I was stationed at MCAS Camp Pendleton from 87-93. I was an avionics technician at the IMA level, assigned to MALS-39, supporting VMO-2 and several other helicopter squadrons. I loved seeing and hearing the OV-10s. They are/were unique little birds that were very good at what they did.
It's a Fixed Turbine. That was just the electric starter drive spinning up the core. When it gets crazy louder is when the engine is actually "started".
According to the National Museum of the USAF's page on the one they have, the OV-10 type's first flight was in August 1967 with the first production order having been placed in 1966 & the first OV-10 destined for combat arrived in Vietnam in July 1968.
@@chrisc8073 Point noted: since I had uncles in the 1950s Korean War that is often the thing which comes to mind at mention of Korea even though a nephew has recently been stationed in Korea. Interesting to just now experience how a person's own family history can color and sometimes strongly color what something means to them.
Don't know if they are still doing it, but there was a contract group flying OV-10s to spray round up herbicide on coca fields in Columbia in the early 2000s. They are also used by some US based forest firefighting groups and a CAS training program.
I had the opportubity one time down at Avon Park to watch an OV-10 do FAC for some live fire F-16 strafing runs. After the 16's were done the OV-10 put a little ordnance on target too. My life is complete.
I served in the Korean military in Hwacheon. I saw many OV-10s flying along the Korean Armistice Line performing reconnaissance missions in North Korea around 1980. It was a great aircraft with excellent aerobatic capabilities, and it is still surprising and nice to see it flying. I am grateful to the US Air Force in Korea for their help.
As a boy living a few miles from MCAS New River in the early 80’s, I liked seeing these planes fly overhead. I think the planes were stationed there, but over Onslow County, N.C. is where I saw them.
This brings back memories working the flight line for our squadron in Bergstrom AFB back in the late 70's, before the Air Force went all jet, details aside, we worked on a dozen OV10A's, CH53's and O2A's. My favorite was the OV10, the rest were headaches ( CH53 has 8 hydraulic systems). The OV10 was considered fast and could do snap rolls with ease. If I had the money today, I would get one of these.
Thank you for a great video and for not using music (which RUINS aviation videos!). What a great plane. Imagine an upgraded BroncoNG with 800shp PT6 on each side, longer wing, 20mm Gatling, missiles, rockets, ATGMs, Hellfire, glass cockpit, armor...
@@thisisbroncocountry Whoa you got me there I didnt know the Garretts pumped out that much! Nice! Theres a PT6 model out there that cranks out in the region of 1,900shp. Lets whack those on Bronco - with 6-blade swept scimitar props. And how about F-16 style FBW sidestick while we're at it! This would make a kick-ass COIN machine for those operators who like Tucano etc. but want a twin!
I was stationed at MCAS Futenma 73-74, and 75-76 these planes were on the flight line. While on guard duty I had the opportunity to take an up-close look at these planes.
For the life of me, I can't understand why the Air Force doesn't just start building more of these for a COIN aircraft, instead of trying to replace the A-10 with a crop duster. A GAU-19 belly turret would be a pretty neat trick for one of these.
I saw one parked on a PSP runway ramp in a Big Red One Brigade Basecamp at Lai Khe, III Corp, RVN, 1968. ... I assumed it was used as a "Bird Dog" to mark targets with white phosphorus rockets for other attack aircraft.
The Army needs a few squadrons of refurbished Broncos, Super Tacanos, or Texan 2's. US Army needs fixed wing battlefield tactical attack aircraft and mobility transport. Air Force should have battlefield interdiction, air superiority, anti-air suppression, C4I, battlespace control missions.
I have never seen the Uniform Uniform letters so narrow on the real VMO-2 birds. This was in the early 90's that I saw them. They were wider and had dots in them to represent the nails holes for real horse shoes.
3 of us working on these aircraft were from VMO-2, and it is accurate. Plus, we used many photos of the same airframe for accuracy. This is period specific 1990s.
