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Post by mrbones on Mar 27, 2009 3:09:00 GMT 9
Who out there remembers the Crazy Nose Trainer and what ever happened to it?  :confused |
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Post by lindel on Mar 27, 2009 4:01:26 GMT 9
I remember it, but I couldn't tell you what happened to it.
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Post by ma1marv on Mar 29, 2009 1:02:10 GMT 9
Just to set everyone straight on the "Crazy Nose trainers" At Lowry, the MA-1 tech school, located in building 849, had 4 crazynose trainers. Each one was basicly the front portion of a Six.. All units were in the appropriate place and all functioned as the system would in the actual airframe. Some of the little things such as the right aft wheel well and associated units were fairly well represented and could be located easily by the students. The trainer even had an "05" door and hell hole area where the 289 unit, afcs units, and some IFF gear was located. (Remember the 265 unit???) We had the trainers upgraded as the system was upgraded throughout the years. The last MA-1 mod on the trainer was the solid state receiver mod that was installed on the regular airframes along with the re-skin mod for the wings. I think the last actual MA-1 mod was the removel of all the old plugs and connectors along with the unit and rack plugs. They were replaced with all gold plated connectors to resist corrosion. Seems that I remember the MA-1 system "FINALLY" worked as advertised! All of the trainers worked very well, and served our training purposes. One trainer was capable of live transmit, while the other 3 were dummy loaded. The one that had a live transmitter pointed out to the North towards the old Denver airport, and we could actually track inbout and outbound aircraft. Most of the time we had an FDT over the nose and used it to provide tracking capabilities for the students, without interfering with normal commercial aircraft. Oh, the Comm system was live as well! I personally can testify to that! So can my good buddy Frand Adams! He selected the guard switch setting on the 505 unit and pressed the mike button, then handed me the mike and said "Say something Marv!".. my reply was for him to FXXXoff! I was reprimanded by the mockup supervisor who had been listening in another room! Well, back to the crazy nose trainers! When the training shut down, about 1987-1988 there were two SSgt's left to clean up the equipment and handle turn-ins to supply or DRMO. SSgt Leon Sidenstricker, SSgt Mark Collins were the ones left to do the job. By that time I had returned to Lowry, after retiring and was working as a GS-9, Electronics Principles Instructor. I got to help them do it. Yes it was both fun and yet quite sad! Three of the trainers were cut up and turned in for scrap. The units were all documented and turned in to supply for their disposal. The active trainer with the FDT was handled a bit differently. That trainer was dismantled and all associated units were kept together. All wiring was removed - selectively so that the trainer could be put back together. The final shipment of trainer #4 was to the Air Force museum at Wright Pat. I have wondered ever since if the museum ever tried to put that trainer back together, or if they finally just decided to scrap it as well. Finally, I would like to know if Hughes Acft ever got rid of the "Wood Nose " that was last mounted and used at the Canoga Park facility. Any of you old/young Hughes reps that worked there know anything about it??? There you have it! :  MArv :patriotic-flagwaver :green-beer :green-beer |
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Post by lindel on Mar 29, 2009 1:24:46 GMT 9
I remember when I went back to Mock Up school, I wasn't allowed to "troubleshoot". I had a nasty habit of looking for missing tubes, instead of figuring out what the problem was.
I also had an argument with the instructor (I can't remember the name) about scrg amps vs the cans as to which would be more likely to fail.
Back at the 49th, we ended up finding an outfit that would reproduce the scrg amp boards and we started making our own. Failures dropped big time after that. The INS system was a welcome mod to the 6!
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Post by mrbones on Mar 29, 2009 8:31:48 GMT 9
Sure would be great to see the Crazy Nose up and running at the Air Force Museum. I know there are still some Techs around to do the job like MArv. Trained on it in 1965. :us_flag
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Post by dude on Mar 29, 2009 12:55:12 GMT 9
Marv,
I must say I'm in awe of anyone that can remember a building number. Great low down on the trainer. Sorry I can't help on the wood nose, but maybe you can answer a couple questions on the FDT at Lowry.
The last two TCTOs I worked on for the FDT was converting to solid state memory (circa '83-'84) and a Range Gate Stealer card to test the Manual IF Gain (circa '85). Did either of these find their way into the FDT at the school?
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Post by ma1marv on Mar 30, 2009 10:28:06 GMT 9
First, I'll have to say that I'm not sure of what heappened to the FDT we had in the classroom. It was kept up by the Mockup maintenance folks at Lowry and functioned as well as any I had ever operated back on the flight line. I know that it was modded several times to keep up with what was installed. There might have been a range gate stealer mod - as I think it was done for a one time good deal test to see if it would function. We had some AAI folks there late in 1985 and that was after the Solid state receiver mod. We got one of the first five receivers off the Hughes production line, because I asked them if they wanted to have students trained on it when they would reach the flight line.. The Huges rep in charge of the program, Mr Charlie Steigleder said that by modding the trainer at Lowry, they would have a great input into our training that would virtually guarantee traning would be accomplished. It also provided another opportunity to see how it was going to affect another radar set without tying up an active aircraft. As I recall, 2513 and 061 were to receive the second and third set, with the wood nose getting the first one. It was something to finally see the "Wood nose" in action, touch and feel it after hearing so much about it! The canoga Park facility was quite a place! Seemed like all old retired MA-1 and even a few younger ones that only put in a few years were hired by Hughes. I thought about it, but decided that California was not the place for me! Yep, I would definitely volunteer to go the Wright Pat, help put that trainer back together and I do believe we could get it working! : By the way, my buildings are a little out of focus over the years. But hey! Sometimes you get it right! Marv :patriotic-flagwaver :green-beer :green-beer |
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Post by dude on Mar 31, 2009 13:04:27 GMT 9
 Yep. I hear ya. I wrote all the major TCTOs for the FDT from '82 on, but didn't go to Lowry. So I'm thinking the AAI guys were probably a couple engineers sent out to get data on the new receiver for a software update. Most of the FDTs were returned to San Antonio. We had a couple at the plant and when Hill AFB museum got its F-106 I offered to give them one. They declined saying they couldn't advertise for a company. I told them we weren't looking to advertise and oh by the way a company built the friggin airplane. Anyway they didn't get it, so we junked 'em. After service I graduated out of Purdue engineering and looked at Hughes but couldn't handle LA either. AAI was also scarfing up MA-1 types. They had a new program for depot level ATE and needed prior electronic types with component level training for field service. There weren't that many prior service left with the extensive training we got. They hired about a dozen mock-up and line techs from my outfit at Langley. Also had a couple buddies go work on the Shuttle for the US Space Alliance. One's still at the Cape. The other's still in Houston. By the way, I was told by a Hughes rep that they looked at putting the upgraded six receiver in the F-15. (I'm sure he meant the technology, not the unit.) They'd done some tests down at Tyndal (?) and evidently with the upgrade the six had a hotter set.
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:confused 
Yep. I hear ya.
