my long time dream- to acquire an airport property- build a hanger and home- and- put my YO-3A #003 back in the air.
The U.S. Army YO-3A and the U.S. Navy VAL-4 OV-10 Broncos and the (FAW-10?) P-3 Orions participated sinking the largest of the Viet Nam War: The North Vietnamese a SL-8 Trawler.
The "Flying Black Pony" Pilots were the first to sink steel-hulled -ocean-going vessel since World War II.
Also participating, were:
- USCGC Morgenthau
- USCGC Rush
- US Gunboat Antelope - VNN Gunboat HQ-619
This section will be completely re-written, using recently acquired information and more from other participating organizations. For immediate reading, see Kit Lavell's "Flying Black Ponies" and www.blackpony.org "New Stuff"/ Trawler
DRS
SONNY MORROW’S CLOSE CALL Attached for the fun of it is a copy of my Broken Wing Award. To my knowledge, I was the only YO pilot to receive one. Situation was that the engine failed and we glided about 5 miles and took 7 minutes to get down. When I sent out the MAYDAY, and got the alert started, all the OV-1 pilots talked to me and divided up my uniforms, took over my room, claimed my air conditioner and then wished us good luck. Then the TO had to pull the emergency gear release because if we dropped the gear earlier, we would have never cleared the wire on the top of the burm, it was that close. Probably 1-2 seconds between gear drop/lock and touchdown on the overrun. We never made it to the runway itself, but never a scratch on bird. BTY, this was the same bird the Boucher was killed in. I though it was a fuel vapor lock, but we could never prove anything. I have never seen the crash report on that bird, but would be interesting to see if they mentioned vapor lock. Also,
I was the project officer at FortOrd that pulled things together and LNO between Lockheed and the Army, then sent the birds off to RVN. I later joined the group with Michael B. Howe and John Driscol became the CO after Howe left. I flew out of Long Than North only. Col Howe retired and for some time worked in DC for Cyprus International and lived in the VA/DC area. John Driscol also lived in the DC area and left the Army after an assignment to Ft.Belvoir. I replaced Robert Cox as the Ops officer for the unit. I was there when John Driscol and I went to 1st Avn Bde HQ and they told us to stand down. Subquently was reassigned to the 201 avn co in Pleque flying slicks.
RICHARD EMERY'S HAIR RAISER
I was on a mission with a new pilot during the heat of the early darkness, and he had a real hard time getting lift. He ended up putting the prop into the runway and taking off some of each blade. We did take off with one hell of a vibration from the props. We circled around and landed OK. I haven't been able to remember his name.
ROGER EDWARD’S CLOSE CALLS
I was in the first TO class. We were assigned to Ft.Ord for additional training in the YO3A. No one knew much about it until we got there. On a training flight at Ord, one of the pilots ground off the propeller tips when he nosed the craft too far forward. I flew with the same pilot at Phu Bai. He about killed me on take off one night--tried to take off with his spoilers open. At about 80 kts, I thought what the hell is going wrong. The berm was fast approaching. I looked out on the wing and the spoilers were wide open. He got them closed and we were off like a rocket (if that was ever possible.)
Moved down to the Delta area and flew with Osborne. He saved my ass one night when our engine quit. He calmly started it up and we decided to call it a night. So I guess things balanced out, one pilot tried to kill me and the other, Osborne, saved me.
MONTE HODGES NASA EXPERIENCE
You are correct in your number on the aircraft (69-18010) we have here at Dryden. I had one fun time in Mojave airport one December day. We were flying back from Dallas to Ames Research Center and stopped at Mojave airport for gas. Of course the winds seems to be always blowing in Mojave. Well we stopped and opened the canopy and the aircraft started rolling backwards. Needless to say we closed the canopy quickly and waited till the ground crew came out to help us with the chocks.
I started working on this YO-3A in 1978 and have been working on it off and on every since. We had some problems with the heat also. We made a short exhaust pipe that we put on the engine when we didn't use the airplane for sound testing. We removed the flex tail pipe on the right side of fuselage and put a short pipe pointing down at that position. It seemed to help on the heat build up and made the noise of the engine sound like a typical small air plane engine. We also had one pilot that claimed he had a electrical failure on a flight and the gear didn't come down and he hit the ground with the prop and damaged it. We had to trim about one in off the end of each prop and put new fiberglass covers over the end of each prop. After re-balancing the props they worked really good. I agree with you with the tight fit in the rear of the fuselage. I could never get my butt back in there.
ROGER EDWARDS AND KURT OLNEY: R&R BANGKOK
Good to hear from you Kurt! I’ll never forget our trip to Bangkok. One of my favorite stories to tell was when you ordered from the street vendor what looked like a bowl of soup and it was except for the chicken head that was still in it. And then our time in the bar where you picked out this good looking gal but in good light she about and inch of pancake makeup and looked about 50. Then we got hijacked on the canal and had to pay extra to get back to shore. It was good to be young and ignorant. (Kurt's note to this: Roger, she was at least 80. I know-- I met her great granddaughter. When I get time I am going to expand on that hijacking story.)
