One for the maintainers, hardest job you have done

[david parry]

Changing a Nav computer , in the radio bay of a Buccaneer:*

[Rionart]

Detail X on a JP undercarriage was always fun the first time...:ugh:

[leopold bloom]

Battery change on a UK Phantom?

[Saintsman]

Finding the bloody nut after I'd dropped it. When you have to put them on blind and always at the end of your reach, you just know that you wouldn't get it threaded. Even when you'd taken precautions and put something to catch it, the nut would always fall through a gap that you couldn't see.

I once spent hours looking for a small nut that I'd dropped on a Sea King engine change, only to find that the Chief had it all along and didn't tell me, to teach me a lesson for dropping it in the first place!

[Saintsman]

Battery change on a UK Phantom?

Quite a nightmare on the FG1s ;)

[david parry]

Blade tracking test on a wessey:rolleyes:

[om15]

fixing a fuel leak in the centre wing dry bay on a Lightning using dental picks through the bolt holes, or replacing pulled rivets in a Gnat nose gear bay without taking the wings off and putting the fuselage in a rotating jig.

[bugged on the right]

Heading Control Unit SEP2 Autopilot, HS748. Only 4 nuts and bolts, the 2 accessible ones had captive nuts, the inaccessible two had loose nuts. Piece of cake I thought. Took 2 days before finding a spanner which would fit in the space. Lots of skin off. Still break out in a sweat thinking about it.

[St Barbaras Son]

Jack head piston on Tonka......from a plumbers point of view.....but I hear other trades disliked anything to do with Zone 19 as well.

[longer ron]

Loads of 'interesting' jobs on Harriers LOL
One that springs to mind is changing the Fuel Flow Proportioner on a GR5/7 with engine still fitted.
Taken out through a belly panel physically smaller than the FFP and once unbolted you could not let it drop down because of many small thin walled metal pipes.
One of our guys likened it to taking your teeth out through your ar5e :)

[NutLoose]

Civi wise...... changing the wing attachment bolts on a Citation Jet, I got it all stress jacked so the bolts were loose and free to move, pulled the bolt out, pushed the new one in and 3/4's in, a fly must have alighted on the wing as the bolt went stiff, it took me two days of struggling and adjusting the wing and fuselage jacks to get the bolt back out and another new one in.... I just kept saying to myself one day I will laugh at this as people avoided coming near for fear of getting roped in.

RAF wise doing a booster pump housing change on a VC10 out on the line, crawling around in inches of fuel, deep into the wing and plugged into a compressor to breath.


Dropping a socket off the top of a tens engines and shouting down to ask if anyone can see it, to be asked what size is it?..... As if there were various sizes scattered far and wide lol.

[david parry]

Compass swing on a buccaneer at Lossiemouth in winter:bored:

[Dak Man]

sh*t house cleaning on Queens Flight.

[Tashengurt]

PLB reset in full NBC. Fiddly as Saville in soft play with the buffoon who'd set it off breathing down my neck.


Posted from Pprune.org App for Android

[NutLoose]

You want to try taking the bog out of a Nigerian CAA aircraft where the carpet was crustier than a Ginsters Cornish Pasty.

[superq7]

Fitting and wire locking the Spikes in the F1-11 intake, three hands required !

[gzornenplatz]

Until you've changed the T/R of an H2S Mk 4 on a Lincoln (in-flight, of course).

[gzornenplatz]

A compass swing in a Javelin T3 ( You couldn't open the canopy) at Tengah at 1300 local. We quit when the Nav told me the paperwork had dissolved in his sweat.


Sorry - I wasn't a maintainer then.

[Bap70]

Fitting and Wire locking No.1 oil Temp Bulb on a Sea King!

[Bill4a]

Battery change on a Meteor without spilling electrolyte down your shirt! :8
Or the SNEB mods on a Hunter 6 where the mod kits only gave you the 'correct' number of pins for the 36 way socket, and you can guarantee one would bend going in!

[Tashengurt]

You want to try taking the bog out of a Nigerian CAA aircraft where the carpet was crustier than a Ginsters Cornish Pasty.

No, I don't believe I do!


Posted from Pprune.org App for Android

[goudie]

Rectifier change on a Britannia

3 tank change on a Canberra, in a tropical climate
Setting up the LABS gyroscopes... ditto

Dropped a nut in an NF11 cockpit, told the chief, ''don't worry lad, you've got all night to find it'', and I did!

[longer ron]

3 tank change on a Canberra, in a tropical climate

Aha...done the opposite of that :)

3 tank change outside on a cold and snowy day 'somewhere in Rutland'

[ex_rigger]

Lightning T/Plane autostab with the `Jet pipes still in`

[NutLoose]

Quote:
Originally Posted by NutLoose
You want to try taking the bog out of a Nigerian CAA aircraft where the carpet was crustier than a Ginsters Cornish Pasty.


No, I don't believe I do!


They used to arrive, and we'd call in Rentokil, who would arrive, drop a chemical bomb and then depart for a few days while they tried to kill the wildlife, it was gloves and masks at dawn, I had to strip it out to do a mod, (King Air) but the floor structure under the bog had dissolved... Yuk...... I did one Nigerian aircraft and they had used an easy out to get out drilled screws, then used the easy out to refit them :ugh:

[Basil]

Guys, I think I can say that, when I stopped being a marine engineer and became an RAF pilot, I did appreciate not being the one who had to fix it - Thank you :ok:

[Boudreaux Bob]

Remove and replace the Utility Hydraulic Manifold on a Wokka in a warm climate.

[Ogre]

One from an ex-colleague, his worst job was doing some wiring work in the nosebay of a Phantom, primarily because the best way to assemble the p clip afterwards was to superglue the washer to his finger. Once assembled he would pull a couple of layers of skin off his finger, but at least he could get everything in the right place.

Mine was trying to find a laser snag on a Tornado after I'd left the mob and become a civvy. We were called in as the "experts", turned out the only physical fault was a cable screen had come loose but the "noise" on the cable was now being interpreted as a laser range by the software which was giving every indication that the laser was firing when it wasn't.

Dave Parry: serves you right for being an Instie. At least the Comms kit was somewhere out of the rain and wind....:ok:

[oldpax]

Generator balance,volt reg was behind the rudder pedals.Changing nav light bulbs with engs running on a crew change(varsities),at night of course!
Most things on a hunter!

