Unconventional uses for avionics

"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

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

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.

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.

"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

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.

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..

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

"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)

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

Richard.