Is this technically a OV-10G+? I ask because of the glass cockpit and 5 bladed props. We set up a jump at Ft Bragg in the late 80s with three USMC OV-10s, hosting the pilots the night before the jump. One of the pilots said there was a concept in the works to replace the engines, with the engines no longer being counter-rotating to facilitate maintenance and logistics, but I guess that modification never happened.
I was the OIC of the 19th AMU at Son 1981 - 82. I had 18 OV-10s assigned. Great aircraft.lots of capabilities like cargo, FAC, counter insurgency dropping paratroops out of the back you name it. Easy to repair, rugged, and an absolute delight to fly (yes I got my chance as a non-rated guy to fly one) .. Biggest heartache was gearbox over torque when we had a big change of weather ... Looks like this baby got some glass dash upgrades and some 5-bladed props ... Cool!
Thank you for your service and your story. This is why I do this. To connect the history and legacy of the OV-10 and its crews and its maintainers. I was Avioncs with VMO-2 in the 80s/90s. And to show that the OV-10 story is not finished!
i was assigned to 19th AMU same time as you. i was an electrician, everyone called me Mo. I remember weekend duty in the winter changing engines for over torques.
As a pilot, I'd be a bit nervous if someone was walking around my plane that close shooing video with the big props spinning. Sometimes people lose peripheral vision and situational awareness when they are looking through a viewfinder and accidentally walk into things.
Then it could very likely be you jumped from this very plane when it was an A model. I helped load many a Recon Marine and Anglico Marines. Great memories especially watching the guys just fall out the back.
There is a video of a South American nation Bronco evading a modern fighter aircraft, it tries to fly in tighter & slower circles to escape, but eventually is shot down with the fighter aircraft’s cannon
You and many others wish that as well. But sadly not active anymore, but this airframe just completed a ground up restoration. So yes, she looks factory new.
I noticed that when I was watching the left bank prop was turning clockwise now was the right bank prop turning clockwise to maybe I got confused with the speed of the props but shouldn’t one bank be turning clockwise and the other Thanks rotating counterclockwise maybe I could not do that with both Prop turning if someone is out there is an expert let me know I would appreciate it
One of the ugliest, beautiful turbo birds to ever take wing. The OV-10 was all business. Function before form. At that, it excelled. Therein lay its beauty. It's interesting, though ...the shape of shape of the Boeing C-17's rudder closely resembles those of the OV-10D's.
How many guns does it carry? Bronco carries 4. How many hard points? Bronco has 7. How much cargo can it carry? OV-10 can carry 3500 lbs. It can even carry a spare engine or 2.
P-38 Lightning top speed in the 400mph range & OV-10 top speed in the high 200mph to 300mph range. With the OV type being for observation and close support, loitering time on-station and maneuverability at low altitude are more advantageous to life than a very high top speed. You want to be able to hang around long enough to support your guys on the ground; you want to be able to fly slow enough to get good eyes on them to tell them apart from the enemy; and you want the maneuvering agility at close quarters to drop your ordnance on them instead of us. All the landing gear has to do is keep the ground from scraping the props and the paint, form follows function.
The fact is during the Vietnam war the Bronco was used to insert 4-5 man lightly equipped Force Recon Marines into combat zones. The Bronco could carry 5 plus 2 crewman.
The engineer who designed that canopy must have been out of his mind. We all know that the front part should at least be over the rear, and not the other way around. See how far it is sticking out? Doofus design. Look at the moment it closes and see how far it sticks out above the front, that is crazy. And they call it precision engineering, I would be ashamed if I was the engineer.
That’s by purpose in design so the pilot and observer can look almost straight down with minimal roll. Obviously you have no clue what this awesome bird was designed for and it did its job masterfully to the point that a few were brought back out of retirement for COIN ops.
The “O” in the name is for observation. The canopy design provides excellent visibility as intended. Why would you want an observation aircraft without the ability to observe the ground?