[AGS Man]

Replacing sheared cam roll pins on a RHAG lying in the snow after a Tonka driver had engaged it with his 15 ton tricycle at 150 knots.
Expeditionary Installation of a Portable Arresting System in rock hard ground. 31 x 5 feet stakes to be driven into said ground on each side. Now that was a sod of a job!

[denachtenmai]

Repairing a duff Green Satin cable to the indicator, situated vertically, down to the left of the Nav's bang seat,in the back of a Canberra B6Mod. in July, in Sharjah:uhoh: Lost a few pounds there.
Regards,Den.

[Rocket2]

Setting up the searchlight on Nimmy's - far too many volts waiting to hit you on a damp Scottish night shift if you didn't locate your screwdriver exactly on the potentiometers while wearing 3 layers of arc welding glass to stop your retinas getting scorched :uhoh:

Another was getting the Herc Tanker HDUs set up, alas we didn't have a "gag" in ASI so had to do it while airborne rather than on the ground.

[Dark Helmet]

Loving these stories!
For me:
Also the battery on the Phantom.
Ramp actuator on the Phantom.
Stabilator feel bellows on the Phantom. (Not a regular thing to change but it did involve hanging through the access panel upside down for many hours working with a torch and mirror.)

Anything in Zone 19 on the Tornado - especially in hotter climates.

I haven't resorted to superglue on my fingers to hold washers in place but - look away now if you are of a nervous disposition - I have deliberately jammed split pin legs under my nail and then put my arm back in the access hole to reach a very inaccessible bolt. Makes me sick to recall it!

Keep 'em coming!

[Doobry Firkin]

Burners on C-130 K - you needed to be double jointed and have eyes on stalks. Everything was done blind through tiny access panels and nothing could be seen.

[SimWes]

On attachment with a Canberra Sqn refuelling the bomb bay fuel tank!

As someone relative new to this with relative little training, trying to insert the nozzle and then avoiding getting covered in fuel as it gets to the top. Not sure if there was a way to check the fuel level as no one told me

[glum]

Wirelocking the autopilot plugs on VC10 wing / stab PFCU's.

[SirPeterHardingsLovechild]

Canberra Brake Control Valve - forward of the rudder pedals but under the cockpit floor, to give you yer differential braking.


It's a well known fact that English Electric's first great success in aircraft design was the Brake Control Valve, and that the Canberra was then designed and built around it.

[Blacksheep]

In the RAF, changing a tank unit in a Vulcan No.7 Tank ranks pretty close with changing and adjusting a VC10 Flap Asymmetry Transmitter.

As a civilian: absolutely nothing in over 40 years of fixing broken aeroplanes can compare with rewiring engine pylons on a B707. I still bear the scars on the inside of my upper arms! :eek:

[Canadian WokkaDoctor]

Dark Helmet said:
Anything in Zone 19 on the Tornado - especially in hotter climates.

Yep Zone 19 was a bitch - plus you could be assured that when you looked down some SOB had painted your safety boots. - Good times!

[haltonapp]

Anti "g" valve change in a Hunger FGA9/FR10 on the line in Muharraq with the seat still fitted in summer temperatures, the jubilee clip that tightened the outlet hose was very trying!!!!

[PTR 175]

Good topic, lets see how long this one runs. I predict it will end up as 'Shoe box in t'middle of road' :ok:

A few interesting ones.

Baulk head connector up the top of the electrical bay, behind the cockpit of a T7 Hunter. Still the best looking military aircraft in the world bar none. I was the only one who could get into the right place.

Rear intercom box on a Bucc. Removed the old 52 way D type, yes, you can see this one comming. Soldered on the new one without fitting the back shell. Removed the 52 way D type again, refitted it with the back shell. Whilst sitting on the MB seat working sidways. I was stiff as a board the next day.

Hottest job, replacing the Zeus Rx on a Harrier GR5 at Nellis. I even went in early while it was cooler. By the time it was tested and wire locked it was baking hot outside let alone up in the rear end of said aircraft. I was wringing wet through. Shift FS not impress by my appearance.

Trying to do any job on an aircraft when in order of seniority, your shift FS followed by the JengO and Sengo ask how you are doing. But to do that you have to stop what you are doing so that they can hear you grrrrrrrrrrrr. You would have think they would have got the message when my work collegue threw a hammer at one of them. I think the dent in the concrete is still there at St Mawgan,

My brother got stuck in the wing tank of a Victor. They had to tie a rope to his leg and pull him out. He also nearly got knocked out by the rotor brake on a chinook because he did not want to use two hands to do it because he was holding an ice cream he had just been given to him by his boss for doing a good job :=

[Canadian WokkaDoctor]

PTR175 said:

My brother got stuck in the wing tank of a Victor. They had to tie a rope to his leg and pull him out. He also nearly got knocked out by the rotor brake on a chinook because he did not want to use two hands to do it because he was holding an ice cream he had just been given to him by his boss for doing a good job :=


There's the problem right there - ice cream :). I made bacon sarnies for my 18 Sqn(B) shift on a couple of occasions, a small gesture to say thanks to the boys and girls for doing a good job. :ok:

[ian16th]

Until you've changed the T/R of an H2S Mk 4 on a Lincoln (in-flight, of course).Replacing one of the cables that went from the T/R up to the Nav's position.

Had more cable snags on Lincolns in my 2½ years at Lindholme, that the other 11+ years all told.

[ian16th]

Changing the Gee-H Tx in a B2 Canberra. 1st remove your legs as they are in the way!

Any job inside a Canberra where it is 'ot & sandy.

Freezing at Lindholme at 02:00 while changing an aerial on the wing tip of a Varsity. Couldn't do the job with gloves on, without the gloves fingers were numb and I kept dropping the screws and climbed up and down the 6' flat top steps and searched with a torch in the grass for the damned screws.

A soldering job on a junction panel near the Orange Putter Tx/Rx right up the thin end of a Valiant, on the inside!

Changing a Green Satin blower motor on a Valiant. Not a problem except it was on Gan, and we didn't have the socket to reach the nuts in the terminal block, did the job with long nosed pliers that kept slipping.

Some more will probably enter my remaining grey cell.

But I'd love to do it all again!:ok:

[goudie]

Really good stories. Those fly boys don't know the half of it!
Mind you a Brit. Captain, Taff Williams, offered us 48 cans of Tiger if we'd start work on an engine change at Changi, as soon as we'd landed on a VC10.
Worked through the night, he was off back to Blighty by 09.00. Took 4 days before we were offered a flight back on VC10!
Bugis street was, as ever, good fun though!

