"Greyhawk Zero-Four is Declaring an Emergency"

Sometimes, things get pretty real, pretty fast. Recently, I had a day like that and I'd like to share the story. We had an emergency in flight and although it happened pretty low to the ground, it wasn't the scariest thing that could happen and nobody was ever in any real danger, but it's a good story and a good example of what we train for and why.

So the day after Labor Day, I flew in the E-2C Hawkeye. Technically it was my third flight in the aircraft. However it counted as my first, and for all intensive purposes it was. The first occurred at night and both it and the second were focused primarily on training the NFOs in the back. They involved one takeoff and one landing. I learned a lot, but the majority of time in the air was spent up at altitude "shooting the bull" with the instructor and none of my requirements to complete the flight or lesson were met. Tuesday's flight was all about me, the plane was a stripped-out pilot training bird with no radar or electronics and we only had one NFO to troubleshoot equipment in case something went wrong back there.

I got there early, I might have had a simulator that morning, I can't remember. I do remember that I had plenty of time to get everything set up and ready for the brief. It usually takes about 2 hours, maybe an hour and a half to get everything ready. There's a large whiteboard in every briefing room that has to be filled out with all information pertaining to the flight. We write up our names, the scheduled takeoff and land times, the mission details, the weather, Notices to Airmen, the takeoff and landing numbers, diagrams of all fields we land at, emergency procedures and the knowledge questions of the day.

Additionally, I have to check on my flight gear and get it ready to go, print out any gradesheets the instructor might want to see, do the flight plan and knock out any last minute studying I might need to do. It's a lot of work, but it's a good way to prepare and I've been doing it for every flight since Primary.

We briefed and it went well. I felt like I could have studied the propeller system a little more in depth than I had, but I was fine for my first flight. The instructor gave the brief and the NFO, John, who was to ride in the back and I listened intently and copied down what we needed onto our kneeboard cards.

With everything done, we walked out to the plane early and he followed me around the plane as I did my pre-flight and asked me questions about, well, pretty much everything on the aircraft. It was brutal, but I actually did fairly well. Finally we get going with the flight. What follows is an edited version of my narrative from the incident:

We briefed an hour early and it went pretty well. The weather looked and was great (SKC/light winds). The flight plan we filed was going to take us to the Cape Charles area for high work, then a delay at KWAL (Wallops Island NASA Flight Facility) for bouncing and finally a stop at KPHF (Newport News International Aiport/Patrick Henry Field) before returning to home-field (Norfolk). We were short on time when we went downstairs to read the Aircraft Discrepancy Book (which lists all the maintenance work done and to be done on the aircraft), do a ditch/bail practice drill and get out to the pre-flight but LT Whatshisface (no, I can think of a better pseudonym... let's call him LT Chill, 'cause he was) was pretty thorough about everything.

The start-up was normal, except the power-cart (which supplies electricity to the plane during start-up) turned itself off for some unknown-reason before we got the engines online so when it came back on we had to re-boot the INS'. We departed the line, took off and headed towards CCV (Cape Charles VORTAC, a navigational point on the Southern Delmarva Peninsula) where he demo-ed some high work in the SE quadrant airspace. After which we picked up a clearance to KWAL and were cleared from 15k' down to 7k'. LT Chill performed a practice emergency decent (which is very cool because you basically make this huge airplane fall out of the sky at 4-6000 feet per minute in a controlled manner) and we continued over there, setting up for a Practice PEL entry into the field. The PPEL is also a pretty dynamic maneuver, it’s something we did in Primary where we set the plane up high above the airfield on a profile that will allow us to land safely even if both engines were to fail. It’s a steep and aggressive descending spiral around the runway. The PEL is definitely fun to perform and a good maneuver to know how to do!

At some point during the Practice PEL, I noticed something of an exhaust smell in the cockpit. I mentioned it to LT Chill but he said it was pretty normal for that to happen when you went towards idle in the pattern. The NFO, John, in the back smelled it too but we didn't think anything of it and I know I've been in planes before that have also had seemingly abnormal smells like that at times.

We did two more bounces during which I noticed the smell getting worse. In fact after our second bounce my eyes were actually starting to water and I was becoming more concerned. I wanted to mention this to LT Chill as we were starting our crosswind and I began to wait for a break in the radio traffic when we got a Master Caution light (which I first thought was just the MAX RUDDER light, which normally illuminates at this time) but LT Chill looked up and saw that both Pump Lights had also come on.

