Boom Operator tales especially in support of test activities

[chopper2004]

Confessions Of A USAF KC-135 'Flying Gas Station' Boom Operator (http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/confessions-of-a-usaf-kc-135-flying-gas-station-boom-op-1578048155)

It gets interesting halfway down the page,

cheers

[Tankertrashnav]

Very interesting - on trips to Offutt I tried to get a trip on a KC 135 to observe boom refuelling at close hand, but it never happened. The view is certainly better than the restricted one we had through the rear-view periscope on the Victor.

The Navy hates using the boom-basket setup and call it "The Iron Maiden" as it is hard to plug into and can damage the aircraft if it bashes around.


I always assumed that just hanging a hose on the end of a boom would result in a "hard hose" and that confirms it. Broken probes must be quite common.

[smujsmith]

Chopper 2004,

" gets interesting halfway down the page, "

A very interesting read right down the page IMHOp. Thanks very much for posting an interesting link. We used to see a lot of KC135 activity near us, out of Fairford. Great aircraft doing a great job.

Smudge :ok:

[ORAC]

Broken probes were indeed very common, which is why the list of cleared platforms was very short on the BDU. The Lightning, for example, couldn't use it - they left more than enough frangible tips in the Victor hose basket.

IIRC, in order to let the basket clear the ground on take-off with the boom stowed the hose length attached was limited to 20 feet, and hence very stiff.

[Easy Street]

The Navy hates using the boom-basket setup and call it "The Iron Maiden" as it is hard to plug into

Just to correct the smutty humour a little from personal experience, the iron maiden is very easy to plug into because the basket doesn't get affected by the receiver's bow wave to any appreciable extent: the hose is indeed quite hard :p. The piloting technique used is quite different to a traditional hose-and-drogue, where you line up in the waiting position, pick a reference ahead of you on the tanker and try to ignore the basket as you move forward into contact. With the iron maiden you look at the basket a lot more (if not all the time, then most of it) and fly the probe directly in. The difficulty comes in staying in :hmm: and this is where the iron maiden is unforgiving: the acceptable range of movement is only a couple of feet in each direction, beyond which probe damage is a serious risk :\, a task made all the more challenging as fuel mass increases and some throttle-juggling around the max dry / min reheat power 'jump' becomes necessary. You quickly learn how long it takes for a reheat selection to take effect: "min reheat on the left... pause... pause... handful of power off the right before shooting forward and ripping the probe tip off"!

The traditional set-up is a more satisfying courtship: difficult to get in, but most flexible and enjoyable thereafter :)

[D-IFF_ident]

Not a bad read - but for a real insight into the world of KC-...s - see The Adventures of Rex the Wonder Engineer:

http://www.afforums.com/index.php?threads/rex-the-engineer.15323/