Yes ian16th, would do (most) of it all over again

[david parry]

SSB...aerial tuning unit, on a Buccaneer.....numb nuts after few hours, straddling the tail fin:rolleyes:

[sandozer]

Removing and replacing cockpit pressurisation controller on the Lightning, situated forward of the rudder pedals on the bulkhead :eek:
Again Lightning, fitting thermocouple bolts on No1 engine, when temp around freezing and a real danger of dropping a bolt, Yes I was that man, much to the sooties disgust as they had to pull the jetpipe/reheat pipe out to recover said bolt.

[thing]

Fitting the top bolt to the BIL when harmonising the F4 gunsight. It was a blind fit and it either went in straight away or it took forever. You needed hands like a four year old schoolgirl to have any luck with that. Of course people that I didn't know used to try for five minutes then just do the bottom bolts up extra tight...

Spending most of the night hanging upside down in the back cockpit changing and wirelocking inumerable insty boxes. This was of course after asking our best mates the armourers to take the seat pan out...they loved us.

Lots of mind numbingly boring jobs as well as tricky ones. Taking off the PFCU cover in the wheel well of the F4. Eighty squillion bolts. The chief who first showed me how to do it (or showed me the panel and told me what size socket I needed) said 'Now is the time to learn the art of meditation.' Luckily it was just the right height to be able to sit on a chair while you did it.

Virtually anything we needed to run on the E3 needed the ACE cart fitting. Used to turn a five minute job into an hour, pain in the butt.

[Roadster280]

Unit 2aa on an RT321. Had to strip the set down to a shell to do it.

Frequency illumination bulbs on an RT353.

Anything on an RT351.

Anything involving a cricket bat soldering iron usually didn’t end well.

Powering up a Ptarmigan SCRA(C) that hadn’t been used for months. Manually starting the 6.5KVA diesel genes inside Zetra Stadium in -20C temps was not my idea of fun. Nobody had ever seen it done before, let alone in that place.

What bother me though, is RAF/RN types working on aircraft in such ridiculous circumstances. Why do it in the dark/rain/snow etc, if a) it wasn’t war, and b) flight safety depends on a job well done. And what kind of poor design requires a job to be done blind? How do you know you’ve done it right?

[engoal]

Two to choose from:


Removing the No3 tank in the port wing, having climbed up the undercarriage, crawled through one 18" wide oval aperture in the centre spar, then through the second 18" wide aperture in the forward spar, then turning back through 120 degrees, past the hissing combust start bottles, to crawl through a third 18" aperture, then crawling down a narrowing bag tank cavity and then lying on my back in 3" of fuel while trying to 'unpop' the poppers that held the tank onto the underside of the wing upper skin, safe in the knowledge that, if anything went adrift, I was on my own. Happy days.:eek:


or


Perched precariously on the RAT intake using my pitiful 18 yr old/10 stone body to hold the RAT intake down against its spring while someone else fitted a new chipper duct beneath me, all the while contemplating the steep and curving fuselage that led to an attractive 15 ft drop onto the floor. Safety harnesses? Nah - they're for poofs, mate. Apparently.:rolleyes:

[bluetail]

20 minute JB-60 change, then spending the rest of the day doing functionals.

Or as a GE changing an engine Oil Tank with the ECU in situ down route at Gib with the VASF bengo hovering like a chicken constantly complaining about the oily mess we were leaving all over his nice clean concrete. Took us 2 days but we did it.

[longer ron]

SPHLC

Canberra Brake Control Valve - forward of the rudder pedals but under the cockpit floor, to give you yer differential braking.

Ah yes the Canberra BCV - in between the 2 floors - not so bad on a T4 because you could swing the nose open and actually see what you were doing LOL - but the Bomber variants were a pig !
ISTR that the aileron bias motor/spring were also 'down there' and also where you could touch it or feel it but not at the same time !

[strek]

After 3 pages how on earth can I be the first to say "Working with Aircrew"!

[thing]

After 3 pages how on earth can I be the first to say "Working with Aircrew"!

Depends what sort they were though surely...:). I have the dubious pleasure of flying with serving aircrew and have tried to drill into them the old 'You fly them, let the techies fix 'em, they don't need any input from your vast technical knowledge' to try and save the serving techies from whacking them with a hammer. I do my best but to be honest it's like herding cats. Once they know words like 'engine', 'airframe' and 'undercarriage' it's too late.

[ian16th]

Safety harnesses? Nah - they're for poofs, mate. Apparently.:rolleyes:

Reminded me of another one.

Replacing the HF aerial on a Beverley.

Out of the astrodome, fix one end of the aerial to the mast.

Walk along the top of the boom to the tail, wearing the safety harness and clipping another section of safety line on every 10 feet or so.

Reach the tail and fix the aerial cable to the shackle on the tail, job done.

I walk back along the boom, looping up the safety line.

Mate with head through astrodome watching all this, when I get back to the hole he asks, 'why are you using the safety harness?'

I said 'in case I slipped off.'

He takes the harness off me and says 'Watch', and throws the harness over the side.

That was the moment I learn't that a Beverly was longer than its height! :=

[glad rag]

Hmm. Lots. One that still grates was using a 150w soldering iron to connect a lighting transformer on a F4 wingtip due to the f#####g temp in Norway, had the burn scar on LH index finger for a decade...it was connected to ah houchin btw...

[glad rag]

On a more modern note, replacing the canoe on a A380 fus, all harnessed up but nothing to hook onto but the flying carpet....

[Onceapilot]

Integral fuel tanks seem a regular culprit. My worst were Nimrod wing tanks, with Zoot-suit, air supply, terrible lighting and..fuel!:eek:. How did we get away with it? The only bit that was ever dry was the area where you had cut away all the PRC and prepared for the new sealant.:uhoh:

OAP

[thing]

The riggers that used to crawl into fuel tanks had my greatest respect. One job that I couldn't have done, the very thought of it makes me shudder. Hats off to you guys.

[SirPeterHardingsLovechild]

Cross-bleeding the #4 discombobulator on a Wiggins Aerodyne

[woptb]

Setting up the searchlight on Nimmy's - far too many volts waiting to hit you on a damp Scottish night shift if you didn't locate your screwdriver exactly on the potentiometers while wearing 3 layers of arc welding glass to stop your retinas getting scorched

Another was getting the Herc Tanker HDUs set up, alas we didn't have a "gag" in ASI so had to do it while airborne rather than on the ground.