I’ll have to take a minute to explain, our 8-bladed propeller spins at a constant speed, so when we want to accelerate, the blade angle changes to take a bigger bite of air (so to speak) in proportion to the position of the throttle. This blade angle must be precisely controlled by a number of computer-controlled valves that meter fluid delivered at high pressure by a Main and a Standby pump. When a light for either pump comes on, it means that the pump no longer has fluid flowing through it. That’s either because the pump itself is dead or there is no fluid to pump. If both lights are on, it’s a pretty good indication that there is little to no fluid left in the reservoir due to some kind of leak or other failure in the system. For both of them to come on at the same time, meaning all 6-8 qts of fluid are gone, it’s indicative of a pretty massive leak.

Continuing on with the story, he then said something to the effect of "oh hey! both pump lights are on!" LT Chill immediately began to accomplish the first couple "bold-face" items of the "Propeller Pump Lights" checklist. I reached down to grab my PCL (Emergency Pocket Check-List) from my helmet bag when we felt a large swerve and the engine quickly wound down because the propeller blade angle wasn’t being governed and the engine couldn’t fight the resulting drag. LT Chill then immediately rolled into the engine failure checklist. I knew it was the right engine so I concurred the right T-handle (which cuts off all fuel and fluid to the engine as well as commands the propellers to increase blade angle to a feathered position) and he told me to "Pull It," which I did. I then looked over my shoulder at the prop which, thankfully, had feathered. Luckily for us there was enough fluid left in the bottom of the reservoir for the electrically powered Auxilliary pump (used only for feathering/unfeathering) to actually work. By this point we were straight, level, clean, climbing and negotiating a troubleshooting Delta pattern above the field with tower. We then completed the shutdown checklist. When we asked tower and they confirmed that, as per the NOTAM, their Arresting Gear wasn't operative so we skipped Delta and started heading towards NAS Norfolk, KNGU. LT Chill climbed up and was talking on the radio while I got the Garmin GPS unit set up and went over the Post-Shutdown checklist.

It was about this point that John told us that he could see fluid "all over" the nacelles. With that, the pump lights and the very quick PRD to shutdown of the engine, we were confident that an Airstart was out of the questions and did not pre-load it.

We had declared an Emergency flew direct to NGU (NAS Norfolk, home-field) at 3500'. We contacted Base and requested that the LSOs start heading out to the runway to get ready for our trap. PAX Approach told us that NGU had the gear up and rigged and switched us to Norfolk Approach. During the transit, we went over the engine failure and the post-shutdown checklists one more time as well as the Field Arrestment checklists and information in the PCL and started to think about the approach. I asked LT Chill how the plane felt and he gave me controls while he did something or got a drink of water, I'm not sure which. I was just really happy to finally be flying the Hawkeye for the first time. It felt fine and lasted about a minute when he took controls back.

(The view from the back, thanks to John for the pic!)

Contrary to what Patuxent Approach had passed, Norfolk Approach informed us that the gear was still being rigged so we headed directly for the field to orbit and wait, but by the time we finished the Approach Checklist and were about 5 miles from the field, they told us everything was up and ready. The LSOs were talking to us at this point and we made an easy right turn to set up for a 3-5ish mile straight-in to runway 28, got the landing checks done and settled in for the approach. In the event of a hook-skip, the plan was to keep it on deck.

They had us ride a high-ball (higher glide-slope) in and we touched down shortly before the wire and rolled nose-high into the gear, catching the wire on the first try. Once we got our hook clear of the wire and the plane clear of the various and many fire apparatuses surrounding us, we taxied single engine back to the line, shut down and got out. Looking at the starboard nacelle, it was pretty clear what had happened. Both sides of it were coated in reddish prop fluid and a puddle was starting to form on the ground.

It was a hell of an experience on my first real flight, but everything went very well and from everything I know and what was said afterwards, everyone in the plane did an excellent job of handling the emergency and bringing the bird and ourselves back home safe. It wasn't the worst emergency, the airplane was never in any real danger, but losing an engine was still a big deal and a lot to handle. I was glad to have done that and I'm happy with how I react when things get a little hairy. I'll definitely keep that day in the back of my head every time I fly and try my best to prepare and be ready for anything else this plane might try to throw at me.