Bullhunter
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318th FIS Jet Shop 1975-78
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Posts: 7,445 
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Post by Bullhunter on Apr 3, 2013 23:27:03 GMT 9
Posted by William Maddux on FB in the USAF Group Page" "The only certainty in Aircraft Maintenance is that aircraft fly, land and break. The degree in which an aircraft breaks depends on the urgency of the next scheduled flight and the availabili ty of specialist. Pilots should remember the old adage that you don’t stick your finger in liquid on the ground near tires or bomb bay and don’t come tell us about it because we will joke about it forever. When your aircraft isn’t flying supervision will find the stupidest things for you to do, instead of letting you fix old write up on your jet. The hours are long, and weekends are short, unless you are on weekend duty. Such is the Life of the Aircraft Mechanic."
Their comments: "
William Maddux: "Had a butter bar (2nd Lt.) new co-pilot on B-52 come over to me during the walk around telling me that he found a leak in the bomb bay..said he was not sure what it was as it wasn't like oil in feel or taste...I told him I would look at it trying not to laugh...I caught up with the Aircraft commander and told him about it...he said he knew and thought I could use a laugh..he sent the LT to me to report the leak when the LT told him about the leak...He said he would wait until they were in the air before telling him about the LEAK."
Mike Warner I can hear it now. LT: "There's some kind of fluid leak by the left gear." Capt: "Yup, crew chief fluid!!"See More</span>  </p> Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Had some good old times. Now I just have the memories! |
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Post by Mark O on Apr 4, 2013 4:55:48 GMT 9
Reminded me of this crew chief cartoon! Some of you may remember a few of these...  |
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Jim Scanlon (deceased)
Senior Staff
FORUM CHAPLAIN
Commander South Texas outpost of the County Sligo Squadron
Currently: Offline
Posts: 5,075
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Joined: July 2007
Retired: USAF
NBA: Spurs
NFL: Niners
MLB: Giants
NHL: Penguins
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Post by Jim Scanlon (deceased) on Apr 4, 2013 5:52:35 GMT 9
Way back when I was working on aeroplanes that had fans on front of the engine (s), to keep the engine cool, we carried large rolls of red fabric tape.
It was handy to patch split knees, or seats, on our one-piece fatigues. Always put on the inside, as the red was not too much of a colour blend with the OD fatigue material.
The tape was also handy for a "temporary" patch on a fabric flight control surface, when it got poked with a bit of hail, or wayward screw driver.
If it looked good, and the hole was small, it didn't take too much to get the can of gray paint out and cover the tape with paint and dope.
Safety wire was not only used to repair separated soles on brogans, after the engine and hydaulic fluids ate up the stitching, you could also use it to reconnect a torn off heel. Just poke small holes in the heel, and through the inside of the shoe, push the safety wire through and across to the next hole, then repeat until the heel was secure. Then put a piece of leather inside the shoe to cover the wire.
You did tend to click while walking, and were probably a fire danger, if the wires caused sparks while refueling.
Copper safety wire was good for refastening buttons that came off.
It was a pretty good match of color and washed well at the laundromat.
If you broke or lost the clamp from some non-essential tubing, like the Relief Tube, you could use safety wire to hold it together until you got home and could get the right clamp.
I don't know if QA/QC, Safety Office or other pickey people would let you get away with some of the innovative ways flying machines used to be repaired.
Oh, the tape and safety wire were also good for keeping your car going.
Jim Too
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Post by LBer1568 on Apr 5, 2013 9:18:43 GMT 9
Mark,
You left out a few important things on C/C picture. 1) You didn't show the scars on his arms where they removed 8" of arm to prevent his hands from dragging on the ground. 2) You forgot to show the huge "Elvis" comb in back pocket so he can comb his Duck tail haircut when ever any females are near-by. 3)And his left arm should be very tanned from driving around with his arm out the window, from both his "Rod" and from expedite truck, and lastly 4) where is his coffee cup? Crew dogs always had a half cup in their hand.
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Post by oswald on Apr 9, 2013 8:06:02 GMT 9
Hey if any of you guys are going to the reunion in Sept. I've got a picture of myself repairing one of my boots with safety wire and those crazy pliers.
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Post by Jim on Apr 9, 2013 8:12:52 GMT 9
Hey if any of you guys are going to the reunion in Sept. I've got a picture of myself repairing one of my boots with safety wire and those crazy pliers. Post it, some one will see that it gets there...... |
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Post by Jim on Apr 9, 2013 8:14:24 GMT 9
Mark, You left out a few important things on C/C picture. 1) You didn't show the scars on his arms where they removed 8" of arm to prevent his hands from dragging on the ground. 2) You forgot to show the huge "Elvis" comb in back pocket so he can comb his Duck tail haircut when ever any females are near-by. 3)And his left arm should be very tanned from driving around with his arm out the window, from both his "Rod" and from expedite truck, and lastly 4) where is his coffee cup? Crew dogs always had a half cup in their hand. Wow, all this from an MA-1 weeeeeeeeeeeennnnnnnnniiiiiiiiieeeeeeeee.................... |
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Post by oswald on Apr 9, 2013 8:17:22 GMT 9
I don't know how Jim
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Post by oswald on Apr 9, 2013 9:36:04 GMT 9
Just found the picture I talked about.It was taken while I was at Osan. I uploaded in my pictures on my computer. I need an E-mail address to send it to.
