A-7 Corsair II Youtube video....

Ditto on the "music". Cool video though. Thanks for posting!
 
PRB said:
Ditto on the "music". Cool video though. Thanks for posting!
Click to expand...

Paul, you can probably appreciate this "sea story". Not long after I reported to VA-15, I was assigned the task of replacing the bottom attachment bracket for the canopy actuator. There were four bolts, and the only way to get to the locknut for each, was to reach through side access panels. As was the case in a lot of similar tasks, you couldn't actually see the locknut; you could only feel it. I was about to tighten the last bolt, when (you guessed it) I dropped the socket into the "bowels" of the aircraft. That, in itself, was bad enough. But it was at the end of my 12 hour shift, and meant I wasn't going home until I found that tool. Add to my misery (and several others) were the other workcenters who had to remove panels to help me find the tool. If I remember correctly, it was almost 6-8 hours later before it was found..... Long hours, and countless memories, eh?

NC
 
"We have a major FOD problem guys. Ya see this AW couldn't keep a hold of his tool. That means all you other guys are stayin a little long tonight. You can think the AW here! Have a great night boys, I am going home to eat a little food, and hit the bunks. See ya in the morning , don't be late!"

MasterChief

LOL

Couldn't resist.
 
Mobayrasta said:
"We have a major FOD problem guys. Ya see this AW couldn't keep a hold of his tool. That means all you other guys are stayin a little long tonight. You can think the AW here! Have a great night boys, I am going home to eat a little food, and hit the bunks. See ya in the morning , don't be late!"

MasterChief

LOL

Couldn't resist.
Click to expand...

Yep, and that's pretty much the way it went. 'Cept the Master Chief would be there, drinking coffee. And the AWs would be all bent out of shape, because an AME (me) had dropped the tool.....
 
FOD

Been there, got the scars to prove it. We had a guy drop a mini Phillips screwdriver behind the instrument panel of a 737-200 at Air Canada one night. We had guys pulling instruments and with their heads in the rudder pedals for 5 hours trying to find that stupid tool. It took another 3 hours to test all the systems we had apart. All that because buddy didn't tie a string from his screwdriver to his wrist in case he dropped it. The bosses were not happy as Air Canada had to eat the labour cost.:kilroy:
We had another incident in the Air Force where a guy dropped a washer under the seat of a Tutor. Pull the seat time, which is bitchin job as you have take off the canopy to get the ejection seat out. Two days later the aircraft was finally serviceable.
My final FOD story is from Bristol Aerospace where I spent time working on F-5 rebuilds. At the end of the check the Air Force had us X-ray the whole aircraft for any hardware, swarf, or lockwire ends. Every piece found had to be removed no matter where. :kilroy:
Better to find it now rather than read about it later in the crash report.

Regards, Rob:ernae:
 
This opening scene from the vid (see below) is not Vietnam but USS Nimitz in April 1980. Those orange and black wing stripes were ID markings in preparation for contingency strikes against Iran during the failed hostage rescue operation. Our birds on USS Coral Sea had the same stripes.
 
Good observation, TARPS!

FOD! One day the CO went for a flight off the ship. He returned shortly after taking off. He walked into Maintenance Control carrying the ADI from the center of the A-7E panel. Yes, the whole ADI gauge, in his hands. It’s supposed to be secured to the panel with four screws. (oops…) Now in an A-7 squadron, the ADI belonged to the IWT shop. The next thing to happen was that the Maintenance Master Chief wanted to see the IWT shop supervisor (that was me) in Maintenance Control, kind of RIGHT NOW, sort of… Upon learning what had happened I felt sick to my stomach, on account of what might have happened to the CO and his plane, and because one of “my guys” was responsible, which meant that I was responsible. Well, after a little bit of investigation, we found that the electrical shop (not us) had removed it, but didn’t secure it with the screws after putting it back in. Not good. After all the dust settled, the CO told his story in a more relaxed setting. When the catapult fired, the ADI flew into his chest, then bounced off the canopy glass a couple times before he could grab it! He found three of the four screws that were just hand placed in the holes but not screwed down. All this while the plane was only a hundred feet off the water, while trying to raise the gear and flaps, and not bump into the water. The <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:eek:ffice:smarttags" /><st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">AMEs</st1:place></st1:City> had to pull the seat to get the other screw. They were delighted…
 
Well, at least you can understand the lyrics. :icon_lol:

Nice video, thanks for that wing stripe explanation TARPS and thanks everyone for the stories.
 
Paul,

Great story! Most likely the seat in the Corsairs in your squadron then were still the ESCAPACs... Actual removal of the seat took minimal time, but the longest part of the procedure was having to remove the "banana" panel to disconnect the canopy actuator, and raise the canopy high enough for seat removal. However, it was possible to disconnect the seat, and raise the seat enough to look under it for FOD. The bottom of the SLUF cockpit, as you remember, had plenty of areas for FOD to "hide". I remember spending hours and hours, preparing a cockpit for a Corrosion Inspection; only to have the Wing Inspectors from CLAW-1 crawl up there with their mirrors and flashlights, and come back down with a piece of safety wire, or a screw....and thus a major hit on the inspection. Oooops.
 
And in a similar vein to the flying ADI gauge...
I suspect there are some old (OK, former) A-6 Intruder bubbas here who remember the pilot's pre-flight procedure of pulling on the handles of the Vertical Display Indicator (VDI) CRT panel to make sure it was secure before launch. That procedure dates to the A-6's early days when an improperly secured VDI came loose on a cat shot and hit the pilot. Don't recall if the incident caused a crash, but getting smacked in the chest by a hefty TV set would definitely impair your ability to fly the plane. :eek:
 
Hey Tarps,

My father was onboard the USS Nimitz with VQ-1 during the Iranian Situation. He's told me stories about everything they were doing to get ready for action duing the Iranian situation. He was later transfered to VA-174 at NAS El Centro working on the sluffs. He got out a few months before I was born.

Brian
 
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