MOW
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Post by MOW on Jul 20, 2015 7:14:27 GMT 9
Bill Marshall, old friend and supervisor from my 87th FIS days, sent me some pretty cool hand written notes of his when he and a flight control team performed an ADTAC directed inspection/testing on F-106A 59-0051 (87 FIS) in 1981. Upon thinking about where I wanted to put those on the website it occurred to me I DON'T HAVE A FLIGHT CONTROL SECTION ugh! MA-1 and SAGE sure, but mechanical flight controls, rigging, mixer assembly's, elevons... zero documented info. Soooo, I am creating a section. Got it started here www.f-106deltadart.com/flightcontrols.htm with Bill's docs on it to start. Now I need info for it. Good description of the AFCS, how they worked, major components yada yada yada, so next time someone asks "hey, whats an Elevon on an F-106" they have somewhere to go. Narratives welcome!
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zipper730
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Post by zipper730 on Oct 5, 2016 13:07:40 GMT 9
Fascinating
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Post by LBer1568 on Oct 5, 2016 13:32:44 GMT 9
Bill Marshall, old friend and supervisor from my 87th FIS days, sent me some pretty cool hand written notes of his when he and a flight control team performed an ADTAC directed inspection/testing on F-106A 59-0051 (87 FIS) in 1981. Upon thinking about where I wanted to put those on the website it occurred to me I DON'T HAVE A FLIGHT CONTROL SECTION ugh! MA-1 and SAGE sure, but mechanical flight controls, rigging, mixer assembly's, elevons... zero documented info. Soooo, I am creating a section. Got it started here www.f-106deltadart.com/flightcontrols.htm with Bill's docs on it to start. Now I need info for it. Good description of the AFCS, how they worked, major components yada yada yada, so next time someone asks "hey, whats an Elevon on an F-106" they have somewhere to go. Narratives welcome! MOW, as with a lot of the MA-1 system, the electronics flight control side was updated and many of old black boxes replaced with a few new ones. When I first started in MA-1 we took care of almost all of electronics on A/C. Then we got some AFCS career field for the flight control "non-MA-1" electronics. They worked with crew chiefs to do the physical rigging and the electronics alignments. Originally MA-1 had a row of flight control boxes in 05 belly area (x21 series boxes as I remember) to do MA-1 side of flight controls. As most know MA-1 could control may aspects of flight, but not throttle position. As I have read, after I cross trained out of MA-1 the boxes were replaced along with the stable table boxes. Some of the later MA-1 guys could describe that better than me (Hey Marv take over). I can remember one weekend at Tyndall AFB FL I had to replace an intervelometer that was located alongside the Pneumatic storage bottle. The way in was to open and lock doors, drain all air from tank, lower front rails and open an access panel above rails. I had to make a plywood rack to put on missile rails so I could stand and get my body up in that access area. I worked over 8 hours in blistering heat to replace that little bastard of a part. I asked to have bottle removed a few times and was turned down each time. That was worst job I had to do in 23 years of AF time. Replacing the safety wire on electrical plug was about an hour job. In my 8 years on MA-1 that was only time I heard of that part failing.
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Post by pat perry on Oct 6, 2016 0:02:35 GMT 9
QUESTION: Is AFCS the same as Avionics?
I have a young friend who just entered avionics training at Shepard AFB in Wichita Falls, TX. He already has his first assignment on F-16s at Spangdahlem Air Base Germany.
www.spangdahlem.af.mil/
Thanks, Pat P.
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Post by LBer1568 on Oct 6, 2016 0:46:43 GMT 9
QUESTION: Is AFCS the same as Avionics?
I have a young friend who just entered avionics training at Shepard AFB in Wichita Falls, TX. He already has his first assignment on F-16s at Spangdahlem Air Base Germany.
www.spangdahlem.af.mil/
Thanks, Pat P. AFCS Is an F-106 acronym for Automated Flight Control System. Most fighters have a pilot assist mode which would engage altitude control, heading control etc. But the F-106 had an automated mode where the SAGE Center would provide several control/intercept signals which the pilot saw as Command Heading, Altitude, Airspeed on instruments and an elevation bar on radar scope as well as a target circle on radar. So if everything was working in Automated Mode, the pilot had to accomplish throttle changes to control airspeed and move radar controls to the desired position and target would show up on scope. Pilot would then accomplish lock-on and system would fly airplane on the designated SAGE flight path to engage target. Pilot would also select weapon and pull trigger. The trigger in MA-1 was only an OK to fire when ready in most modes. If manual mode or salvo was selected weapon would fire on trigger pull. None of the other fighters of the era had anything to match MA-1 and F-106 capabilities. Some of the features are available on modern fighters, but not the ground control intercept features. The AFCS also had a Auto Nav feature where pilot would select a predetermined location or Nav Point and engage Auto flight mode and MA-1 would fly him to that point. We programmed the Nav Points my removing control box in cockpit and setting switches to known points such as TACAN stations. These corresponded to maps shown on Tactical Situation Display (TSD) the big display screen between pilots legs. The TSD had a 35 mm film cartridge and a photo lamp to illuminate screen. The TSD also had a F-106 displayed on screen as current position and a target display which could be the SAGE target or a Nav point as selected on Nav Control box in cockpit. Originally the TSD also had a "within range feature which would only display map of areas within range of F-106 based on airspeed and throttle position. That feature was disabled in mid 60's because pilots could see that most intercepts from coastal bases would not permit them to make it back to mainland. MA-1 AFCS also had ILS intercept mode where it would fly aircraft to runway with pilot supplying throttle as needed to maintain Command Airspeed. Many pilots did not trust the system, but several instructor pilots said it was a great assist to flying a great approach. The info provided is my memory after 45 years since last time working MA-1. It's amazing how much info comes back after so long. Lorin
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Post by Mark O on Oct 6, 2016 6:05:09 GMT 9
QUESTION: Is AFCS the same as Avionics?
