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I was a crew chief on F-16s. http://www.f-16.net/aircraft-database/F-16/airframe-profile/1603/ . That was my actual plane I was assigned to, it crashed around 8 months after I was out of service, I guess the pilot died in the crash, he was only 26. I'm not really sure that there is a whole lot interest in f16s, as they aren't usually looked at as cool like the f15 or the f22. I think they were generally supposed to be semi-disposable cheap planes, although we had a few with over 5500 airframe hours on them if I remember correctly. As far as maintenance goes I've put in lots of hours of actual true maintenance on this airframe as I was assigned to it after the flying day on the repair shift. Known in the military as swing shift. I've also worked on a A-10s. Plenty of stories of these airplanes, stuff like seeing a dude pull the canopy eject handle instead of the alt gear handle and blowing the canopy off a jet on tripod jacks. It was a pretty bad deal as the canopy hit the screen above the jet and came down scraping all the antennas off the tail. The coolest part I guess was when I got to fly in the back seat of a block 25 D model, pretty much hard to explain that kind of thing in words. I guess like a rollercoaster times about 50,000. We did max climb on take off and then he rolled it over, and as the canopy on a 16 is just a bubble it kinda felt like you were hanging by a shoulder harness 15,000 ft above the ground. I got to handle the throttle and stick for a little while and there's nothing quite like it. The stick is very odd feeling because it's fly by wire so it takes only light pressure and this gastank strapped to an engine darts around. Burner runs (engine runs where you accelerate up to the fully open augmentor position) were pretty neat too. Nothing like strapping a jet down with it's tail hook and watching as it tries to get loose. Being about 20ft from a jet in full burner (outside) is cool as you really don't hear anything anymore it's just your whole skeleton kinda vibrates. The only planes I really don't like are F-4s as one of my first days out of tech school on the flight line, the germans were flying with us and they were in prelaunch checks while I was trying to do an inspection and the exhaust from those things is pretty much black and nasty, it also tastes pretty bad. It was also pointed directly at my spot and I was brand new and didn't think I was allowed to leave the flight line, heh. So I spent 9 hrs in the summer heat in Phoenix AZ getting poo poo on by german f-4 exhaust. Oh I was at Luke, AFB if it matters. I've also been out for about 4 years and am not currently in aircraft maintenance, so details could be kind of sketchy. quick edit: the guy posting a comment on that page is not me, but he was my supervisor. All the work he claims to have done was actually done by me, but such is the way supervisors are I guess.
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Mar 12, 2010 06:12
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TimingBelt posted:Come now, the F-16 is plenty Haha here's a video for you then: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_2V3HHqqBg&feature=related The music is bad but the fighter squadron in the video was the one my AMU (aircraft maintenance unit) was attached too. I probably had man hours on every plane in that video, especially 219. Yea the mascot is a cartoon dog and yes we had to do this little jab jab jab motion after we marshaled them out. I guess the 309th AMU were the wild ducks and they had donald duck as mascot so it coulda been worse.
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Mar 12, 2010 06:31
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Fucknag posted:I've always had a thing for the F-16, it's hard to say why. Something about the whole thing being perfect 45 and 90 degree angles when viewed from above, I think. It just LOOKS the way a fighter should: small, sleek and bristling with various armaments. The shape of the vertical stabilizer, the ventral fins, the bubble canopy, all of it appealed to me when I was about 7, and it's held a soft spot in my heart ever since. For some reason I always thought of a shark when I looked at it. V-fins are great until you bang your head on them putting in a fuel drain house or taking them off for engine removal. There's either 117 or 170 some screws and then the two well-torqued bolts. What's cool is getting down to the last few and you have broken nutplates and they just spin and spin and you cram a flathead in there to try apply enough pressure to hold the nutplate still but it doesn't want to hold still and you throw things at your toolbox like your TOs and Quality Assurance comes up and writes you up for not having the TO open to the right page. But they only give you a warning cause you're one of the "good old boys" from hicksville, usa. Of course then you make E-4 and you're put in charge of the engine removal and you tell your little E-2 and E-3 buddies to go "prep that jet for engine removal, that means panel removal, I'll be over there when I'm done doing.....stuff." But I'm just being salty, I actually thought the plane looked pretty sharp. I also used a fair bit of JP8+100 keeping it looking that way.
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Mar 12, 2010 08:08
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Here's what I mean by burner run. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIGFHiAFMHc The guy in the little yellow reflective belt is probably the crew chief. They are probably standing at the distance that is required because a camera is on, but I've seen guys and have done so myself stand right beside the yellow bottle (fire extinguisher). The thing extended underneath is the arresting hook which is hardly used in the AF but I believe the navy uses them constantly. Sometimes we did these in enclosed buildings with a long metal tube out the back to catch the exhaust. When we shut the jet off we would see who could walk the farthest back into the tube before it got too hot for them. Also if you pee inside that tube it stinks really bad and dries almost immediately on contact with the metal. The base I was on at least, there were only a few guys who could push a jet (with the tow vehicle) into the building with any degree of quickness. I was one of them so I went on like every burner run ever. I sat in the backseat during one (on a D model). Which reminds me if you want to see an ugly rear end airplane look up an F-16D, the C's look great (and I guess A's as well though I don't think we fly that model anymore), but the D's are ugly as hell.
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Mar 12, 2010 21:53
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