Puma pit stop, airborne wheel changes.
I think that was me, and yes one bit of kit we operated totally blocked passage from the cabin to the cockpit, so we had to use the starboard front door (the left one was just a jettisonable panel). However, there was a good reason why this was not SOP, as at least 3 times I had to take control of the ac and land it in a field whilst my pilot hung onto his door for grim death after it had come open in flight!
This will not be a problem with Puma 2, as there are no front doors at all.
This will not be a problem with Puma 2, as there are no front doors at all.
I recall a tale from the early days of these Anglo-French clattering things....
It would appear that some part of one of these device's gubbins wasn't working as advertised. So a decision was made to change it. The part in question was prominently labelled 'Gonflée a l'azote', which meant nothing to the oily baldrick who was attempting to remove it....
Finding it difficult, he decided to find a bigger spanner and to disassemble the errant item in situ. This proved more difficult than he'd expected - that is, right up until the last couple of turns. Whereupon there was a load bang, or rather 'boum' and the thing flew apart, releasing all the 'azote' with which it had previously been 'gonflée'.....and nearly taking his head off.
It was then decided that 'Charged with nitrogen' rather than 'Gonflée a l'azote' would perhaps be a more useful label on RAF aircraft.....
It would appear that some part of one of these device's gubbins wasn't working as advertised. So a decision was made to change it. The part in question was prominently labelled 'Gonflée a l'azote', which meant nothing to the oily baldrick who was attempting to remove it....
Finding it difficult, he decided to find a bigger spanner and to disassemble the errant item in situ. This proved more difficult than he'd expected - that is, right up until the last couple of turns. Whereupon there was a load bang, or rather 'boum' and the thing flew apart, releasing all the 'azote' with which it had previously been 'gonflée'.....and nearly taking his head off.
It was then decided that 'Charged with nitrogen' rather than 'Gonflée a l'azote' would perhaps be a more useful label on RAF aircraft.....
There is a tale that a collapse similar to the one described by SHYTORQUE happened to a Schreiner SA330 in Nigeria. After the collapse an engineer stated that this was impossible to induce. He climbed into a second aircraft and repeated the operation, sadly with the same results.
Would be nice to know if this story is true or not as it's been doing the rounds for years.
Would be nice to know if this story is true or not as it's been doing the rounds for years.
I remember getting a huge belt of static electricity as I touched the airframe of a Whirlwind when helping to load some kit into it while it was in the hover.
Is that a normal hazard in these kind of occasions, or is it normal to earth the static first before setting to with your wheel change, or whatever?
Is that a normal hazard in these kind of occasions, or is it normal to earth the static first before setting to with your wheel change, or whatever?
TTN, it's normal. Underslung load operators usually earth the aircraft with a wand and spike affair before attaching the load. Puma not so bad, I hear the Sea King was/is a bugger.
CG
CG
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Wasn't there a Chinook incident involving a broken droop stop on the MRB? Hot refuelling whilst a ramp was built up the side of the fuselage to prevent the blade doing a 'Moulinex Multichef' as it eventually slowed down? 
Pulling the Emergency Undercarriage handle on the Puma HC1 also did some electrical gubbins (by-pass weight on microswitches?) and certainly needed pulling fully up to get it all working properly.
We did a demo to each OCU student crewman, who pumped the u/c down manually. (Leg 1 easy; Leg 2 harder; Leg 3 sweating!)
It was part of the full airtest schedule too.
I think we just reversed all the selections, post-test.
System was also used to retract the gear for the Herc loading for Belize etc.
lsh
We did a demo to each OCU student crewman, who pumped the u/c down manually. (Leg 1 easy; Leg 2 harder; Leg 3 sweating!)
It was part of the full airtest schedule too.
I think we just reversed all the selections, post-test.
System was also used to retract the gear for the Herc loading for Belize etc.
lsh
Wasn't there a Chinook incident involving a broken droop stop on the MRB? Hot refuelling whilst a ramp was built up the side of the fuselage to prevent the blade doing a 'Moulinex Multichef' as it eventually slowed down?
Not sure if the current proceedure is to do something similar, or run and let the beast beat itself to death....
On the Bristol Sycamore the control runs for the squash plate went though and out of the top of the rotor shaft. The droop stops and indicators were on the top of the head so could not be reached whilst the rotor was turning.
