Got my jet back from rehab- The Wave

[Timmy!]

The worst is when you are guarding the cockpit durning an airshow.  (This had to be done because if a kid or grown kid gets in the CH-53E and tries to move the controls without hydraulic power, they can break a shear pin meant to break in the case of a servo hardcover).  After the night before you took the crew out for dinner and a beer or twelve and watched sergeants, corporals and dutiful lance corporals damn near kick the **** out of the lieutenant colonel boss of the Golden Squires for hitting on their Captain's wife.  The Captain found himself straight up sleeping hard in the left seat of the cockpit (it was a slow for visitors for a while) when the incoming CO woke him up to introduce himself.  He never did hold it against me or even let on that he woke me, but I suppose that could have been a nasty callsign.

[Hawkwrench]

Pete, you oughta fly the Dayton airshow next year. 

If so, I'd love to meet ya!

Tim

[alaninaustria]

Went to an airshow in Calgary once... saw some of the military birds were still at the airport a few days after the show.... so, we went over to see what was up... only to find that airshow guests had ripped off static wicks, pushed match sticks up pitot tubes... threw small stones into the air intakes, and exhaust... and even managed to bend an AoA vane to the point of not being able to move freely... and one aircraft had several access panels opened and garbage (paper cups and other crap) put into it... one guy even did pull-ups while hanging on to the leading edge slat of the A-4... we were shocked... a Canadian F-18 and F-5 were grounded, as were a USN A-4, A-7 and A-6 Intruder plus a US Airforce F-15... all because they allowed people to walk right up and around the aircraft unsupervised... each one of those birds had to have something fixed, repaired and or fully inspected before being released back to flight status... such a sad state of affairs... and to top it off - a week later a young boy was caught at school showing his friends a collection of static wicks that his older brother collected off the rear end of one of the jets... and they belonged to a local Air Cadet group. After that, airshow and ground display aircraft were no longer able to be accessed by the public, or left unsupervised.

 

At another “family day” squadron open house - a good friend of mine, who will remain unanimous, almost had his entire career in the Canadian Forces (CF) come to an abrupt halt: 

He told me this story with a very heavy heart... 

He flies the mighty C-130 Herc and his youngest son ‘lifted’ a unique looking tool that engineers and crew use to open panels - and, he took it home... without anybody knowing or noticing on that particular ‘family day’... the CF spent weeks taking the display Herc apart after the open house in search of that missing tool after one of the engineers reported it missing (that particular aircraft had been in heavy maintenance prior to the open house)... and every panel, access hatch, floor board etc had to be opened and inspected... they even boroscoped areas on that aircraft where the tool could have fallen into... and they never found it... so, the aircraft remained grounded... Lockheed Martin even sent a team to help... all to no avail... then one day at home my buddy saw his youngest son playing with the tool in the back yard - he asked his son where he got it and his boy admitted to taking the tool.... that very same day - a very embarrassed Herc Captain fronted up at the base and handed over the missing tool and had an appointment with the squadrons commanding officer... his honesty and prompt action saved his career... and since then, any open house or family day no longer allows intimate access to or entry of aircraft on display without proper supervision... my buddy told me that story and then explained that his son’s actions cost the tax payers several million dollars... nobody will release an aircraft if one of the tools is unaccounted for - especially after heavy maintenance is performed... 

 

In my 26 years at the airlines I have found three tools in the forward nose compartment during pre-flight walk arounds... pliers, screwdrivers and a set of tie-wrap clippers... and each time I reported the tools found, the engineers very embarrassingly came and collected their missing tools... having a tool like that floating around in a compartment outside of the forward pressure bulkhead next to the AC Contactor box and flightdeck O2 tank is not a good idea... 

 

So, keep people away and well supervised around ground display aircraft... 

Aviation is something that interests so many... and it’s nice to be able to share in their enthusiasm and show people an aircraft up close... but, left unattended people start to do stupid and destructive things... why, I have no idea... 

Cheers

Alan

[Juggernut]

Wow, there are some sloppy mechanics out there. Over 99% of us in aviation maintenance get the importance of doing our jobs thoroughly but in some operations, there are no RII procedures before closing an area and **** gets missed.  I worked for such an operation and would take my own measures to ensure safety.  Every time I did any maintenance job on any aircraft, I do a tool inventory (including shop towels) before and after the task.  That way I KNOW my tools are where they belong and not where they can be or create FOD.  That practice served me well for well over 20 years in civilian aviation.  We also used the buddy system for inspection… have someone you work with inspect your work before closing.  That has also served us well.
 

