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Post by Jim on Apr 13, 2007 0:41:06 GMT 9
From a 27th FIS buddy (another Dart jock): _ _ _ _ _
You Might be a Crew Chief IF.....
You've ever said, "Oh yes sir, it's supposed to look like that."
You've ever sucked LOX to cure a hangover.
You know what JP4/JP5 tastes like.
You've ever used a piece of safety wire as a toothpick.
You've ever had to say, "My boots are still black!" (or ever spray-painted them black)
You have ever used soot from the tailpipe to blacken your boots.
You believe the aircraft has a soul.
You talk to the aircraft.
The only thing you know about any city is where the good bars are.
You know more about your coworkers than you do about your own family.
You can't figure out why maintenance officers exist.
You ever wished the pilot would just say, "Great aircraft!"
You think everyone who isn't a Crew Chief is a wimp.
You wondered where they keep finding the idiots that keep making up stupid rules.
You consider 'Moly-B' fingerprints on food an 'acquired taste'.
You've ever been told to "go get us some prop wash, a yard of flight line or the keys to the jet.
You have ever jumped inside an intake to get out of the rain.
Little yellow ear plugs are all over your house.
You have ever preflighted in really bad weather only to learn that the flight was canceled hours ago.
Your spouse refuses to watch any aviation shows or attend air shows with you.
You have ever looked for pictures of "your" jet in aviation books and magazines.
You can't figure out why two weeks of advance per-diem is gone after three days.
You can sleep anywhere, anytime. But as soon as the engines shut down you are wide awake.
You have ever used, wheel chock, or tow bar for a pillow.
You have ever stood on wheel chocks to keep your feet dry.
You have ever used a pair of Dykes to trim a fingernail.
You have ever pulled the gun switch while riding brakes.
You have ever started a jet inside the hanger!
You have ever wiped leaks right before a crew show.
All you care about is the flying schedule and your days off.
You have ever had to defuel your jet an hour after fueling it.
Everyone you know has some kind of nickname.
You have used the "Pull Chocks" hand signal to tell your buddies it is time to leave..
You have ever bled hydraulic fluid into a Gatorade bottle or soda can because you are too lazy to go get a hydraulic bucket and the Hazmat keys.
If have you ever been tackled, duct taped to a tow bar, covered in PET and sand, egged, sourmilked, peanut buttered and jellied, and slapped under the emergency wash station in 30 deg weather?
You know in your heart that your jet is female.
You refer to ANY machine as "she."
You refer to QA as "the enemy."
You hate Ops, Maintenance Control, QA, and cops.
You know the international marshalling sign for "pull your head out of your ass."
You've ever worked weekend duty on a jet that isn't flying on Monday.
You've wanted the jet to start just so you can warm up.
You can't remember half of your coworkers real names... only their nicknames.
You fix 30 million dollar jets, but can't figure out what's wrong with your $150 lawnmower.
Your toolbox at home has wheels and foam cutouts, just like the ones at work.
Some of the tools in your toolbox at home are etched.
If the way you measure the cost of living in other countries is by the price of a beer at a bar.
And best of all, you know everybody you send this to will understand because they were all crew chiefs, or wanted to be!!
THANKS TO COL ROSS FOR THIS .....................The Old Sarge
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Post by Cougar on Apr 13, 2007 4:55:41 GMT 9
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Post by Mark O on Apr 13, 2007 6:26:44 GMT 9
Crew Chief - guilty as charged! Oh, put a minus sign in front of any temperatures listed for the list to apply to the tanker dawgs (or old fighter guys) up at Grand Forks!!
