Unconventional uses for avionics

[George R. Gonzalez]

What's some of the unusual uses for avionics you've heard of?


I'll start off with a few:

Some airrline pilots turn on the weather radar during takeoff, their
superstition
is that it scares away birds.

During WWII, there was just enough space between some tubes in one radio set
to
hide a thin flask of hooch. A later model of the same radio was much
disliked,
as the design was perhaps changed intentionally to eliminate this
cubby-hole.

..

[Mike Marron]

>"George R. Gonzalez" > wrote:

>What's some of the unusual uses for avionics you've heard of?

>I'll start off with a few:

>Some airrline pilots turn on the weather radar during takeoff, their
>superstition is that it scares away birds.

>During WWII, there was just enough space between some tubes in one radio set
>to hide a thin flask of hooch. A later model of the same radio was much
>disliked, as the design was perhaps changed intentionally to eliminate this
>cubby-hole.

Don't know how "unusual" this is, but during an emergency under a
very low ceiling with a fast moving front approaching I've used my
handheld GPS (w/moving map) for NOE navigation which possibly
saved my life.

[WaltBJ]

"George R. Gonzalez" > wrote in message news:<jIgeb.639605$Ho3.131537@sccrnsc03>...
> What's some of the unusual uses for avionics you've heard of?
>Hoho:
1) On long XCs in the T33 tuning to the 'bottom' on the VOR would
yield a commercial FM radio station and music, etc. (ISTR that was
108.3mhz)
2) The F102A's upper electronics bay would hold two adults with the
bay door shut so the space was utilized a lot on flights from Canada
to the US for other (ahem) freight - like eight cases . . . I
understand the same opportunity existed in the F89 series, accessed
from a panel above and between the engine exhausts, although this,
strictly speaking, wasn't an electronics bay.
WaltBJ

[Buzzer]

Not electronics, but chaff tanks on EB-57s had been known to carry
smoked hams, shrimp, and beer.

[[email protected]]

Buzzer > wrote:

>Not electronics, but chaff tanks on EB-57s had been known to carry
>smoked hams, shrimp, and beer.

Engine sling compartments on Lancasters, wheel well fairings on
P2V-7's and the Hydraulics bay between the bomb bay's on the
Argus were all the sweet spots for transporting 'goods' when
homeward bound from jaunts to Bermuda, Lajes and other ASW
haunts. :)

(memories of CC for a buck a fourty...Bacardi's two bucks a
fourty or Cockspur Rum for SEVENTY CENTS!!
--

-Gord.

[Frank May]

Don't know how "unusual" it is, but when ADF's were common, they were
used to point out lightning, long before there was a "Strikefinder",
which I've heard was developed from a cheap ADF.

[WaltBJ]

"Gord Beaman" ) wrote in message >...
> Buzzer > wrote:
>
> >Not electronics, but chaff tanks on EB-57s had been known to carry
> >smoked hams, shrimp, and beer.
> SNIP:
Chaff tanks! 2 ALE-2s on a T33, call ahead, the dealer would be there
at BaseOps at Dow AFB with 300 lobsters - 150 per tank, seaweed and
ice and two quick ops-stop hops back to Homestead FL! Quite a sight to
see the bugs crawing about the 319th FIS ramp before the feast.
Walt BJ

[Chad Irby]

I saw a guy crack some walnuts with a processor from an ALR-46 RWR once
(a hundred thousand bucks worth of electronics). The funny part was
that it was a repair action (the cards inside got loose, and the common
way to reseat them was to undo some lock screws and whack the thing on a
solid surface from a couple of inches up).

--
cirby at cfl.rr.com

Remember: Objects in rearview mirror may be hallucinations.
Slam on brakes accordingly.

[Buzzer]

On 30 Sep 2003 20:41:42 -0700, (WaltBJ) wrote:

>"Gord Beaman" ) wrote in message >...
>> Buzzer > wrote:
>>
>> >Not electronics, but chaff tanks on EB-57s had been known to carry
>> >smoked hams, shrimp, and beer.
>> SNIP:
>Chaff tanks! 2 ALE-2s on a T33, call ahead, the dealer would be there
>at BaseOps at Dow AFB with 300 lobsters - 150 per tank, seaweed and
>ice and two quick ops-stop hops back to Homestead FL! Quite a sight to
>see the bugs crawing about the 319th FIS ramp before the feast.
>Walt BJ

We didn't see that on our T-33s at Tyndall. I guess too much local
flying time for the interceptor training.

Did you fly with the ALQ-72 and have to keep the speed above 250kts or
the fuses would blow on the pod? With the amount of fuses we went
through at Tyndall keeping a T-33 above 250 seemed to be a problem..

[Jim Thomas]

It wasn't really avionics, but in the bad old days when lots of us
smoked (and could, in the A-1), a pilot who forgot his lighter could
light up by using the light bulb in the gun sight (unscrew the fitting,
turn the sight on, hold against cigarette).