I've done & hated both those jobs !At least when adjusting the searchlight you could get a tan !
Loathed replacing the ADD probe on the Harrier (GR3),upsidedown in the cockpit,one handed at full stretch,hot & cold - lovely!

[goudie]

Changing the torque gauge and its continuous capillary tube, all the way
inside the leading edge, to the engine, on a Beverley.

Checking the tail fin de-icing mat fuses on a Brit. They were directly under the bogs. It was very sticky!:eek:

Changing anything, on the Vulcan instrument panels

[bill2b]

Right hand Canopy torque tube bearing mounting bracket on a Tornado, lots of High torque fittings right at the top of zone 19, I've done the left one which is not so bad but the right one is awful. I was asked about how hard it was to do on one of our jets in Gulf 1 because I had done one recently. In the end they carefully closed the canopy and flew it home.

[Satellite_Driver]

Not even maintenance, just turn-around, but I still recall fitting the starter cartridges on a Hunter T.7 during the practical phase of EngO training at Cranwell in the early 90s. All you had to do was lie underneath and reach up inside to screw the cartridges into place - easy, so long as you had a 4' arm with two elbows...

[NutLoose]

The riggers that used to crawl into fuel tanks had my greatest respect. One job that I couldn't have done, the very thought of it makes me shudder. Hats off to you guys.


That was the domain of Sooties

Incidentally when building the Comet, one man was required in the wing to do up the fasteners, they had a in case of emergency cupboard that contained a concrete cutter so they could saw through the wing skins to rescue the trapped person.

[turbroprop]

Satellite Driver Aaaaah the hunter. Line training aircrew to fit carts good fun, but practical solution "Sir landing away you have two starts left".

Off thread - Civvy Hunters with electric starter mod not the same as BANG SMOKE that's the engine started. No jet noise in the air can beat the sound of a large piston, but the Hunter blue note must come near.

[Ogre]

Talking of aircrew, one of the toghest jobs I had was to tell a Buccaneer navigator that I'd fixed his radio problem. The reason why it was a tough job was because I had to say it with a straight face when the only fault found was that the volume had been turned all the way down.

Oh and the reason you had degraded performane in OFF mode was because it wasn't in ON mode.

Did hear one tale of a Mighty Hunter maintenance task where they were not afraid to reach out for assistance. Allegedly the trip landed somewhere in the land of the big PX, and before departing at speed for the hotels and pools the crew snagged the aircraft saying they has spilt 15 cups of tea in the galley.

Crew chief managed to get them recalled to the aircraft by entering in the F700 "fourteen cups of tea found, one cup of tea not found. Aircrew requested to carry out loose article check for missing cup of tea...."

[Saint Jack]

Ref 'Rionart' Post #2, "Detail X on a JP undercarriage was always fun the first time..." Couldn't agree more, but would add.... and then forgetting to remove the rigging pin before doing undercarriage retraction tests.


Another job that could expand your vocabulary was changing the secondary servo pack on a Wessex.

[fedex727]

Just changed the second set in 3 days! Bl**dy drain valves on the turbine also great fun.:ok:

[thing]

That was the domain of Sooties Apologies to Sooties. I knew it was someone with oily overalls.

[Doobry Firkin]

C130 burners
Just changed the second set in 3 days! Bl**dy drain valves on the turbine also great fun.:ok:

My first year on Herc's was on Primary Team - it was amazing the number of naff jobs that got put back to 'Next Primary Servicing'. Then the line would complain that the plane was away too long.

[goudie]

Crew chief managed to get them recalled to the aircraft by entering in the F700 "fourteen cups of tea found, one cup of tea not found. Aircrew requested to carry out loose article check for missing cup of tea...."
What was written in the F700 is a thread in itself. My favourite, probably apocryphal, is...
'Nasty smell in cockpit'
'Nasty smell removed, nice smell fitted'

[HTB]

Just sneaking in by the side door here (as aircrew); one of the frustrating aspects of the techie/aircrew interaction was the latter knowing that a fault had been experienced and the former carrying out the fault finding process and not finding said malfunction - thus "NFF" in the 700.

Subsequent sorties and the fault continues to manifest itself and remains undectable on the ground; hence a dgree of frustration all round.

One that particularly springs to mind was an avionics/electrical fault on the Vulcan, which was eventually resolved by the affected nav sitting down with the split brain Ch Tech and describing in detail what happened and the stage of flight at which the fault materialised. Seems the cabin pressuristaion deformed the rear bulkhead by a tiny amount, and the cables connecting cabin eqpt to electrical supply were ever so much too short, causing them to ease out of the connector by an amount sufficient to break the connection, then subsequently get pushed back in when the pressurisation process was reversed.

Similar symptoms on the next generation - Tornado - where airborne malfunctions could also not be reproduced on the ground; only to be expected when the dynamics of flight are imposed on the the sensitive parts of the kit.

So, not trying to do the engineer's job, but reporting as accurately as possible the fault and the conditions of flight when it appeared. Not even suggesting any suspicions as to cause (it would only be guesswork, given the aircrew limited knowledge of the systems they operate regularly...), but giving as much detail as might be required for techie head scratching to achieve a solution - better than just changing the LRU and experiencing the fault on subsequent flights. I believe we used to call it teamwork (except that didn't work too well when we had centralised servicing - much better to all be of one squadron).

Mister B

[Stitchbitch]

was going out to a line snag on the F.3 at a secret Lincs fighter base with a spare set of flying gloves for the AOC.

AOC: "Where are my gloves? Have you checked my locker? Someones stolen them! etc"
SB: "They aren't in your helmet slot Sir..have these spares instead.."
AOC grumbles into his oxygen mask to the rear seater about squippers, missing gloves and a bad fitting helmet.

An hour later and our valiant aviators return, I'm stood in ops as the AOC enters the building with his helmet on. He looks fairly agitated, again grumbling about the squippers giving him a poor helmet fit and him getting a massive headache as a result.

As he takes the helmet off out drops a pair of flying gloves..:E

[ian16th]

The riggers that used to crawl into fuel tanks had my greatest respect.On Valiant's the Instrument bods seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time in there, muttering about 'tank units'.

Me, I didn't want to know, no way was I going in there.