I’ll relate the time we did a heavy maintenance check on a Hawker Hs125-1a (that we got for a repossession inspection) and upon removing the left wing fuel sump panel, I was presented with both a fuel soaked rag wrapped completely around the wing fuel pump inlet screen and a 2x D cell mag light in the wing adjacent to said rag.  That could’ve caused some serious fuel imbalance issues were it to prevent fuel flow (not only to the engines but crossfed to the other wing so it could be burned).  It had been there a very long time as the batteries in the mag light were corroded and soaked with fuel.

Edited August 26, 2021 by Juggernut

[Pete Fleischmann]

Took this photo from the backseat of my L-39. The un-named nose-gunner failed to secure this screw driver which floated around during some aerobatics, and came to rest right here. 

 

I couldn’t reach it because it was on the other side of the plexiglass windscreen that separates the two cockpits. We were done after this, and flew a nice, mellow jet back home. Amazingly it stayed there until shutdown.

 

 

cheers

P

[Michael931080]

Yikes!

[Juggernut]

Well, there's another one that could've gone bad, real fast but thankfully didn't.  Didn't even scratch the canopy...small wonders these things are.

 

Reminds me of when I was a kid looking into a cornfield across the highway and seeing an F-106 promptly embedded in the earth as a result of an AN960 (flat washer) that got lost and found its way between the control column and the stop, preventing the pilot from having full control authority and ended up bellying the aircraft in the field about 2 miles short of runway 14.

[Oldbaldguy]

Ref airshows:  worked too many on both civilian and military sides.  People are awful.  We’ve raised multiple generations of willfully ignorant narcissists who not only have no regard for someone else’s property but will tell you that they can do whatever they want (and will) and there is nothing you can do about it.  I always thought taking hardware to an airshow to share the experience would be a grand adventure until I did it.  Took one time and that was the end of that.  Never again.  Cost and risk are just too great.  

[Joe Hegedus]

On 8/25/2021 at 7:34 PM, Pete Fleischmann said:

Kristi working the crown in Latrobe PA

 

gotta watch the airshow crowd like a hawk. Love them all, but They will climb up on the wing, drop the steps, open panels, hang off the pitot booms, stick their fingers in random holes, lean on your paint job, and throw beer cups down the intake if you aren’t careful!

 

cheers

Pete

I know that place!  LBE is home, I took my PP training from Vee Neal back in the early 80s.  Is the right-hand pattern for 23 still standard there?

[Oldbaldguy]

Pete, talking about Migs and such:  based on your time in the saddle in NATO machinery, how much time would a MiG-21 driver have in an adversary situation from engine start to flame-out?  Small airframe,  big inefficient motor, no room for fuel, in and out of burner - it could not have been very long.

[Pete Fleischmann]

1 hour ago, Joe Hegedus said:

I know that place!  LBE is home, I took my PP training from Vee Neal back in the early 80s.  Is the right-hand pattern for 23 still standard there?

 Very cool!

when I showed up, the airspace was waivered closed for the airshow. I just came up initial at 1500 ft & 200 kts and pitched out…

to the right IIRC-

 

cheers 

P

[Pete Fleischmann]

Here’s a few shots from my semi-adopted kid Max, wrapping up the strike phase of pilot training-

 

Air to air phase next, then graduation and wings end of October.

very proud! Hopefully I’ll be able to bootleg a TX L-39 and fly in for that-

 

cheers

P

[alaninaustria]

Nice! Best wishes to him (Max) for the remainder of his training!

What was that saying? Fly Navy or go home?? ;)

Cheers

Alan

[Pete Fleischmann]

4 minutes ago, alaninaustria said:

Nice! Best wishes to him (Max) for the remainder of his training!

What was that saying? Fly Navy or go home??

Cheers

Alan

Well he’s a Marine, but yes some folks say that-

Those are the folks that I enjoy showing my HUD film of Tomcats, Hornets, and Harriers 

 

cheers

P

[alaninaustria]

Just awesome stuff Pete! 

Cheers

Alan

 

Hey, BTW - any update on that super largescale T-38 you had going?