Jim Thomas

George R. Gonzalez wrote:
> What's some of the unusual uses for avionics you've heard of?
>
>
> I'll start off with a few:
>
> Some airrline pilots turn on the weather radar during takeoff, their
> superstition
> is that it scares away birds.
>
> During WWII, there was just enough space between some tubes in one radio set
> to
> hide a thin flask of hooch. A later model of the same radio was much
> disliked,
> as the design was perhaps changed intentionally to eliminate this
> cubby-hole.
>
> .
>
>
>

[Mike Marron]

>Jim Thomas > wrote:

>It wasn't really avionics, but in the bad old days when lots of us
>smoked (and could, in the A-1), a pilot who forgot his lighter could
>light up by using the light bulb in the gun sight (unscrew the fitting,
>turn the sight on, hold against cigarette).

Very cool.

[B2431]

>Chaff tanks! 2 ALE-2s on a T33, call ahead, the dealer would be there
>at BaseOps at Dow AFB with 300 lobsters - 150 per tank, seaweed and
>ice and two quick ops-stop hops back to Homestead FL! Quite a sight to
>see the bugs crawing about the 319th FIS ramp before the feast.
>Walt BJ
>
1976 or 1977, 4496, General Dixon's T-39 seems to have made a special trip to
Maine for lobster. Not a long flight from Langley Airplane Patch.

Same time frame, same base, our 135s were known to transport beer etc tucked
in behind the assorted radio racks. I don't think anyone ever asked the 6 ACCS
boys what they were carrying.

Dan, U. S. Air Force, retired

[Dudley Henriques]

"WaltBJ" > wrote in message
om...
> "Gord Beaman" ) wrote in message
>...
> > Buzzer > wrote:
> >
> > >Not electronics, but chaff tanks on EB-57s had been known to carry
> > >smoked hams, shrimp, and beer.
> > SNIP:
> Chaff tanks! 2 ALE-2s on a T33, call ahead, the dealer would be there
> at BaseOps at Dow AFB with 300 lobsters - 150 per tank, seaweed and
> ice and two quick ops-stop hops back to Homestead FL! Quite a sight to
> see the bugs crawing about the 319th FIS ramp before the feast.
> Walt BJ

Dave MacAllister, the CO of the old 142nd FS, Delaware ANG, was from a well
known family on the main Line in Phila that made the best Snapper Soup in
the entire United States. Dave used to fill the gun bays of his F86A and
later his H with Snapper Soup and fly the stuff all over the country to give
to people.
I as well used the gun bays on my P51D to transport at least one clean suit
for those awful rubber chicken dinners that the local Chamber of Commerce
used to "require" I attend at every air show I ever flew!!! :-))
Dudley Henriques
International Fighter Pilots Fellowship
Commercial Pilot/CFI Retired
For personal e-mail, use
dhenriquesATzarthlinkDOTnzt
(replacezwithe)

[Adam Fathauer]

I remember being called out to the flight line many a time to open the
forward ALQ-126 compartment on A-6's to stow some "crew gear" -
especially when getting ready to return from a deployment at Rosie Road's.

[Peter Stickney]

In article >,
Hobo > writes:
> In article t>,
> "Dudley Henriques" > wrote:
>
>> Dave MacAllister, the CO of the old 142nd FS, Delaware ANG, was from a well
>> known family on the main Line in Phila that made the best Snapper Soup in
>> the entire United States.
>
> Its hard for me to believe there was ever one single rich kid out there
> who could actually combine real military service and cooking skills into
> one single rich body.

Off the top of my head....
The McIllenheys, of Tabasco Sauce fame - Sons in that family have
tended toward careers in the Marine Corps.
Steve Forbes.
And George S. Patton III does a pretty mean Burnt Slab of Dead Cow.

--
Pete Stickney
A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many
bad measures. -- Daniel Webster

[Jim McCartan]

When COORS was only available West of the Rockies - student pilots @
Whiting Field would bring back cases while on cross country flights.

[Richard Brooks]

Does using various parts of WWII gliders as garden sheds and greenhouses
apply ?

Richard.

[William Wright]

I once heard a story of a B-47 crew that had to jettison a Jaguar over the
North Atlantic due to aircraft problems while returning from the UK. I also
heard a story about a B-36 that dropped a power cart (over Tulsa?) while
practicing bomb runs while on the way to the range.

"Adam Fathauer" > wrote in message
.com...
> I remember being called out to the flight line many a time to open the
> forward ALQ-126 compartment on A-6's to stow some "crew gear" -
> especially when getting ready to return from a deployment at Rosie Road's.
>

[William Donzelli]

"George R. Gonzalez" > wrote in message news:<jIgeb.639605$Ho3.131537@sccrnsc03>...

> During WWII, there was just enough space between some tubes in one radio set
> to
> hide a thin flask of hooch. A later model of the same radio was much
> disliked,
> as the design was perhaps changed intentionally to eliminate this
> cubby-hole.

I can believe that some sets could be used for hooch warmers (BC-375,
the big transmitter found in almost all WW2 bombers), but the front
panel never changed, even to the last 1945 production run. Every other
set that had a hatch of some sort wasn't big enough to hold hooch.

Still, pretty neat. Do you have any other details?

--
William Donzelli