Jim Scanlon (deceased)
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Commander South Texas outpost of the County Sligo Squadron
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Posts: 5,075
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Retired: USAF NBA: Spurs NFL: Niners MLB: Giants NHL: Penguins
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Post by Jim Scanlon (deceased) on Dec 20, 2012 9:55:29 GMT 9
The below article was in the AFA on line Magazine.
Some somebody blew it, and could have seen lots of stuff blown up.
I wonder, after all these years, if anything will be done.
I doubt it.
A Highly Unusual Discovery: Restoration staff inspecting an A-1E Skyraider at the National Museum of the US Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, last week found that the aircraft still contained an estimated 200 gallons of fuel, even though records indicated that museum workers had purged its fuel when it arrived there in 1968, according to museum officials. That discovery led to the temporary closure of some of the museum's galleries while workers defueled the Skyraider for safety reasons, according to the museum's Dec. 17 release. "Discovering fuel in an aircraft on display in the museum is highly unusual and we regret having to inconvenience our visitors by temporarily closing several galleries," stated Museum Director Jack Hudson. He added, "Safety must always come first though, and the team did a superb job in resolving this matter." After the fuel's discovery on Dec. 14, workers spent the next several days removing it, enabling the galleries' re-opening on Dec. 17. Museum procedures call for defueling and purging remaining fuel from all aircraft before they are placed on display. (Dayton report by Rob Bardua)
Jim Too
:santahat
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MOW
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Posts: 5,821
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Retired: USAF, Civil Service
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Post by MOW on Dec 20, 2012 10:04:37 GMT 9
Now that's not something I would think happens every day :rofl Somebody definitely screwed the pooch there :guns ... who signed off those 781's?
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Post by Mark O on Dec 20, 2012 10:16:04 GMT 9
: Whatdayabet that they checked every aircraft in the museum, and sent a message out to every base with aircraft "on loan" or otherwise that are on display for someone to check the tanks? It wouldn't surprise me. BTW -- and I've mentioned this here before -- before they roped off most of the displays at the AF Museum, and if you were sneaky about it, you could crawl just about all under most of the aircraft on the floor. Including their F-106. (That's how I got the photos of the weapons bay.) When I did it around 2001-2002 there was plenty of hydraulic fluid seeping from her! Not enough to make a puddle, but it was there! And the volunteer workers there would get upset if my kids "touched" one of the planes. Geez... One of the photos... www.f-106deltadart.com/displays/wpafb/mark_williams/58-0787_wpafb-3.jpg
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Post by shadowgunner on Dec 20, 2012 10:50:11 GMT 9
Nice shot of the aft rails. BTW, at my museum (PCAM), we encourage touching the aircraft
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Post by LBer1568 on Dec 20, 2012 12:00:20 GMT 9
In todays newspaper it stated that the A1E was "certified" defueled (Red X Cleared) by the old AFSC 4950th Test Wing. Since the aircraft all were flown in to WPAFB, the Base maintenance shops did all the post flight inspections prior to being transferred to museum.
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Post by Mark O on Dec 20, 2012 12:17:53 GMT 9
Nice shot of the aft rails. BTW, at my museum (PCAM), we encourage touching the aircraft More than once when I lived in Kettering, and went to the museum with my kids I would be followed by some well-meaning volunteer. They were very obvious. One of the elderly ladies came up to me once, and just came out and told me to make sure the kids didn't touch the aircraft because if they let people do that the oil from hundreds of hands would eventually ruin the paint. The amazing thing was they never would follow around the adults, and when I went there myself I would be all over those aircraft. Well, as I needed to get the best photo I could. I wasn't opening panels, or anything like that, but they left me alone. Probably just had some bad experiences with visitors that didn't control their children. It bothered me a bit at first, but I just smiled, and blew them off for the most part. Those aircraft are part of history after all.
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Post by lindel on Dec 20, 2012 16:08:00 GMT 9
They didn't appreciate it much when I told them I'd probably touched it more than any of them had...(787, that is).
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Post by ma1marv on Dec 20, 2012 23:28:05 GMT 9
YEP! Pretty much the same response I got when I informed the person who was watching over that part of the museum. I told him that I had personally left finger prints inside of the airframe in many locations, not to mention a piece of my scalp and some hair and blood! As I recall - 787 was the first aircraft I installed the new blade antenna on for the UHF and then became the SECOND airframe I installed the same antenna on after I backed into it. Just had closed up my tool box and turned around to get out from under the fuselage and I backed into it from the side and snapped it off completely! So - back to the shop for another kit and put the new blade in place. I had to order another kit to make up for the one broken. It was a lucky hit. Another one of our guys actually was cut when he backed into that blade antenna from the back side -from the open 05 hole . He had to go to the dispensary and ended up with 6 stitches to close the wound!
MArv :patriotic-flagwaver :fire_missle_ani :green-beer
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Post by Mark O on Dec 21, 2012 0:10:29 GMT 9
As I recall - 787 was the first aircraft I installed the new blade antenna on for the UHF and then became the SECOND airframe I installed the same antenna on after I backed into it. Just had closed up my tool box and turned around to get out from under the fuselage and I backed into it from the side and snapped it off completely! So - back to the shop for another kit and put the new blade in place. I had to order another kit to make up for the one broken. It was a lucky hit. Another one of our guys actually was cut when he backed into that blade antenna from the back side -from the open 05 hole . He had to go to the dispensary and ended up with 6 stitches to close the wound! Been there, done that. I took my UHF antenna out on a KC-135 one morning doing a pre-flight. I was under the fuselage checking the PDI (position display indicator) lights. Those are the lights to signal the receiver to move up, down, forward, or aft when connected to the boom. Anyway, I was backing out, and snapped that blade antenna right off when my back hit it! No cut, no blood -- I was wearing a gortex jacket -- and they were able to get it replaced fairly quickly. The funny thing was the avionics guys game out laughing, and started looking at everyone's foreheads. One of them said, "I don't see any blood." I told him, "It's my back, and I am fine thank you very much (mumble, mumble) you (mumble, mumble.)"
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Post by lindel on Dec 21, 2012 1:22:41 GMT 9
I can't count the number of times I'd get welts and scrapes from all the under-hangings, and the number of times I'd catch a wing in the forehead. I was at just the right height that the brim of my hat would just pass under the wing. If I was close I couldn't see it!
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Post by LBer1568 on Dec 21, 2012 4:43:43 GMT 9
Any of you MA-1 guys ever follow the TO procedures when pulling the stable table? At 6'3" and 160 pounds I would just stand in 05 hole and lift it back and down past my chest to the ground. I remember seeing the TO diagram of the rope and pullies etc. but don't ever remember seeing it done.
Worst job in MA-1 was R&R the intervelometer/transducer unit beside the air bottle in weapons bay. I only did that once and never had so many charley horses and scraped nuckles. Worked from standing on forward missle rail.
And having worked at Tyndall for 4 years, I probably share a record in R&R the coffin rack on B Model. Every 25 hour inspection it had to be pulled so Mech Ass'y guys could change something in refer. One night on mid shift I installed a coffin rack by myself. Flat on back with feet holding up rack and a speed handle with several long extensions to put in first bolt. Never tried that again.
I worked in Flight Simulator Acquisition and attended many Priliminary Design Review (PDR) conferences and had to fight with developers to allow for Maintainability. I bet there were no such reviews on F-106 and especially where they put MA-1 parts and pieces.
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Post by lindel on Dec 21, 2012 8:09:07 GMT 9
That was one advantage being a mock up troop had. I didn't get to experience the joy of being tossed around by the stable table!
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