Ghostrider:"We were inverted" (cough)

[rpm]

Brand New AC-130 Ghostrider A Total Loss After Going Inverted While Out Of Control


One of the Air Force Special Operations Command’s brand-spanking-new AC-130J Ghostrider Gunships has to be scrapped due to a test flight that went horribly awry. Luckily nobody was harmed but the $115 million dollar highly-modified Super Hercules will never fly again.

The incident in question happened during a “medium-risk flying qualities” test set, part of the new AC-130J testing process. Flightglobal.com reports:

While being operated at roughly 15,000ft, “the aircraft exceeded the targeted angle of sideslip until it departed controlled flight,” the report states. It “momentarily inverted, before being recovered after losing approximately 5,000ft of altitude.” The aircraft’s crew – who escaped injury – returned to base and landed safely, but the Ghostrider was rendered a total loss, having exceeded its operating g limits and design load.

Investigators have attributed the incident to the pilot’s “excessive rudder input during the test point, followed by inadequate rudder input to initiate a timely recovery from high angle of sideslip due to over-controlled/under-controlled aircraft,” along with the “wrong choice of action during an operation.”

The report also adds that additional attributing factors included spacial disorientation (vertigo), confusion, instrument and warning systems issues, and poor procedural guidance and publications for the test team to follow.



As tough as the C130 is constructed I'm a bit surprised it can't handle being inverted. Maybe the fact it survived the roll is a testament to it's toughness. Great bird.

[WaffenVW]

I'm thinking being inverted had nothing to do with it. They snap-rolled it and then over-G'ed it trying to recover. That's how I read it.

[WaffenVW]

Glad the wings didn't fold like on that firefighting C-130. That's the scariest aviation related video I've ever seen.

[colmbo]

I got through another channel that they also exceeded flap extension speed by 100 knots +.

[Chalenge]

Sounds like a pilot that just took himself out of the program.

[DaveBB]

The C-130 unit here in Louisville had one spin in during the 90s.  Crashed into a building in Owensboro.  You would think with such a large vertical stabilizer it would be hard to spin one.  Might be some aerodynamic quirk, or maybe it just doesn't give any warning before it departs laterally.

RAF inadvertently spun a C-130:

During the next stall Bruce Clarke entered the stall by closing all throttles to the Flight Idle position and raised the nose. When in the stall which was charted to occur at 95Kts, Bruce Clarke demonstrated the absence of lateral control by rolling the ailerons from full left to full right without the aircraft responding and when the speed decreasing past the stall figure Bruce Clarke said that the longer the aircraft is left in the stall the buffet gets worse and all control is lost.

Just past this point the aircraft rolled to the Left and Bruce Clarke attempted to pick up the dropping wing, but with no lateral control the aircraft rolled to 93° onto its back and entered a spin. At this point Bruce Clarke announced that we had rolled into a spin and he had taken standard recovery action. So we went down and during that spin, after what seemed an eternity Bruce said that the aircraft was not responding but standard recovery action held on.

Again after what was a lifetime to us new members, the aircraft responded and the spin stopped, Bruce Clarke said we were out of that but now we have to get it on the ground. I carried out a visual inspection from the cargo compartment but nothing was out of the ordinary much to my surprise. We made a speedy return to Richmond and once on the ground logged the aircraft in for a high “G” inspection. At the bottom of the spin at the pull out which was between 7000 and 8000 ft we pulled 3.2 positive “G”.

[colmbo]

You would think with such a large vertical stabilizer it would be hard to spin one.  Might be some aerodynamic quirk, or maybe it just doesn't give any warning before it departs laterally.

RAF inadvertently spun a C-130:

The spin comes from yaw at the stall, one wing stalled the other flying.  Fin size isn't a factor.  That big fin/rudder can be used to induce the yaw as easily as stop the yaw.

[HPriller]

I imagine that's an extremely heavy airframe with all the guns and equipment they load on those things.  It seems very likely that the G tolerance limits are gonna be pretty low on that kind of plane.  That said I'm betting the pilot pulled to hard out of his dive to over-g the airframe, it may have been possible to survive the stall without damaging the airframe by being less aggressive on the pullout.

[DaveBB]

If the engines were oversped the throttles were not (obviously) not pulled back.  So basically in an inverted dive at full power.

[Reschke]

Will have to talk with a buddy who used to fly those AC-130's and still flies the MC-130's down in Hurlburt. He might have some first hand knowledge of "what really happened".

[Serenity]

Will have to talk with a buddy who used to fly those AC-130's and still flies the MC-130's down in Hurlburt. He might have some first hand knowledge of "what really happened".

Dude, that's not a fun gig lol. At least not at hurlburt. You can hear the dejection in their voices when they request holding at a point for two hours...

[Zimme83]

Must be the first plane that is a total loss during a flight test program...