Mark
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Post by Jeff Shannon on Apr 13, 2007 9:41:01 GMT 9
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Post by ma1marv on Apr 13, 2007 22:29:05 GMT 9
What I want to know is "Where did the good Col Ross" get this info?? Who let the "CAT" out of the bag? ? The list is almost complete, just add the following; Great disdain for and Avionics puke! (MA-1 included) We always had to have a crew chief with us when we did "On Aircraft MAggie bleeds!" Great LOVE for the MA-1 troop, who also knew how to help change tires, signed for the fuel, serviced with AIR, LOX, Nitrogen (Both liquid and gas), opened panels and knew which one to open, and knew where the bars were that had FREEBIES! Love ya MAN! MArv
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Durden
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Post by Durden on Apr 13, 2007 22:52:34 GMT 9
:lol: Some of these sound familiar so I must have been a Crew Chief in another life many moons ago. :rolleyes: I do remember painting the toes of my boots with black gloss Krylon paint and polishing them with aircraft polish. Makes a good spit shine without the spit and less work. I will take the fifth on some of the other items. :lol:
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Bullhunter
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Post by Bullhunter on Apr 14, 2007 0:45:21 GMT 9
That list is funn and I can see troops doing many of the items on that list. I'm a jet troop. Worked F-106's & T-33's at McChord AFB. Most of the time on the flightline. When POMO started I went to the phase dock and like Jeff stated above I help out the crew chiefs quite abit as all I was tasked with was inspecting, doing minor repairs, and changing the filters. When I went to Sembach Air Base , West Germany and worked OV-10A Bronco's I was incharge of flightline engine maintenance and also was given an aircraft and assigend as crewchief. Wearing 2 hats kept my butt busy. Then I moved up to flight-chief and had the whole show for about 6 months before I PCS back to McChord AFB. But this time the USAF put me on the C-141's. Oh, how I wanted to return to the 318th FIS. I admit I remember these 3 things very well. You have ever wiped leaks right before a crew show. You've ever worked weekend duty on a jet that isn't flying on Monday. You hate Ops, Maintenance Control, QA, and cops. I never used a piece of safety wire as a toothpick - but I did use some once to dig out a sliver. Works well and with good sharp tool you can sharpen just like a needle. On the flightline we do things to avoide that long walk back to the shop.
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Post by Jim on Apr 14, 2007 13:16:40 GMT 9
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MOW
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Post by MOW on Apr 14, 2007 15:54:38 GMT 9
Crew Dawg as charged I should write those up and post them on the website somewhere
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615crewdog
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Post by 615crewdog on Dec 27, 2007 9:26:48 GMT 9
I printed off that list and then highlighted everything I have said, thought, or actually done. I AM PROUD TO SAY THAT I HIGHLIGHTED 26 THINGS ON THAT LIST. But there should be another line added. "You have called the expeditor over just so he can laugh with you over the only write-up the pilot had after a weekend cross country flight. 'The UHF will not work in the O.F.F. position. ;D ' Write-up signed off as UHF works in accordance with T.O., unit is not supposed to work in the OFF position. :lol:
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Post by daoleguy A.J. Hoehn (deceased) on Dec 27, 2007 12:40:38 GMT 9
Cougar, you remind me of an incident at a certain northern base where the CC got the crap scared outta him when he opened the bay doors. It seemed an Alaskan King Crab had managed to find its way on the SIX as a stowaway!
AJ
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ritchie1selfridge
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Post by ritchie1selfridge on Apr 14, 2008 0:58:05 GMT 9
How about sewing on a button or new stripes with safety wire. That was for those of us that were single
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Post by Cougar on Apr 16, 2008 1:53:48 GMT 9
How about sewing on a button or new stripes with safety wire. That was for those of us that were single Paper Staples worked real good on nametags and torn pockets!!!
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ritchie1selfridge
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Post by ritchie1selfridge on Apr 16, 2008 6:49:08 GMT 9
Yeah but we were Crew Chiefs they never let us near such sophisticated machinery as a stapler !!!
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Post by Mark O on Apr 16, 2008 8:14:49 GMT 9
Yeah but we were Crew Chiefs they never let us near such sophisticated machinery as a stapler !!! YOU GUYS HAD STAPLERS??!!! Man, must have been neat back when the USAF had money. I'm not kidding! We would have to go into the pro-super's office to use stuff like that. Staplers, 7-hole punches for the forms, copy machines, etc. When we asked why we didn't have those items in the crew chief dispatch it was always, "We ran out of money for office supplies." Or, "You guys had that stuff but you broke it." Oh yea! But we got those nice plasma TV's that one year and the year before all new furniture! Pah-leeze!! I have to admit I sure like it in ops now! Mark
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Post by lindel on Apr 16, 2008 9:52:56 GMT 9
YOU GUYS HAD STAPLERS??!!!
