VIETNAM GRUMMAN OV-1 MOHAWK
126 FLYPAST May 2015Joe Masessa grew up
infatuated with everything
to do with aviation. His
father, Robert, was a Korean
War veteran and a private
pilot. After researching
everything he could about
Mohawks, including their
cloak-and-dagger roles in
the military, Joe set his
sights on a 1968 OV-1D that
had been sitting on a ramp
in Utah for over two years.“My Mohawk, 68-15958,
was originally built as an
OV-1C model by Grumman
in 1968 at the plant in
Stuart, Florida,” he said. “In
1980 it was converted to a D-model which consisted of upgrades
to the surveillance package, new longer wings and installation of
more powerful Lycoming T53-L-701 turboprops turning Hamilton
Standard hydromantic fully feathering, variable pitch, reverse-
pitch propellers to name just a few of the refi nements.“In looking over the logbooks I discovered that this Mohawk was
primarily used as a trainer and was also one of the lowest time
OV-1s in existence, right around 2,500 hours.”With his Mohawk training and checkout complete, Joe set his
sights on making his OV-1D (N10VD) look ‘combat ready’. He added
a pair of 150-gallon (567-litre) underwing drop tanks. A radar
jamming pod is located on the left pylon and for added security,
just in case he strayed into ‘hostile territory’, he put a heat-
seeking missile defl ector on the right side for good measure.Joe quickly realised that owning and fl ying an ex-military
workhorse was going to be expensive, especially when it came
time for maintenance issues. Thankfully, through word of mouth,
some of the Grumman employees at the Stuart plant who had
worked on Mohawks since the late 1960s, including Joe’s, found
out he was based nearby.“I can’t thank all of those wonderful people enough who have
stepped forward to ensure that this treasure continues to fl y for
a long time. I realistically plan that every hour I spend in the air
means at least two hours of maintenance will follow. Fortunately I
am right next door to a facility that has retired army maintenance
personnel and crew chiefs that worked on the airplane and know
it inside and out.“But the best thing about being a Mohawk owner is sharing it with
the veterans who worked on and fl ew them in the service. I am
very humbled to be a part of this wonderful fraternity and owe a
debt of gratitude to Warbirds of America. I feel that without the
assistance of this great organisation and its members, most of our
historic aircraft would have either been placed in a boneyard or
melted down for scrap.“I also fi rmly believe that we owe it to ourselves and our country
to ensure that history is preserved for future generations. If we
don’t, no one else will.”MOHAWK JOE
The aircraft’s owner, Joe Masessa.
VIA AUTHORT53 engines had been increased
tremendously, giving the Mohawk
even greater capabilities. These
became a life saver when you found
you had to penetrate fog and try to
climb out of a mountain valley as
close to straight up as you possibly
could!“GRUMMAN GLIDER
William A ‘Andy’ Rux graduated
from West Point in 1960 and
went on to fly Bird Dogs and U-6
Beavers in West Germany in all
kinds of weather, accumulating
1,000-plus hours. In 1966 Andy
was told he was going to Vietnam,
as he recalls: “Fortunately I was
able to talk the army out of
training me as a helicopter pilot
and was instead sent to Mohawk
transition training.
“I was very impressed with the
power of those two turbine engines
along with the fighter-like agility ofthe bug-eyed Grumman. Early on
I found that there were two kinds
of Mohawk pilots – ones that loved
it and ones that hated it. I was in
the first group and absolutely loved
flying the OV-1.
“Some of the guys were
intimidated and scared of it
because of some early accidents
during engine-out procedures. The
Mohawk picked up an undeserved
reputation as a ‘widow maker’, and
I think some of that had to do with
single-engine Bird Dog pilots flying
a much more complex airplane.
Thankfully I had an old cigar-
chomping, ex-crop duster pilot
show me the finer points of flying a
Mohawk without any engines.
“As we climbed to 3,000ft he
leaned over and said to me: ‘How
would you like to see an engine-out
landing?’ Before I could respond,
the instructor was reaching for
the throttles through the thickT53 engines had been increased the bug-eyed Grumman. Early on“All our missions were secret as we fl ew
out of country into Laos searching and
scanning the Ho Chi Minh trail for the
ever-moving NVA”122-128_Mohawk_fpSBB.indd 126 13/03/2015 11:59