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Post by LBer1568 on Apr 9, 2013 11:20:09 GMT 9
Crew Chiefs hated MA-1 weeeeeeeeeeeennnnnnnnniiiiiiiiieeeeeeeee.................... 's because we were always the last to go home. We sure had job security back in the early days.
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Post by Mark O on Apr 9, 2013 13:29:54 GMT 9
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Post by Mark O on Apr 10, 2013 8:47:27 GMT 9
Just got the famous, "Boot being safety wired" photo from Oswald!!! (He asked me to post it for him.)   Thanks Steve!!!  |
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Post by oswald on Apr 11, 2013 21:23:02 GMT 9
thanks for doing that mark. having trouble with my keyboard again.
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Post by jimpadgett on Apr 12, 2013 1:16:09 GMT 9
Also missing was the speed(idiot)handle.
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Post by bear (Deceased) on Apr 15, 2013 20:59:54 GMT 9
Also missing was the Yankee screw driver.
Bear
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Post by oswald on Apr 18, 2013 7:55:44 GMT 9
I used a speedhandle but some guys had yankees. I preferred the yankee and sometimes borrowed a friends if a long job was to be done.
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Jim Scanlon (deceased)
Senior Staff
FORUM CHAPLAIN
Commander South Texas outpost of the County Sligo Squadron
Currently: Offline
Posts: 5,075
Location:
Joined: July 2007
Retired: USAF
NBA: Spurs
NFL: Niners
MLB: Giants
NHL: Penguins
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Post by Jim Scanlon (deceased) on Apr 18, 2013 8:08:40 GMT 9
The Yankee screwdriver was good, but you couldn't get the torque to finish many jobs, like putting the under-wing panels back on after checking the fuel cells.
Fortunately, the SIX, unlike the F-4 didn't have any Torx screws, so Philips head bits worked quite well.
I don't know if it was system wide, but for a period of time we had to quit using air guns on the fuel cells.
Too many stripped heads, taking out and putting in, and overtorquing and popping the rivited, sealed nuts.
Seeing I had a corrosion control FTD school on my ticket, that made me the corrosion control guy on the phase docks, which meant I was the one who had to supervise the panel removal and installation.
Not my favourite task. 
Did anyone ever get the supply system to buy Yankee Screwdrivers, or were all of them local purchase?
Jim Too
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Post by LBer1568 on Apr 18, 2013 11:04:02 GMT 9
I still have my Yankee screwdriver and speed handle. When we deployed to Korea, they didn't have us bring our full toolbox full of stuff. We got additional tools at Osan. And tools there in PACAF were considered expendable so we didn't have to turn them in when we returned to states. That was just us AugieDogies. So I brought my full tool box back to Tyndall. First thing I had to do was get engraving tool and mark them with my B1568 marking. But when I rotated out of Tyndall, the tool crib did 100% inventory and let me keep the excess tools. That included my 3/8" MA-1 Spin tight with a wooden handle about the size of a pear. Good for torqueing down those black boxes.
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Post by ma1marv on Apr 18, 2013 12:07:45 GMT 9
Well the old spin tight and the yankee were used and often miss-used by many a flight line troop. I personally never used my yankee even though I still have one in my tool box. Just never could see it as a viable tool. My prefrence over that yankee was a 3/8 speed handle with a large aluminum pad attached to the handle and a #2 Phillips APEX holder. When working on any panel with cam locks, it would allow me to put my full body weight into it and get the camlock stud to fully engage the internal mechanism, then the cam lock could fully unscrew from the retainer and then the spring would pop it out like it was enginered to do. MANY times I had to re-engage the camlock after someone used a yankee and merely popped the lock without unscrewing the internal nut. Not the way it was designed to work. Dzus fasteners were a different story. They did not need to be internally unscrewed, nor were thay engineered with that internal screwnut! For all you "OLD" MA-1 types that preceded me - the later maintenance in MA-1 was to NEVER pound on the front panel of any box. The last big mod for the MA-1 was -I believe - called Project Gold Plate. This took out all the spin-tight fasteners in every box and replaced them all with new gear mechanisms and rack plates. ALL the back and inside plugs for the electronics were removed and replaced with gold plated plugs and pins. ALL coax connectors were removed and replaced with the crimp-on types, and ALL boxes were then serial number married to each aircraft. That meant NO more box swapping from one aircraft to another. The box faces were all straightened out and re painted and relabled. The thought of even pounding on a face of any unit to "SEAT" them properly was gone! I know - for you "Old GUYS" -(MA-1!) this is a completely foreign thought! But it really worked on the system. Each unit was brought into the shop and every component was thoroughly examined. If it was even a bit out of tolerance, the component was replaced. The box was re-aligned on the mockup - then rechecked in the airframe - the same airframe it came out of! Now in the end of the "6" program, the guys at Griffiss were telling me that it was not unusual to have an aircraft fly 30-40 missions in a row before it would break down and need repair. I also heard that some aircraft went even longer before breaking! Some were reportedly into the 70 - 80 flights and still "CODE 1" for MA-1!!! MArv    |
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Post by lindel on Apr 18, 2013 12:25:46 GMT 9
Marv, to take it one step further, we actually started rebuilding (complete referbs from end to end and top to bottom) key units (the ones that broke the most often) in an effort to up the mean time between failures and reduce some of the Mock-up costs.
I don't remember exactly which units, aside from the Radar rack, but it was a big success.
Getting the INS system and ditching the SCRG amps was a big plus too!
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