For about 3 days I got stuck stapling 2005's together because a dentist saw fit to give me a prescription for codine due to dry sockets. For some reason they (the shop powers that be) didn't think I was "safe" I did do quite a bit of flight line work while TDY at Tyndall during the INS mod. Riding brakes and the like. Not really crew chief worthy, but not bad for a mock-up weenie.
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ritchie1selfridge
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Post by ritchie1selfridge on Apr 16, 2008 10:54:33 GMT 9
Yeah I am from the old corp.. We used wait for the pilot to yell "contact" before hand cranking the compressor blades over. That sure was hard but there isn't anything a six chief couldn't do. Seriously , I don't remember staplers ,hole punches or copiers in th CC area. Lots of ashtrays full of butts ( did anyone ever empty those things ). But no office equipment. Unless you count those mechincal pencils with red lead on one end a black lead on the other.
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az09
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Post by az09 on May 6, 2008 7:33:49 GMT 9
1968 to 1969 - Goose Bay AB, Labradore, Canada - MAC - 620th Military Airlift Support Sq
CREW Chief! We don't need no stinkin Crew Chief. In my 13 months at the "goose" this Jet Engine Mechanic had 3 jet work orders - 2 fuel control changes, C-130 / C-133 and a shut off actuator on a C-141. I had a C-141 come in and request a check of the #2 engines oil pressure as the gage was fluxing. I called for a direct pressure reading gage from the SAC boys as MAC didn't have one on our ECCL. I got the gage hand delivered by 3 SAC engine troops and they took over the work order as I looked over their shoulders. They said they hadn't had a job the whole time at the "goose". You would have thought I had gave them pots-O-gold the way they acted. They left talking amongst themselves like they were coming out a bar from a night of drinking.
My boss asked me why I let them work the job. I said, " they needed the work more than I did." The mini-ground made its one hour service time and everyone was happy.
The rest of the time I did thru flight inspections and service for all of MAC's big heavies. I helped the recip engine troops pull "jugs", change out plugs, magnetos, and packed a main gear strut on "ole shaky". We did all levels of service, oil on recips - C-124's take 82.5 gals per engine. A oil truck pulls up and you over the wing service, going from engine to engine. We park and fuel up the aircraft as the fuel loads come in from the aircrews. One C-141 was coming back to the states from Germany on a one time flight. It had been a "hangar queen" over there and was barely flyable. It was missing parts in the fuel system and we had to "over the wing" refuel it. We did low pressure air service and "LOX" on high pressure systems. We would sit "fire guard" and assist the flight crews on their preflights and then launch them out.
When I left there in December of 1969, I was seriously thinking about retraining into APG. But Hamilton was one of my dream assignments coming true, so I sat on the pending decision.
Now after all this time, the base was closed, the unit has disappeared from all records of ever existing. Was it all a dream???
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John Slover
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Post by John Slover on Jun 10, 2008 6:40:21 GMT 9
After crewing on the 6 with the 5th at Minot from 66-68 and then being assigned to the 416th TFS in VietNam on F-100,s was one BIG culture shock. Like going from a Jaguar to a Dodge Dart. When you have to remove the brake assembly just to change a tire is wrong. Still have the scar,s from removing so many aft sections on the lead sled.
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Post by Jim on Jun 10, 2008 8:07:55 GMT 9
After crewing on the 6 with the 5th at Minot from 66-68 and then being assigned to the 416th TFS in VietNam on F-100,s was one BIG culture shock. Like going from a Jaguar to a Dodge Dart. When you have to remove the brake assembly just to change a tire is wrong. Still have the scar,s from removing so many aft sections on the lead sled. how about remembering to disconnect the horsecock? ?Oh btw, remember what the spider was for? ?The Old Sarge.........I was in the 416th FtrBmbr Sqdn 53-55 George AFB and Chambley France and attached to 416th TFS in64 aatMisawa AB Japan..Their patch still a white horse and a knight in armor? ?
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