This whole thread is really not about 'hard jobs' but simple jobs made difficult, by various bit of kit being put in inaccessible places, and a/c being parked in 'ot and cold places. :D

[Rocket2]

"The riggers that used to crawl into fuel tanks had my greatest respect."

Not forgetting the Leckies who have to replace the tank probes & associated wiring - best aircraft to do this job on? The Vulcan - loads of room in most of the tanks. The worst by far - The Herc - horrid, horrid, horrid.

"At least when adjusting the searchlight you could get a tan!" not quite - it was bad sunburn more like.

[Akrotiri bad boy]

F4 Air Conditioning system Cold Air Unit. Tools required included jacking handle, (to prise the pipes off the unit), a length of lashing tape, and a Land Rover, (to pull the unit free from the pipework).

F4 - The only aircraft to have a sledgehammer as part of the
fly away tool kit:ok:

[goudie]

HTB
was the latter knowing that a fault had been experienced and the former carrying out the fault finding process and not finding said malfunction - thus "NFF" in the 700.
Hence a techie often found himself strapped in, for an airtest, to see the fault for himself.
In my case it was the occasional LABS run across Episkopi Bay:eek:

[ricardian]

Not directly aviation related but the principle still applies.
RAF Driffield 1961 - SNCO i/c MT fitters has several National Servicemen as MT Mechs/Fitters who were vehicle designers from UK vehicle producers. The SNCO always gave these chaps the jobs that vehicle design had made more difficult than they should have been in the faint hope that future designs would be improved.

[Onceapilot]

goudie Quote
"Hence a techie often found himself strapped in, for an airtest, to see the fault for himself."

Same has happened on RAF Widebody as well.:ok:

OAP

[Krystal n chips]

" F4 - The only aircraft to have a sledgehammer as part of the
fly away tool kit"

Alas, not entirely true. The sledgehammer, plus associated piece of wood, was essential for the 707 / JT3 combination and I had the pleasure...more than once...of helping to re-set the T/R's....twice, funnily enough with a very enthusiastic F/E...... and an equally reticent F/O....the F/E "assisting" the F/O out of his seat was a joy to behold....I got on very well with that F/E...:E

As for this thread, the "monkey puzzle" in the rear cockpit of the Gnat...well anything on a Gnat to be honest, was invariably as difficult and inaccessible as Mr Folland could have made it....bless him.

Jaguar titanium heat shields....no point in making them to fit with the minimum of grinding, drilling and hammering now was there...

And the delightful fuel couplings on the Lightning....along with changing just about every hydraulic coupling seal in the jet pipe bay as part of the mod.programme....

Only made bearable by having to suffer the delights of Gut..;)

[reds & greens]

Either:
No1 Engine CSDU Cooling Fan on a Nimrod (if ever a clamp was needed)
Or
Getting a smile out of Rob Ryder
I think I'll take the Cooling Fan.

[woptb]

Nimrod debriefs were good,full crew in the line office for a proper sit down.

I have seen a few 'poor' 700's entires; "Winder Fvcyed",pretty succinct,but useless - I changed the Monte Carlo,no sense of humour some pilots !

[PPRuNeUser0172]

Tell the truth at met brief about how many serviceable aircraft there are?:E

[NutLoose]

Departing VC10, Brize with full pax load, no1 won't start, safety raiser positioned under it, cowl dropped open and said safety raiser jacking handle used to beat the holy crap out the air start valve (used to stick because of a slight bit of carbon) satisfying sound as it opens and the engine winds over, close cowl, lower said safety raiser then look up at worried pax faces peering out the windows that had been watching me and hearing me throughout the aircraft beat the bejesus out of the thing to get it running...... :p

Not hard for me, but I bet it worried the poo out of some pax :E

[PTR 175]

Stuck Air Start valves, see them on a Nimrod as well same remidy using a hide faced hammer.

We were waiting to go home on said aircraft. One engine would not start, sooty jumps out armed with heavy object, hammers packed up (well wiggles out of the hole) of overwing escape hatch walks down wing, drops off end. Drops access door hits ASV engine bursts into life. Access door closed. Sooty climbs back on wing using power set as steps. We all fly home. I have seen it done with an athletic sooty using the escape rope with all 4 running.

Has anybody mentioned the ACPU yet. Good for an extra stay somewhere nice. Not good if it is at Goose Bay in winter and you do not have any winter kit.

[goudie]

Good for an extra stay somewhere nice. Not good if it is at Goose Bay in winter and you do not have any winter kit.
There were some very attractive places to go u/s and requiring spares to be sent out. My favourite was Bermuda (after a US trainer we'd run out of spare wheels. Took three days for spares to be sent out via BA). Staying at the Castle Harbour Hotel was very pleasant!
Agree re. Goose Bay but the nosh was good.

[PeregrineW]

Saint Jack

Secondary servo pack on a Wessex...a rigger job, natch. However, on 240OCU the riggers wouldn't change them until the poor insty had changed the associated servomotor in situ. Swine of a job, you needed six inch long fingers with integral wire locking pliers to get it done.

The yaw servomotor was a much easier proposition, it was on the transmission deck and you had good access all round. I only ever had to change one of those, and wouldn't you know it, the a/c had gone u/s in a field in Norfolk. In January. In the snow.

Central suppression unit on a Tornado. The bit they started with: the rest of the aircraft was built up around it. Gazillions of cables and no access.

[NutLoose]

Well you had to do something on the OCU peregrine ;)

[smujsmith]

I suspect being part of the team that changed a Herk prop at Gander, in under 12 hours, despite the temperature never rising above -22. One major contributor was the Captain, who taxied the aircraft to the end of the lazy runway so that we could get the ground runs done. Funnily, our prop blew at Gander on the way to do a prop change recovery on Bermuda. The second prop change was much more comfortable.

Smudge:ok:

[NutLoose]

My one and only near tech charge was in Gander, did a VC10 engine change mid winter outside with no special cold weather kit, stores at Brize wouldn't issue it.
The engine having sat outside by the aircraft at night was seriously frozen, trying to open the Engine bag it shattered in my hands, fast forward several weeks and now a nice warm engine is back at Brize and in the engine bay, WO screaming mad at remains of the engine bag and looking for someone to blame.... Needless to say, he got told where to go.

