By KUNA,
Tampa, Florida : Riding in a CV-22 Osprey, a combination helicopter-airplane, started out as a lot of fun, but ended up with some feeling nauseous — and even getting sick.
For a group of reporters loaded into the belly of the tilt-rotor aircraft at MacDill Air Force Base for an early morning demonstration flight around Tampa Bay, it was an unusual journey in which your ears are plugged to withstand the noise, and your eyes are wide as the Osprey moves surprisingly quickly upon takeoff.
The pilots make sharp, unexpected turns that test the mettle of your head and stomach, especially if you are busy taking photographs at the same time the giant metal bird lunges up or down and to the side. Prior to takeoff, reporters wanted to know if the Osprey, which had been plagued by well-publicized crashes, was no longer of uncertain safety.
Lieutenant Colonel Darryl Sheets, an assistant operations officer on hand inside a large hangar where an Osprey was on display, assured the media gathering that the tilt-rotor Osprey had experienced six years of accident-free flying.
Reporters wanted to know, because they had been divided into three groups, each of which would be flown around for about a half hour each over land and water in a series of maneuvers that made for a thrill.
About halfway through the flight — just after the hardest turn that zipped the crew around the tall Skyway Bridge, then along the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico — one reporter was wiping his brow with a handkerchief and looking as though he might not finish the trip without losing his breakfast. Fortunately for everyone, he made it back without apparent incident.
But another reporter raced to the nearest restroom upon disembarking, managing to rejoin the group sometime later, with his composure back intact.
The Osprey, one of the military vehicles displayed for the media during International Special Operations Forces Week at MacDill, enables crews to execute long-range missions that normally would require both fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft.
With its nose radar, it can fly 200 feet off the ground in night or fog in mountain valleys where there is zero visibility.