KURT OLNEY'S LETTER HOME
APRIL 1970, FT ORD YO-3A TRAINING
My dad found this letter and returned it to me. I was sp/4 and 20 years old when I wrote this. It was just before deployment to Vietnam from our yo-3a training school at Ft. Ord. In our briefing we were told not to tell anyone about the details of the YO-YO or its operation. My father is a retired U.S. Army Major ( WWII combat veteran.) He had rank on me and my mother was worried. My brother was a Mohawk pilot and had recently returned from 73rd RAC (He was there for Tet) --and now I was going to Nam. So I talked ( I hope I am past the statue of limitations.) If you know the yo-3a, I think you will find this both telling and amusing.
April, 1970
Ft. Ord California
YO-3A training course
Dear Folks,
Now that things have settled down I’ll fill you in on what I’m involved in here.Enclosed is a photo of the yo-3a.It’s the only picture I have of it right now.The plane is a Schwitzer glider that has been adopted to a six cylinder continental engine.It’s designed to run with almost no noise.The first time I heard it run up, it sounded like a small car.It flies at night at about 1500 ft.Its only defense is that it cannot be heard on the ground from that altitude. It deploys a starlight scope that cost around 200,000 dollars to develop and adopt for this plane.The plane itself cost 1 million dollars a piece and there are ten of them.The reason so much is they’re not assembly line made.
The plane is capable of spotting a five foot man from 2000 feet in the air.As you can see its only mission is night reconnaissance.The whole program has 6 months to prove itself—if it doesn’t wow what a waste of money.
This plane is going to 2 bases in Nam.One of them will be around Saigon and another will be somewhere just South of the DMZ. They haven’t told us where it is yet because its all classified (the actual location that is.)
Apparently they don’t know if we’ll get a leave or not before we go over.I think if they don’t I’ll write my Congressman and get everybody I know to do the same.I’m sure if we go to the IG we’ll get leave.I don’t know anybody that’s had to go to nam that first didn’t get a leave.
One thing is sure I’ll be glad when this next year is over.It seems like I’ve been in the army all my life and it seems like forever before I get out.
Oh yea we’ll be going over with Civilians from Lockheed.I don’t know what they’re paying these guys to go but I’ll bet you it’s a sum.They’re kind of goofy guys anyway – they live, eat and talk aircraft.
From what I know right now I’ll bet this mission flops.You wouldn’t believe some of the stuff they’ve told us about the plane.Its never been tested in a climate like Nam, the propeller is run by 12 rubber bands (that’s no joke either.)The plane is capable of a five hour mission but the observer who uses the starlight scope has to look through a single eye piece—man after five hours what eye fatigue.
Then, what they expect of the ground crews.We’re supposed to know how to repair everything on it.They’re not making us just engine trained or airframe trained, but they want us to do everything.With nine planes and twenty-eight men I don’t see much sleep ahead.This whole thing seems like a funny game.
--and you should see it take off.It takes forever for it to get moving forward—after what seems like a minute or so it gets up to 55 mph and then lifts off the ground and kinda “hangs” for a second or tow then it gets going.
If they get this plane to do everything theyplan to have it do its going to take a lot of luck.I’m glad I don’t fly it.If its ever spotted by the enemy from the ground you can kiss that plane and crew good bye. (there’s no armor plating on it and it flies at a cruz speed of 80-90knots .)
Now that you know all about what’s happening you can rest your curiosity.I’ll stop here and let you know what develops.
Love,Kurt
OLNEY'S LETTER HOME FROM PHU BAI
My father found another one of my letters I sent home while at Phu Bai.
Aug 18, 1970
Phu Bai
Dear Folks,
Well the Monsoons have come. It started raining the day before yesterday and hadn’t quit yet.We haven’t done any flying since it started so we’ve been goofing off.
When we came out to the maintenance shack this morning the whole building was standing in one foot of water.Apparently all the water runs down to this end of the air field.
Oh yea I saw an article in Mechanics Illustrated about the YO-3A. Apparently the ‘YO’ was in TOM SWIFT AND HIS FLYING MACHINE: “Silent Sam for Uncle Sam,” cried Tom in delight.“I’m sure the gov’t ought to be glad to get this plane for air scout work.It’s a success.A great success.”
Speaking of the YO.The inverter problem has been solved but now the main bearings on the reduction system are ‘caput.’ While the bad weather is here we should get the modification for it so we can be flying when it gets hot and sunny again.
Speaking of weather, would you believe it’s 75 today.I ‘m actually cold.Last night it got down to 70.Everything just kind of stays damp—like it was raining or something. A lot of the guys who’ve been here for the last monsoon have got electric blankets. I never thought this place ever got cool.
Oh yea, ma, Camp Eagle is on the other side of the road.Cousin Olney lives over there.All the fighting you hear about is on the other side of the mountain.The place is the Ashaw Valley.Hue is 30 miles from Laos and 20 miles from the DMZ.Phu Bai is 10 miles south of Hue.This place is pretty secure and it’s a large base.The ones getting attacked are small fire bases (infantry and artillery units.) Don’t get excited.If Phu Bai gets attacked it will make big news since this is Northern most stronghold and supply channel in the Northern I corp.
Well Ta Ta for now and don’t get ulcers from worrying.