[WE992]

I can remember doing a route once on one of Lyneham's mighty K models when we diverted to Shearwater in the middle of winter due to a problem with the cargo bay pressurisation system. The SVC (female Flt Lt) decided that her role was to go down town with the front end to enjoy the hotel. I stayed behind to help the GE. My respect for what the GE's did on route (apart from eating more than me and fighting for hammock space) took a dramatic rise. I thought pushing 2 bits of pipe together and doing up the jubilee clips would be simple - how wrong I could be. We had no external lighting, just a torch and it was a long way below freezing. We arrived back at the hotel having not eaten and looking like an oily sack of **** to be greeted by the front end in the lobby awaiting wheels back to the aircraft thinking that we had gone on the 'lash' in uniform - I wish!

[PeregrineW]

NutLoose

Life would have been so much different had the odd F/Sgt or WO been from TG2. We were sadly misunderstood and much maligned.

[NutLoose]

Was Al Butler there when you were? Ex 240 OCU BTW :)


WE992

Half of the problem was you cannot do anything up tight when cold or it can shatter, so when you get it running and warm, then you have to go round tightening everything as it is running.
Plus trying to scrounge tooling steps etc so you can get to them.
I just wished we could have taken the Storeman with us, then make him stand outside for 8-10 hours holding metal tools in standard UK kit, we would soon get the right stuff next time.

[PeregrineW]

NutLoose

1977-78 was my short span on the mighty 240. The name's familiar...the WO was a Mr. Vickers, but that was 3/4 of a lifetime ago, nearly...I can remember some people with absolute clarity (the good guys and the tossers, mainly!) but as for those in the middle...

[NutLoose]

I was there then, yep WO Vickers too, I was a Sootie SAC then... Hope I'm not in your Tosser list :p you didn't by any chance support Southampton.

[PeregrineW]

Nope, I'd have remembered you! To be honest, of the Cpls and below, there was only one name on the tossers list. I'll never forget him, but neither would I post his name up here!

Good guys - you and everyone else will remember Taff Walker, the last Master Pilot in the RAF on active flying duties, no doubt?

[smujsmith]

WE992,

That sounds like an Engineering Route Report I once wrote. As the other guys attest, cold is a bloody difficult place to do engineering, particularly with procedures meant for more moderate climes. In six years of Ground Engineering on Albert I got one trip to Los Angeles. The route gave us 24 hours on the ground due to crew duty hours. On landing, the snags on the frame meant that I was ready to start testing just as the Flt Engineer turned up from his day off. I was wearing the same clothes I landed in and had salvaged some left over food from the galley, before cleaning it up. We departed "on time" and that's where we all get our job satisfaction from, or we did then. It sounds like shooting a line, but it really was the way GEs worked often well away from mainstream support and having to improvise. It's a good thread this, it shows that across the RAF, aircraft tradesmen have always had "trying" situations, or badly thought out maintenance requirements. My own personal worst job was the detail X on the JP5 undercarriage. I had the record at 48 minutes in SSF at Cranwell in 1976, but only a one off. How many did we do where the locking wire "age hardened" as you did the last few twists ?

Smudge:ok:

[NutLoose]

Peregrine check pm's

[goudie]

We had to do an engine change on our Brit at a Naval Reserve Air Base just outside New Orleans. The only crane available was an old WW11 truck with a crane on the back. It's primary use was to pick up a/c that had crash landed! It had two cabs. One on the back to operate the crane and one to drive the truck.
Having got the engine suspended on the crane the driver had to get in the front cab and gently reverse towards the wing. He then had to get in the rear cab to raise or lower the engine as we required and so on.
This took quite a few frustrating attempts before we managed to hook up the engine. All this was done, at night, under arc lamps, which attracted every mosquito in the vicinity! Before we left we ensured the driver's boss knew of his splendid effort. He'd never done anything like it before!

[turbroprop]

All the quotes above are for isolated jobs on particular aircraft. ATP is all bad. Even simple jobs like removing four screws will turn in to a nightmare. However no aircraft looks better when viewed in a rear view mirror.

[glad rag]

All the quotes above are for isolated jobs on particular aircraft. ATP is all bad. Even simple jobs like removing four screws will turn in to a nightmare. However no aircraft looks better when viewed in a rear view mirror.

Awesome dude. :D

Except after 17+ hours there are NO mirrors on the wind turb jeep!

[thing]

Good guys - you and everyone else will remember Taff Walker, the last Master Pilot in the RAF on active flying duties, no doubt?

Was he the guy they called 'Mr Wessex'? Retired around '84?

Nut Loose: re cold weather clothing. When I was at Gut on Harriers we had the pathetic CW gear that we were issued. It used to p*** us of mightily when headquarters guys used to come for a visit in the winter with full cold weather parkas. I remember one of our guys was threatened with a charge for wearing his own sheepskin jacket on the line and believe me, it got bloody cold at Gut in the winter.

[NutLoose]

Yep, Mr Wessex, used to relate the odd story from the War if you asked. I walked across the apron at Odi on the open day with him and coming upon a MK 19 Spit he regaled that they wouldn't let him near the last one he saw as it was still secret. :)


Yup the green cold weather kit that leaked when wet and made you sweat when dry so either way you ended up wet.. What really pissed us we knew it was minus 20 plus and they still wouldn't even issue cold weather kit on short term loan, even the proper gloves which were essential in those temperatures.

[thing]

Yep, Mr Wessex, used to relate the odd story from the War if you asked.

One of the F4 instructors at Coningsby when I was there was a guy called Arthur Vine. He flew Mustangs during the war... The story goes that Arthur who would have been in his 50's probably at the time poled a Phantom up to Lossie and strolled into the mess in his fighter type gear looking for his son who flew Shackletons...

[goudie]

Yes, the Winters in Germany could be extremely cold.
During my first Winter, '55 we were issued with WW11 flying suits used by Bomber Command crews. I think they were made from canvas!
We were then issued with kapok filled jackets and trousers, which were very warm but not waterproof! There were, apparently, waterproof outers but we never received them. There was a rumour they were left overs from the Korean war!

[gzornenplatz]

A legend. Not only was he one of the last Typhoon (not Mustang) pilots in the RAF but he regularly got at least 100 hours a year more than me on 228 (F4) OCU, The old bugger!.

[thing]

Not only was he one of the last Typhoon (not Mustang)Odd that, I thought he flew Typhoons then decades later I mentioned it to another ex F4 instructor and he told me that it was RAF Mustangs he flew not Tiffys. Well I guess someone is right!

