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Humorous Naval Air Flight Experiences
For what it's worth...
At the Naval Academy in the early 1950s we got fam flights in N3N floatplanes. It was great fun. The engine flywheel had to be hand cranked to provide the energy to turn over the engine to get it started. The plane then pushed off the Severn River bank by white hat crewmen. We nuggets sat in the front cockpit while the pilot (a naval aviator from the USNA faculty) was in the back. We got to make climbs, descents, turns etc. until we finally got to try our hand at landing on water (more difficult than land). The day that really sticks in my memory was when we were returning from the Chesapeake Bay and the prop suddenly flew off (later learned it was a fairly common event with those old N3Ns). The pilot just stopcocked the throttle and assumed glide speed. He had to maneuver between the yawl sailboats on the river before setting us down. Then we sat for an hour until all the other "healthy" N3Ns were hauled out of the water before a power launch could come out to tow us to the ramp. I thought it was a lot more fun than ever being chief engineer in a destroyer. I was convinced that Naval Air was the way to go at graduation. Don't know what they do for fam fights at Mother Bancroft today. WDA USNA '53 end |
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On Tue, 11 Jan 2005 12:44:36 -0800, "W. D. Allen Sr."
postulated : For what it's worth... (snipped) It was a dark and stormy night aboard the Intrepid in the fall of 1957. A twenty year old Aviation Electronics Tech (AT3) was tasked with replacing the UHF radio (ARC-27) in FJ-3M number 204 tied down on the flight deck. The radio set was mounted in the nose and the top cover of the nose was held by Tzus (sp?) fasteners at the rear while the front had two tangs that slipped into sockets forward. This unnamed AT3 popped the fasteners and the metal cover became airborne and was gone in the wind. Some soul was taking a smoke break on the fan tail and saw a dark shadow hit in the water. Man Over Board was quickly sounded and CVA-11 slowly started circling with her two DDE plane guards. Search lights lit up the North Atlantic and there was much mustering of all hands and naturally 15 or 20 are missing in a crew of maybe 3,500. The AT3 knew that the cover would be found and dusted for finger prints. The AT3 knew that the Navy would charge him for all fuel oil and expenses encountered. The AT3 slipped quietly into the cat walk and went to muster. The AT3 reported to his Shop Chief the next morning that he noticed the nose cover of 204 was missing. Has the statute of limitations run out from 1957? |
#3
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Greasy Rider wrote in
: On Tue, 11 Jan 2005 12:44:36 -0800, "W. D. Allen Sr." postulated : For what it's worth... (snipped) It was a dark and stormy night aboard the Intrepid in the fall of 1957. A twenty year old Aviation Electronics Tech (AT3) was tasked with replacing the UHF radio (ARC-27) in FJ-3M number 204 tied down on the flight deck. [remainder redacted] You had to go and do it - bring up old painful memories. The ARC-27 was my second least favorite piece of tron gear to replace. The ARN-21 TACAN ranked first, primarily because of its generally more difficult location in the a/c. Can you believe they still had those boat anchors around into the 80s? Dave in San Diego O-level Tweet ('70 - '75) |
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On Wed, 12 Jan 2005 01:34:34 GMT, Dave in San diego
postulated : You had to go and do it - bring up old painful memories. The ARC-27 was my second least favorite piece of tron gear to replace. The ARN-21 TACAN ranked first, primarily because of its generally more difficult location in the a/c. Can you believe they still had those boat anchors around into the 80s? I worked on FJ-3M, F9F, F11F, AD-6, and A4D. The A4D was the worst for me with that damned "biscuit" which housed it all. The ARC-27 was my bread and butter gear. Easy to diagnose problems. Using the bicycle pump always attracted the attention of the other shops. The only gear I never really understood was the APX-6 transponder. I always kept a wary eye on that live round .45 shell aimed at the Top Secret cavitron. |
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The only gear I never really understood was the APX-6
