Hiking: Moving W ithout a Hitch

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On Sept. 23, 2022, a CMV-22B Osprey landed aboard USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72). While spinning on deck, the aircrew noticed a popped latch on the right hand (RH) nacelle. Pilots had to shut down the aircraft engines to secure the popped latch. The maintenance crew went to get a ladder and position it next to the RH nacelle so it could be secured. Upon restart of the CMV-22B, the plane received multiple faults from systems associated with the RH nacelle. Maintenance worked on the problem for 15 minutes and determined that more in-depth troubleshooting was needed to figure out what was wrong with the aircraft. The flight deck coordinator requested the aircraft remain on deck but required tail-over-deck to troubleshoot the issues. The handler told the flight deck coordinator that he wanted the aircraft moved down into the hangar bay to finish the troubleshooting.

To allow the aircraft to maneuver in the hangar bay, the nose landing gear needs to be raised to fit the spotting dolly around the nose landing gear to not damage the aircraft’s forwardlooking infrared (FLIR) camera or gear doors. This is called “hiking” the aircraft. The procedure requires nitrogen to be put into the nose landing strut to raise the strut and then a hike pin to be installed to ensure the strut does not fail. The maintenance crew did not bring the required licenses to operate the nitrogen cart to raise the strut. In addition, the maintenance crew did not bring the hike pin to ensure the strut would stay in place. On top of those issues, the crew didn’t notify ships’ personnel that the aircraft was not hiked before moving it from the flight deck to the hangar. The maintenance crew provided a brake rider and no one else for the movement.

The maintenance chiefs went to their shop so they could communicate the situation with VRM-30. After a phone call with VRM-30, one of their maintainers came into the shop and said a chief was needed in the hangar because a mishap had occurred. The spotting dolly hit the FLIR while moving the aircraft in the hangar bay. Due to the aircraft not being hiked by

Looking back at the whole evolution, the squadron failed before even stepping onto the ship. Not bringing the appropriate licenses and support equipment was a mistake from the beginning. In the squadron’s publications, it references moving the aircraft in the hangar and one of the requirements is to hike the aircraft before moving it to the hangar bay. The ship’s publications also state to ensure the aircraft is hiked before moving with their spotting procedures. The squadron should have had leadership stay with the aircraft throughout the whole movement. The CMV-22B aircraft is fairly new to the fleet, bringing a lack of knowledge and experience with aircraft movements around the carrier. VRM-30 will hold multiple trainings before underway periods to mitigate occurrences of this type in the future and will interface with CVN flight and hangar deck crews to ensure they understand the unique requirements of the CMV-22B.