T-6C Texan IIs

[TombsRIP]

Have either of the newly delivered ac been seen out flying since delivery please?
Or are they being used initially for groundcrew training etc.?

Any info appreciated.

Cheers MG

[Red Dragon]

After their arrival they were promptly wheeled into the hanagars to be dismantled etc for maintenance familiarity etc, rumour has it they won't be airborne until mid/late April for Senior Instructor training to write up the training manual etc. If I hear of a firm date I'll post it here.

[TombsRIP]

After their arrival they were promptly wheeled into the hanagars to be dismantled etc for maintenance familiarity etc, rumour has it they won't be airborne until mid/late April for Senior Instructor training to write up the training manual etc. If I hear of a firm date I'll post it here.

Diolch yn fawr y Ddraig Goch! Sorry my Welsh is very rusty.. going back to high school days in mid/late 70s.

Cheers MG

[Red Dragon]

Croeso!

Just a quick update, one has been spotted today on the old 22 Squadron ASP undergoing engine tests, so it shouldn't be much longer to wait to see them airborne.

[reaper493]

Have they been given an RAF designation yet?
Or will they be referred to as Texan II?


Mike

[Red Dragon]

It seems it will be a mish mash. The "Texan T Mk1" as shown on the RAF's now updated website....

https://www.raf.mod.uk/aircraft/texan-t-mk1/

[Red Dragon]

Update

A has been spotted today on the old 22 Squadron ASP undergoing engine tests

[TombsRIP]

Aerospace Daily & Defense Report
T-6 Pilots Report 12 New Physiological Events
Apr 16, 2018 Lara Seligman | Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

T-6: USAF
U.S. Air Force student and instructor pilots have reported 12 additional physiological events in the T-6 Texan II trainer since March 1, but the service is not currently considering grounding the fleet for what would be the second time since the beginning of the year.
Four of those 12 incidents were reported since April 14, just four days before this article went to press.

The T-6s returned to the skies Feb. 27 after a series of hypoxia-like cockpit events caused an almost month-long stand-down for the fleet. The aircraft, which the Air Force uses to train all new pilot candidates, resumed flying operations even though a team of investigators still had not found the root cause of the incidents.

And even though the Air Force has identified several issues with the aircrew breathing system, particularly with the Onboard Oxygen Generation System (Obogs), pilots are flying without any restrictions to flight parameters or training profiles, Col. Lee Gentile, deputy commander at the 71st Flying Training Wing, told Aviation Week in March.

In response to Aviation Week’s story, Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Armed Services tactical air and land subcommittee, urged his fellow lawmakers to hold the Air Force accountable for the T-6 incidents.

“These physiological episodes are not individual incidents. At this point we have an aggregate of these mishaps that points to a systemic issue,” Turner tweeted April 17. “As we look to #FY19NDAA, attention must be paid to these unprecedented issues.”

The Air Force apparently decided returning the T-6s to flying status without identifying a root cause was worth the risk, as the service struggles to overcome a critical pilot shortfall. The almost month-long pause came at a significant cost, with undergraduate pilots unable to fit in crucial flight time.

This year the Air Force will fall about 200 aviators short of its goal to ramp up annual pilot production to 1,400—primarily due to the T-6 pause, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein recently told the House Appropriations defense subcommittee.

The urgency of the pilot shortfall helps explain why the Air Force is hesitant to ground the fleet once more. But service officials stress that the T-6 is safe to fly. The 19th Air Force has taken several steps to mitigate the problem, including implementing new inspection procedures, purchasing new testing and monitoring equipment, improving maintenance, and educating pilots on how to respond to inflight physiological incidents, Gentile said.

The “19th Air Force is not considering an additional operational pause of the T-6 fleet at this time,” Air Force spokeswoman Lt. Geneva Croxton said April 14. “The initial pause was a requirement due to the unexplained nature of the physiological events experienced.”

While the fleet was grounded, the 19th Air Force conducted a thorough inspection of the breathing system—from the engine bleed air port to the pilot’s mask—on all 444 T-6s, officials said. Investigators found several problematic issues with the system, such as excess moisture in the condensers and sticky valves, Air Force Material Command Chief Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski told reporters March 14. The team is fixing those issues, and also is re-evaluating how often certain components of the breathing system should be replaced in maintenance, she noted.

Interestingly, Lt. Gen. Lee Levy, commander of the Air Force Sustainment Center, noted that the service is not responsible for most of the maintenance on the T-6. Most of the supply support for the T-6 fleet is currently performed by Dyncorp International under a Contractor Operated and Maintained Base Supply (COMBS) contract managed by the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, T-6, according to an Air Force Sustainment Center spokesman. Air Force T-6 maintenance is either organically or contract-provided, depending on location.

“I can’t tell you what the root cause is for these [unexplained physiological events],” Pawlikowski said. “I can tell you they are real, but we have work to do.”

Pawlikowski added that she believes the aging of the aircraft has caused something to change, either in the air flowing into the Obogs or in the guts of the system. But she cautioned against jumping to conclusions.

The Air Force also is considering adding an automatic backup oxygen system to the T-6s, much like the service did with the F-22 fleet after the 2010 death of Capt. Jeff Haney, said Pawlikowski.

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Interesting article. I recall they have had OBOGS issues on the USN T-45C Goshawk fleet plus on some later Hawk marks.
Wonder what impact, if any, OBOGS issues will have on Valley Texan T.1/T-6C Texan II ops?