transponder. I always kept a wary eye on that live round .45 shell aimed at the Top Secret cavitron. This cries out for further explanation. From context, I assume the idea was to prevent the bad guys from reverse engineering the IFF and figuring out a method to interrogate it. But was the self destruct mechanism *really* a live .45 calibre shell? |
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#7
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Greasy Rider wrote in
: On Wed, 12 Jan 2005 01:34:34 GMT, Dave in San diego postulated : You had to go and do it - bring up old painful memories. The ARC-27 was my second least favorite piece of tron gear to replace. The ARN-21 TACAN ranked first, primarily because of its generally more difficult location in the a/c. Can you believe they still had those boat anchors around into the 80s? I worked on FJ-3M, F9F, F11F, AD-6, and A4D. The A4D was the worst for me with that damned "biscuit" which housed it all. The ARC-27 was my bread and butter gear. Easy to diagnose problems. Using the bicycle pump always attracted the attention of the other shops. The only gear I never really understood was the APX-6 transponder. I always kept a wary eye on that live round .45 shell aimed at the Top Secret cavitron. Oh, the APX-6 was actually one of the easiest pieces I got to work with. I saw it in "A" School, and briefly in the fleet before they transitioned to the APX-72. The 72 was another item requiring the bicycle pump. Speaking of that, when I was in Brunswick, we were having problems with the 27s in some visiting EA-3s. Would work OK on the ground, and on climb-out but would fail at altitude. When we went to AIMD and asked what pressure they were pumped up to, the techs replied, "We never pump them up, Stoofs don't go that high." Needless to say, after the **** flowed downhill, ALL gear requiring pressurization was properly serviced from then on. Dave in San Diego |
#8
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"STOOFs" were the S2Fs.
"Dave in San diego" wrote in message . .. Greasy Rider wrote in : On Wed, 12 Jan 2005 01:34:34 GMT, Dave in San diego postulated : You had to go and do it - bring up old painful memories. The ARC-27 was my second least favorite piece of tron gear to replace. The ARN-21 TACAN ranked first, primarily because of its generally more difficult location in the a/c. Can you believe they still had those boat anchors around into the 80s? I worked on FJ-3M, F9F, F11F, AD-6, and A4D. The A4D was the worst for me with that damned "biscuit" which housed it all. The ARC-27 was my bread and butter gear. Easy to diagnose problems. Using the bicycle pump always attracted the attention of the other shops. The only gear I never really understood was the APX-6 transponder. I always kept a wary eye on that live round .45 shell aimed at the Top Secret cavitron. Oh, the APX-6 was actually one of the easiest pieces I got to work with. I saw it in "A" School, and briefly in the fleet before they transitioned to the APX-72. The 72 was another item requiring the bicycle pump. Speaking of that, when I was in Brunswick, we were having problems with the 27s in some visiting EA-3s. Would work OK on the ground, and on climb-out but would fail at altitude. When we went to AIMD and asked what pressure they were pumped up to, the techs replied, "We never pump them up, Stoofs don't go that high." Needless to say, after the **** flowed downhill, ALL gear requiring pressurization was properly serviced from then on. Dave in San Diego |
#9
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The A4D was the worst for me with that damned "biscuit" which
housed it all. The ARC-27 was my bread and butter gear. Easy to diagnose problems. Using the bicycle pump always attracted the attention of the other shops. The only gear I never really understood was the APX-6 transponder. I always kept a wary eye on that live round .45 shell aimed at the Top Secret cavitron. Ah ha, the old ASQ-17. It was used on the A4D, F-8U, and believe the F-11. Leanne |
#10
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On Tue, 11 Jan 2005 23:19:46 -0500, "Leanne"
postulated : Ah ha, the old ASQ-17. It was used on the A4D, F-8U, and believe the F-11. I hated the damned thing so much I forgot the designation but then it's been almost 50 years and I'm entitled! |
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