Nose gear retract problem F106A, Langley (Read 1,676 times)

genej50, you raise an interesting point. I was a crew chief on a F-106 before I went to school for auto mechanics. I did have some automotive experience during my years in the AF, though.

When I was working on airplanes, I considered it to be highly technical because that was the first vehicle of any kind that I was paid to maintain and I had never worked on anything like an airplane before. Also, it was in everyone's best interest to make sure those machines with the big wings would do what they were made to do...fly.

After the AF, I went to automotive school because there was a lot of talk about computers in cars and carbureters were going to be abolished. I felt I needed a good foundation of all the different systems on cars.

I left the AF in December 1974 and finished school in January 1976. I started working as a mechanic in February 1976. There were some cars with computers and sensors and electronic parts and I felt I had timed it right.
The years passed and the technology continued to get more and more technical and many systems were controled electronically.

To make things worse, I was now working for a large Chevy dealership and we went to schools for one or two days when something new came out that was being used and we needed to be able to diagnose the new things.

I am saying all this to show how auto mechanics get caught up in the technical side of things. I learned a lesson once when I was given the job of diagnosing a no-start problem. I got the book out and started following the flow charts and I couldn't find anything wrong but the engine would not start.

One of the other guys was walking by and he casually asked if there was a spark. I looked at him with my jaw on the floor. Why hadn't I thought of that. I went to the basics and checked for fuel, air, and spark, the three things needed to make an engine run. As it turned out, it had a bad ignition module and therefore no spark. I was slightly embarrassed because I'm a mechanic and I had forgotten the basics. However, it was a good lesson because I never forgot that and it helped me many more times after that over the years.

I am now retired and have been for about 9 years. I still have people call me and ask me to look at their cars. I do what I can but I am physically limited and there is much I can't do. There are also a lot of advancements that have left me far behind. I enjoyed my work and had a good following of customers who liked my work. I take a job occasionally because of the feeling of accomplishment when I am done but I am always glad to be done.

Sometimes it's good to get back to the basics.

What a cool original post! I don't particularly remember any problems or unconventional troubleshooting for the Six, F-105, or A-7, but I remember one for the F-16.

This jet presented an engine fault code (MFL) saying the a/c mach number was too high for the engine when the landing gear was down. Basically, for the engine to believe the airplane's exceeding a certain mach number (~.4 mach or so...) it must know the gear is up. We knew the gear retracted normally; even a fighter pilot would have been able to tell us if it didn't. The fault diagnosis tree in the T.O. wasn't very helpful, and we were scratching our heads as to what was wrong with the jet.

Me being a civilian pilot who'd flown the Viper simulator many times, I knew that the symbology picture in the HUD changed when the gear was up. Out of ideas, I went to the pilot who wrote the jet up, got his AVTR tape (gun camera tape for us old guys...) and noticed that his symbology never changed from the gear-down indication. The pilot had never noticed that!

We were able to isolate a bad landing gear uplock-downlock relay and had the jet fixed in fifteen minutes. The signal from this relay never changed from the "down" indication, so the engine computer thought the gear was down the whole flight. I felt pretty good about that.

A 106 fresh out of dock on engine run smoke from DC generator on CSD shut down found burnt wiring at the terminal board on MA-1 689 or DC generator. Of course the guy who hooked up the generator was blamed, wiring repaired and engine run again same thing brunt wires. Found 300VDC shorted to Gnd, when they put the missile bay panels on someone put an extra long screw in place of 1/2 one that was a bitch to find.

Bear

If I am not mistaken Floyd Pratt went with the 94th to Osan And when we ferry the bird back at the stop at Guam they took the refueling system apart and put it all back together and it worked the rest of the way to Selfridge


Bear

I was in the 48th from 73-79. The MA-1 Hughes rep that was there was Herman Jansen (Herm). I remember another guy named Harold Jacobsen. Think we called him Jake. There was a third guy, which might have been your Pete. But for the life of me I can't put a last name to him. Sorry.

I don't remember that particular problem that was fixed with the rope, but I did witness an F 106 land with the nosegear stuck up. This was probably late 77 or late 78, not exactly sure but one of those two years. I am pretty certain this was a plane I launched that morning.
We watched them foam the runway and then waited. The pilot landed the plane and held the nose up for what seemed forever. As he neared the middle of the runway straight out from the hangar he gently settled the nose down into the foam. I thought at the time how great a job he had done. When he was stopped he still had a good pc of runway left.

I remember this all pretty well because the next morning the flightline van delivered me to the wash rack to clean the whole plane! Only damage I saw was to the bottom of the radome. I think this was on the B model but could be mistaken.

Seems the problem was the big axle nut was hung up on a wire bundle that had not been secured tightly enough and the nut caught on the slack in the wire harness.

I also remember the guys telling me the foam was made from animal blood and guts....? I always figured they were just pulling my leg but I was suited up like an astronaut when I washed that thing! Lol! Took me the whole shift but it was sparkling when I finished. I remember it was cold out cause my hands were freezing even with rubber gloves on. Wish I could remember more details but it's been a long time ago. Anyways I had pretty much forgotten that story until I read this first post.

:welcome to the forums "Novapwr"!!

Glad to have another member of the F-106 family around!

BTW, what squadron(s) were you in, and what was your AFSC? This is kind of like the hall of fame. If you were in more than one you get to pick your favorite so we can use it for your avatar!

Looking forward to reading your experiences (as well as the rest of you, of course)!!

Animal blood & guts??!!!

Thank you for the welcome guys! I have been signed up here a year or so but usually just read and keep quiet. I was assigned to the 48th FIS from 77-79 as a 43151C. Came from the 401st OMS in Torrejon. Did my four and got out but I always loved working on jets. If I remember any more interesting stories, I will be sure to share. I have enjoyed the past year reading the posts here. Nice site guys!