F-106 After Burner (Read 5,092 times)

I remember that early morning trim pad boogie at Bunker Hill. 319th Barracks was sort of in a line with it even though it was a good distance away but you could hear those run ups and that burner kick in and. Our shop was at the end of the runway and very close to the tarmac. We'd open the door in the MA-Flightline room, stand outside and watch them take off. Man that afterburner... and though the b58's had four engines with burner they just didn't have the sound of the 106.
Watching the deltas take off and land was a lot more fun than working on them.

deuel

1970 - Hamilton AFB, Ca - Week-end Stand-by Duty

Once our sister ADC Units found out they had "Qualified" SIX Maintenance in the bay area, we started getting more "transit" F-106's on the week-ends than we maintained through the week. One week-end I counted 26 SIXES with different tail markings than ours. Our 12 man shop was hard pressed to cover our 24/7 duty span.

One example - A pilot from up the coast noticed fuel and thrust fluxes on pull-out from home station. Flew the bird on down to us to change his fuel control. When we asked him why he took the chance of a complete fuel control failure, and not returning to home base, he replied, I wanted to see the "CITY".

OK, I digress. One Sunday we got a call for an AB write up. We go to the plane pull the forms and read, AB won't light at 30,000 feet. Well we knew it was probably an altitude compensator vavle, but there was no way of doing "at altitude" troubleshooting. We changed the valve and asked for towing to the trim pad.

Job control told us we were getting close to the 2200 hours cut-off for Full Power Runs. Our Trim Pad was the first "pea" pad on the other side of the active runway. This old WW2 base still had the original parking area for the old P-40's over there.

I was on a short corded headset, standing ground, while the Ssgt was in the cockpit, running up and checking the system after we had changed the altitude compensating valve.

We finished up around 2200 and Jack was letting the engine cool down at idle/scavenging mode. I start picking up the stuff around me and all of a sudden, Jack says, " They want to call me out at night for a bull s--t write up, I'll let them know I was out here doing their bull s--t work". He starts banging the AB in, then out, in, out, in, out, he cycles the crap out of that big J-75. The booming reports roll out over the bay into the housing area that had been built over there recently. The SIX was bouncing up and down with each lighting, I thought I was going to be hit by the left side drop tank. This plane was jumping and shaking like a "spooked" mustang. I look out across the bay and the house lights were blinking on, until every house was lit up.

Finally Jack cools the engine again and shuts it down. The pad is quiet. Quiet as a church at mid-night. That is if the church had a Job Control telephone box ringing continuously off the hook. Jack yells at me to answer the phone, I replied, "No Jack, I know they want to talk with you." We were directed to report to Job Control as soon as we got back the other side.

Jack got the reaming that he so finely deserved. The MSgt said he was getting calls from everyone, even congressmen. Don't know if that was true, but I'm sure some of those folks had Hamilton Job Control on "speed dial" after that Sunday.

The next day they found the front landing gear strut was leaking hydraulic fluid. Jack had ruptured the seals in the strut.
That incident coupled with Jack's house jack/ spar breaking incident and him stepping on and bending the aileron control rod, the big ole long rod that goes down the right side of the engine bay thats mechanically moves the ailerons. This guy was personally responsible for year long grounding of 2 SIXES. So, he was reassigned to Job Control, away from the modern mechanical equipment.

You get a scramble with all the birds lined up in an elephant walk. The first bird is just lifting off, the second is in the middle of the runway, the third is just hitting burner, and the fourth is ready to pull onto the runway. In a few minutes all the birds will have had their burners bright in the dark Griffis sky. Airplanes are a lot of work but they sure are fun.
When I got out I spent a year in the National Guard blowing up old trucks and cows with 105 howitzers at Avon Park Bomb Range. Going from the crew chief of a 106 to the section chief of a 105 howitzer is a culture shock at best. Being prior military, I only had to stay in was one year, and that was all I needed to get the point. God Bless the Grunts!
B McKee USAF

lugnuts, I know exactly how you felt about missing out on F-106 flight.
I was tasked to go TDY from McChord AFB, WA to Kingsley Field, or to work on a F-106A that had flamed-out on the taxiway when it came back from a scramble.
WE were to have taken our B-model F-106 but the night before a eager swing shift pulled it in the hanger and depaneled it for phase inspection that was starting Monday morning.
So we ended up taking one of our T-33's.
It was a nice flight banking around the clouds.

As for the F-106A that flamed-out. It was already fueled and tied down on the trim pad. I ran the crap out of it with lots of afterburner time. I'm sure Klamouth Falls folks wonder what was going on. I discovered that the right wing was not feeding fuel to the engine. Only the left wing was. Couldn't figure how that was not noticed in flight by the pilot. Center of gravity must of been mess up and flet strange to fly. Not to lay this all on the pilot, maintenance did not mention that the right wing was empty and no write-up in the 781 maintenance forms either about the fuel, just a flame-out. ?

cc790 you : :thanks

What can I say? I was a nineteen year old two striper! :

It turned out OK though.

I got my license back the following day. I was one of two run qualified guys at the time.