I have a young friend who just entered avionics training at Shepard AFB in Wichita Falls, TX. He already has his first assignment on F-16s at Spangdahlem Air Base Germany.
www.spangdahlem.af.mil/
Thanks, Pat P. Sounds like he's going be be a 2A3X4... www.foreverwingman.com/2a3x4/Mark O
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zipper730
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Post by zipper730 on Oct 6, 2016 10:20:45 GMT 9
Lorin,
1. Did SAGE have a mode whereby data could be displayed on the scope for the pilot to fly without taking control of the aircraft early on? I'd almost swear I saw something like that mentioned on the F-102 and F-104.
2. If it's not classified: What modes were available for the MA-1? You mentioned that there were several modes including a manual mode.
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Post by LBer1568 on Oct 6, 2016 12:20:54 GMT 9
Lorin, 1. Did SAGE have a mode whereby data could be displayed on the scope for the pilot to fly without taking control of the aircraft early on? I'd almost swear I saw something like that mentioned on the F-102 and F-104. 2. If it's not classified: What modes were available for the MA-1? You mentioned that there were several modes including a manual mode. The data was displayed but the pilot was not required to go into Automated mode. He could fly the mission manually. The other modes I mentioned were dependent upon weapon selected. The six carried Radar and IR Missiles. But it also carried a MB-1 Genie. It was an unguided nuclear rocket. The six had an optical sight before the gun was added. A different sight was used for gun. When old optical sight was lowered the pilot could make a reticle setting for range and based upon setting the MA-1 would set parameters for rocket launch. With the manual mode, sight active, the pilot's trigger was the command for rocket launch. When pilot selected missiles the armament loaded would show on weapons selector panel. The panel also had a salvo mode to launch the missiles without arming them. This was in case of emergency so pilot could get weapons out of bay before making emergency landing.
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zipper730
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Post by zipper730 on Oct 6, 2016 14:04:58 GMT 9
Lorin,
So, my guess would be that the workload would be lower in automated mode, but would regardless be able to carry out effective intercepts either way?
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Post by LBer1568 on Oct 7, 2016 0:19:42 GMT 9
Lorin, So, my guess would be that the workload would be lower in automated mode, but would regardless be able to carry out effective intercepts either way? It was like a current day Airliner pilot. Put it on auto pilot and go to latrine. Trust in what system could do.
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zipper730
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Post by zipper730 on Oct 7, 2016 7:10:01 GMT 9
Lorin,
And just like airliners, there are some pilots who put the plane on autopilot the instant they get the chance. Others will hand-fly the aircraft to the top of the climb before engaging it.
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biendhoa
F-106 Expert
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Post by biendhoa on Nov 15, 2016 7:59:41 GMT 9
Anyone remember AFCS calling for a man and a mule. What did they want?
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Post by Jim on Nov 15, 2016 9:28:03 GMT 9
Anyone remember AFCS calling for a man and a mule. What did they want?
Probably an MA1 weenie and a hydraulic test stand. The weenie would stand guard while the AFCS dude adjusted the HEP valve, screwing up the mechanical and trim system neutrals trying to eliminate drastic shifts when going into or out of AFCS.... At Loring from 1959 until the end 1963, while I was NCOIC of the flight control team, no one worked on the flight controls without one of the 5 members of the team present
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Post by LBer1568 on Nov 15, 2016 12:19:32 GMT 9
Anyone remember AFCS calling for a man and a mule. What did they want?
Probably an MA1 weenie and a hydraulic test stand. The weenie would stand guard while the AFCS dude adjusted the HEP valve, screwing up the mechanical and trim system neutrals trying to eliminate drastic shifts when going into or out of AFCS.... At Loring from 1959 until the end 1963, while I was NCOIC of the flight control team, no one worked on the flight controls without one of the 5 members of the team presentAt McGuire 539th FIS we started getting AFCS people about the time I got there, 1964. I can remember setting up for the alignments during Docks. At the same time we would set up the bore sight board at 1,000" and put bird on jacks and raise gear. We did mechanical alignments of a lot of things so everything pointed to same point at neutral. I was glad to get out of the AFCS alignments. I can't recall the total alignment procedure, but it was not well documented and the alignment was more trial and error than the rest of MA-1 System.
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Post by Gene on Nov 16, 2016 5:16:43 GMT 9
nice read...
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