If you were there 74-78 on the OCU then I probably knew you...I was a techy on the line and in the shed at various intervals.

[ian16th]

Seeing as the thread has wandered to ColdWet clothing.

I was at RAFLP Istres. near Marseille, 57/58.

We wore KD from May to Sept, but we had a cool breeze called the Mistral that blew at any time of the year. When it blew in KD season, it was the only place I was at, where we wore anoraks with KD :(

[goudie]

where we wore anoraks with KD

In Cyprus we wore those shapeless raincoats over KD, around the time of the changeover, and before the weather settled.

[wub]

At Troodos we wore parkas with KD!

[ricardian]

When raincoats were worn with KD at Akrotiri the married folks bus park looked like a flasher's convention!

[smujsmith]

Anyone enjoyed an oil pressure switch change on a C130K GTC, in situ. Did one in ASI some time back. You needed 5ft long arms, and an ability to "visualise" the reality of what your fingers were doing, wire locking the nuts after replacing it was fun, one handed at full stretch, but then, I suspect all ground crew were masochists in one way or another.

Smudge:ok:

[Ogre]

Smudge, you hit the nail on the head, masochists to a man (or woman).

You can spot real aircraft maintainers because they put their kids christmas toys together whilst lying upside down on the sofa, in the dark, armed with a Leatherman, holding a penlight torch with a failing battery between their teeth.

Old aircraft maintainers use a GS screwdriver (or a No 8 bit for the anglo-french contingent)

[NutLoose]

As someone once said to me, Aircraft Engineering is like Gynaecology, you spend hours peering up into dark small holes and trying to reach things just out of reach, the only difference is on the whole the work place tends to smell better.

[Halton Brat]

1. Anything on a Gnat.
2. Rigging Wing-Warping system on a Wiggins Aerodyne.

HB

[XV410]

F4 throttle controllex cx while on 56 sqn, did two in 6 1/2 yrs, the last at Akrotiri Golf dispersal hangar in '92. Working in a sweatbox for 5 days until it was finished

[turbroprop]

XV410 I know Akrotiri was a holiday, but taking 6 1/2 years to change two throttle thingys is pushing it a bit...:)

[goudie]

Well, no one said it was going to be easy!

[Bill4a]

Speaking of which does anybody know where I can lay hands on a 'proper' GS? It's on my holy grail quest list!

[smujsmith]

Bill4A,

What do you class as a GS Screwdriver ? This;

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/b572/smujsmith/f060291ceb1bf4fc0342bbb8a1ec13bb_zps69817e3a.jpg

Or this;

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/b572/smujsmith/051d5e470dcf3370b8e6f51839c4f1c8_zps608378f2.jpg

To my thinking its the first one, a wooden handled ratchett jobby. I was always told the second was a Cabinet makers. I'm sure you can still get either.

Smudge:ok:

[salad-dodger]

err, neither.

The top one's a "ratchet", favourite tool of fairies. A GS had a yellow plastic handle. Maybe wooden for some of the more mature PPRuNe members :E

S-D

[Shack37]

The top one's a "ratchet", favourite tool of fairies. A GS had a yellow
plastic handle. Maybe wooden for some of the more mature PPRuNe members :E


GS, definitely wooden handle. Can state as an ex fairy that the ratchet thingy was not part of my toolkit.

[Bill4a]

Thanks Smuj
The top one is a ratchet screwdriver, the other is a cabinet screwdriver. The GS had a full length blade and an almost indestructible wooden handle that you could knock 7 bells out of with a 4 pound hammer when it doubled as a driver for recalcitrant fuel drum caps, etc! I doubt a plastic handle would cope with the abuse the GS would take!

[smujsmith]

Bill4A,

I know the blighter you mean now, but can't find one on this interwebby jobby. Best of luck.

Smudge:ok:

[salad-dodger]

I guess it depends on your era. The yellow plastic handles were tougher than any wooden handle would be.

Even gets a mention here: http://www.e-goat.co.uk/forums/archive/index.php/t-17035.html

Speaking as an ex fairy, the ratchet was always the first tool out for any job, along with a torch.

S-D

[NutLoose]

Try page 13

http://www.apexhandtools.com/PDFs/Xcelite%20Catalog%20550620.pdf

[goudie]

I've still got a pump ratchet screwdriver (I think that was the description)
I believe they were banned because they could cause some damage if they slipped out of a slotted screw head.

[Bill4a]

Thanks for that guys. Yes Goudie the Archimedes pump screwdriver was responsible for some horrendous skin gouges!

[NutLoose]

I think in the UK they were sold under the Stead name, see

http://www.ebay.com/itm/QUALITY-VINTAGE-BRITISH-MOD-SCREWDRIVERS-STEAD-SPIRALUX-STANLEY-STEADFAST-Tools-/261501716231?pt=UK_Collectables_Militaria_LE&hash=item3ce2b78707&nma=true&si=rgrWmjPh5OfIhRhe%252Boe8BWcnQSc%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

[NutLoose]

I bet they have gone now, they were bulletproof

File:Im19550205PP-S&e.jpg (http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/File:Im19550205PP-S%26e.jpg)

[longer ron]

Yes definitely depends on your era,but I would agree that the true GS is the one with the metal shaft all the way through the handle so that one could 'persuade' certain jobs wiv a Hammer,I used both the wooden and yellow plastic variety but with a preference for the plastic handle !

The pump action screwdrivers could also put a high loading on anchor nuts as well as 'improving' your cellon high speed finish :)

The ratchet screwdriver was almost considered a 'watchmakers' by many riggers LOL

[turbroprop]

Do not recognise the so called tools mentioned above.

Rag used to fix any leaks and sharp pen to deal with anything else.

Did play with small London patten screwdriver. You could make them hover in mid air using an airline.

[goudie]

The ratchet screwdriver was almost considered a 'watchmakers' by many riggers LOL

Well it would be in their big brutish hands.

We fairies, with delicate soft hands, found it quite suitable:)

[Akrotiri bad boy]

Anyone got a Section Ref for a Grolley Bar?:E

[ian16th]

Longer Ron has it right, the metal shaft was to the end of the wooden handle, this meant you could hit it with a hammer without damage to the handle.

Unless you were slightly wayward, in which case the wood was liable to shatter.

The modern yellow plastic handled ones are much better, but somehow not 'the real thing'!

As another former fairy, I don't remember having a ratchet handled screwdriver in my tool kit.