During shutdown the pilot would use a mounted mirror to ascertain that all the droop stops were in (Red soldiers standing upright) before shutting down the engine. Should they not then he would exercise the controls and this nearly always caused them to engage.
However. Should they not engage there was a problem because the blades would fly into the boom. The mass balances on the end of the blades also ressembled 20 mm cannon shells so they would cause more even damage. There was a thick piece of leather stuck on the critical point of the boom but its protection could not be guaranteed.
So you called out the Fire Department. One stalwart would crouch down by the starboard side of the boom and aim a powerful jet of water just over the top of the boom where the leather decoration was. Once this jet was establish the engine would be cut and as the blades slowed down they would ride the water jet over the boom.
The blades were made of wood and they were not designed to have water pumped up their backside so they were invariably scrapped.
During shutdown the pilot would use a mounted mirror to ascertain that all the droop stops were in (Red soldiers standing upright) before shutting down the engine. Should they not then he would exercise the controls and this nearly always caused them to engage.
However. Should they not engage there was a problem because the blades would fly into the boom. The mass balances on the end of the blades also ressembled 20 mm cannon shells so they would cause more even damage. There was a thick piece of leather stuck on the critical point of the boom but its protection could not be guaranteed.
So you called out the Fire Department. One stalwart would crouch down by the starboard side of the boom and aim a powerful jet of water just over the top of the boom where the leather decoration was. Once this jet was establish the engine would be cut and as the blades slowed down they would ride the water jet over the boom.
The blades were made of wood and they were not designed to have water pumped up their backside so they were invariably scrapped.
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We had a Seaking that a pilot had managed to bounce hard on the Lusty (I think), as he was doing DLPs. as he took off again the tail wheel and oleo swung out gracefully by the tail yoke, disconnected at the top end. As we rushed around sourcing a new oleo from the ships store two of our strongest maintainers, a PO grubber called Frank and a Chief Tiff called Dave went out to assess the damage whilst one of the guys earthed the aircraft with an earthing pole to the sponson lashing point.
It quickly became apparent that the casting inside the housing was broken so Frank and Dave informed Flyco that the plan was to hold the broken oleo and associated gubbins up inside the tail oleo housing as the aircraft landed. This plan worked beautifully apart from Frank getting a great belt of static when the lad let the pole disconnect at the precise moment he touched the yoke, but he claimed afterwards that it cured his muscle pain in his shoulder!
It quickly became apparent that the casting inside the housing was broken so Frank and Dave informed Flyco that the plan was to hold the broken oleo and associated gubbins up inside the tail oleo housing as the aircraft landed. This plan worked beautifully apart from Frank getting a great belt of static when the lad let the pole disconnect at the precise moment he touched the yoke, but he claimed afterwards that it cured his muscle pain in his shoulder!
I heard a tale back in the 60s of a wheel change carried out at Odiham on either a single or twin pioneer doing a low slow pass and the change being carried out from the back of a landrover driving along beside it. Any further info?
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I heard a tale back in the 60s of a wheel change carried out at Odiham on either a single or twin pioneer doing a low slow pass and the change being carried out from the back of a landrover driving along beside it. Any further info?
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We did a demo to each OCU student crewman, who pumped the u/c down manually. (Leg 1 easy; Leg 2 harder; Leg 3 sweating!)
The pilot started to crank it as I held the aircraft steady, looking at his face getting redder I suggested I should take over.
Swinging round and reaching behind the seats I continued to crank the gear down as both of us cursed Beechcraft and their stupid design, the language was quite fruity and involved a lot of swearing between us, unfortunately during the said exercise and unknown by either of us, my knee was pressing on the hand mic between the seats and we were transmitting
There must have been some laughing going on at Waddington, because after telling us we had a hot mic post gear drop, we never heard another thing about it.
Well "JD" was making very heavy wx of pumping the u/c down, and I must admit it was well beyond the "70 pumps" needed; at around 100 I leaned over and had a go - SOLID!
We reversed all the selections and snagged it.
Laugh.....I nearly passed him!! (He was our new Boss)
lsh
We reversed all the selections and snagged it.
Laugh.....I nearly passed him!! (He was our new Boss
)lsh
I heard a tale back in the 60s of a wheel change carried out at Odiham on either a single or twin pioneer doing a low slow pass and the change being carried out from the back of a landrover driving along beside it. Any further info?
CG