[Top Bunk Tester]

Saw the title of this thread but hadn't delved into it until just now but the the title brought back memories of Detail X in the JP Nose u/c jack/recuperator bay. An almost blind, touchy feely wire locking job on a complex turnbuckle assy to be done at arms length. Imagine my surprise when I thought I'd check whether anyone had mentioned it before and it was post #2 :ok:

[longer ron]

The ratchet screwdriver was almost considered a 'watchmakers' by many riggers LOL Well it would be in their big brutish hands.

We fairies, with delicate soft hands, found it quite suitable:)

Probably used it for stirring tea - probably not actually for work LOL :)

[Yamagata ken]

The pump-action screwdriver is a "Yankee". I still have mine (Stanley), about 40 years old, about 50cm long (compressed) and still in perfect working order. Plenty of torque available with a long screwdriver, the longer the better. Stanley lives in my "retired" toolbox, having been superceeded by a handy-dandy cordless drill.

[goudie]

A pre-AOC's inspection in ASF Akrotiri revealed we had a surplus of tools in the store and the boss was told to get rid of them. The store-bashers wouldn't accept them back so we binned them, many still in their wrappers,
down a capped Roman artesian well just outside the hangar. A Canberra elevator also went down there!
Ironically we were warned not to pinch any because, had one been caught with any tools, in one's car at the main gate,
severe punishment would have ensued.:eek:

[Tashengurt]

I've a Yankee driver handed down from my dad. Not as handy as my cordless but really quite priceless.

[NutLoose]

Longer Ron has it right, the metal shaft was to the end of the wooden handle, this meant you could hit it with a hammer without damage to the handle.

Unless you were slightly wayward, in which case the wood was liable to shatter.

The modern yellow plastic handled ones are much better, but somehow not 'the real thing'!


Some of the Yellow ones also had the shaft all the way through the handle too, it was also square shafted to facilitate an adjustable spanner for extra grolliness.. the nice thing about the yellow ones was that by holding the screwdriver by the blade you could throw it like a throwing knife at the ground in front of you, the thing would strike the ground on its handle base and bounce back up into your waiting hand as you walked towards it...

Little things... pilots minds ;)

[NutLoose]

Gouldie, when 20 Sqn Jags disbanded we were allowed to help ourselves to the tools as they would be scrapped, didn't bother myself and left the mob with no ex RAF tools, I then bought at considerable expense a load of new tools and kit to start out my Civi career, only to find a lot of them had the bloody crows foot on :ugh:

[gopher01]

When on 16 for my one and only time on fast jets the job nobody wanted as a sooty was changing the LP Cock Actuator, a relatively simple task if it hadn't had the rest of the aircraft built round it! We had one JT on the shift who we reckoned was a genetic freak as he could get his arm in to the space and change the actuator without having to dismantle half the bay, guess who normally got the job.

[gopher01]

Spent four days at Thule on a Prop and Engine change during one winter as a G/E, the hanger floor was permafrost which had melted so the was a slope towards the middle of the hangar, result aircraft not level, engine on crane level, further result, get one engine bearer bolt in and let the engine pivot about that to get the other top bolt in and then lever the bottom of the engine in to get the bottom bolts in.
After the engine change was complete we had to taxi onto the runway for the runs so Captain, Eng, Self and SVC start up and taxi out, remember this was winter so grand total of about 2 hours daylight and it wasn't, positioned on runway with clearance for two hours as nothing due in and ground runs commenced. At some point during the run, every body heads in watching the gauges, the SVC commented that the lights outside were moving and so they were! Herc on full chat engine runs with brakes on versus coefficient of friction of icy runway meant Albert was slowly sliding down the runway, good job somebody noticed before we hit anything, could have been very embarrassing.
The high point of the trip was that the Yanks used to fly in a stripper to entertain the guys, she came in while we were there and fell over on the way in from the aircraft and sprained her ankle so badly she couldn't perform but just socialised for the week she was there!

[ACW418]

I note that SVC as a member of crew has been mentioned a couple of times. I don't recall having one of those in the crew of the Vulcan!

What is an SVC please?

ACW

[goudie]

What is an SVC please?

Puzzled me too.:confused:

[turbroprop]

SVC is an extra crew member to help the Ground Eng. Normaly to Check engine oils and kick the tyres on a turn around, but will help with any snags.

[goudie]

The SVC (female Flt Lt)
SVC is an extra crew member
Normally to Check engine oils and kick the tyres on a turn around,


Blimey, times have changed

[glad rag]

"Some of the Yellow ones also had the shaft all the way through the handle too, it was also square shafted to facilitate an adjustable spanner for extra grolliness.. the nice thing about the yellow ones was that by holding the screwdriver by the blade you could throw it like a throwing knife at the ground in front of you, the thing would strike the ground on its handle base and bounce back up into your waiting hand as you walked towards it..."

We were formally warned about this practice after some fairy tried it and "stabbed" himself in he hand, changed days indeed, 3 months earlier on the F4 version of the SQDN you would have never even considered admitting such a event....

[fedex727]

An ongoing competition on Nimrod Line, many moons ago, was to throw the GS into the air and get the maximum number of end over end rotations before catching it. All stopped when a certain sooty managed 17 followed by spearing his hand :eek:

[ian16th]

also square shafted to facilitate an adjustable spanner for extra grolliness

Yea, I acquired some of these in my post RAF career, fixing computers :}

[GIGFY]

Changing the heater gate valves in the Valiant wing :{

[Truck2005]

Changing both recuperators in 1 tank on a Bucc. Good practise wirelocking backwards!!!!!!!

[Lightning5]

Now back too that wonderful tool, the wooden handled GS. Used for everything, including killing rats ! 60 Sqn line Tengah circa 60, Meteor 14's. Just completed the B/F out jumps a rat and legs it across the ramp. Sootie grabs said GS , hurles it at the rat, and spears it to the ground!! Many uses for this tool!

[Cpt_Pugwash]

Funnily enough, I came across this forgotten item at the bottom of an old toolbox last week. This is what I've always called a GS screwdriver.

http://i478.photobucket.com/albums/rr144/pugwash09/Aircraft/28Aug-1003_zps296c9567.jpg

Cue comments re. state of it etc.. :O

[30AB]

That one Is a London patern screwdriver. Ideal for removing the sludge traps on BSA crankshafts.

[Ogre]

Not to be confused with a Birmingham screwdriver, which was a 4 lb lump hammer.....