Blue Angels F-18A Hornet on E-Bay

I think the only 'gotchas' would be slat rigging, which is certainly an
art in
itself. A poorly rigged slat could spell disaster.

Not usually a problem if only called upon to do their job in 1 G level
flight. It's slat behavior in the flight regime at 300+KIAS that mark the
work of a capable airframes shop.

R / John

A poorly rigged slat could spell disaster.

Not usually a problem if only called upon to do their job in 1 G level
flight. It's slat behavior in the flight regime at 300+KIAS that mark the
work of a capable airframes shop.

OK, I've never been there, or done that. But it seems to me that the slats
are *really* simple. Obviously I'm missing something here. What is it
about the design and/or maintenance of the slats that requires "a capable
airframes shop?"

Been my experience that Mode 1's work great in the FA-18. In fact, have
probably done well over 20 of them on Lincoln, TR and Nimitz. Worked super
every time! Biggest mistake guys make is trying to "influence" corrections by
helping it out. As I like to say, "don't a touch a nothin'!"

The slats were intended to be used in the landing configuration. As AOA
increased beyond 12 units (not sure what that was in degrees) the
aerodynamic slats would deploy. Works great in 1 G flight. They will also
deploy at speed during maneuvering, something they were not specifically
designed for. A slightly misaligned and or binding slat track would hinder
deployment. One comes out, one doesn't and the pilot experiences a
significant roll. The effect can be anywhere from mildly annoying to quite
thrilling ... usually a function of airspeed, G and rate of G application.

Getting three tracks and sets of rollers to align perfectly, not just static
but in a dynamic environment, is tricky. Take a sticky dresser drawer and
how challenging that can be to get it "just right." Now cube it. There are
a lot of things mechanical that aren't rocket science, but still take a lot
of skill to do well.

R/ John

"Paul Michael Brown" wrote in message
news
A poorly rigged slat could spell disaster.

Not usually a problem if only called upon to do their job in 1 G level
flight. It's slat behavior in the flight regime at 300+KIAS that mark
the
work of a capable airframes shop.

OK, I've never been there, or done that. But it seems to me that the slats
are *really* simple. Obviously I'm missing something here. What is it
about the design and/or maintenance of the slats that requires "a capable
airframes shop?"

In article , Paul Michael Brown
wrote:

A poorly rigged slat could spell disaster.

Not usually a problem if only called upon to do their job in 1 G level
flight. It's slat behavior in the flight regime at 300+KIAS that mark the
work of a capable airframes shop.

OK, I've never been there, or done that. But it seems to me that the slats
are *really* simple. Obviously I'm missing something here. What is it
about the design and/or maintenance of the slats that requires "a capable
airframes shop?"

Yep, they are dirt simple until one of the rollers gets a bit sticky or
one of the slats gets a little bent then the devils's in the details.
As was noted, it doesn't make much of a difference in normal flight but
the first time you go into the merge and pitch hard and one sticks it's
a pretty damn violent effect that can range from simply a hard roll
away from the deployed side that corrects itself, to damn near tumbling
the airplane. The guys in my TRARON, who were civilian maint at the
time, did a pretty fair job of maintaining them to the point of
applying grease and such with Q-tips, they also had a gauge that looked
shop-made that they could push on the slats to measure how much force
it took to move and they tried to make the slats on each jet the same.


Pugs

John- Not usually a problem if only called upon to do their job in 1 G level
flight. It's slat behavior in the flight regime at 300+KIAS that mark the
work of a capable airframes shop. BRBR

Geeezzz, If I had an A-4...I would have to 'use' the slats to their
maximum...It would be fun to beat up other A/C...
P. C. Chisholm
CDR, USN(ret.)
Old Phart Phormer Phantom, Turkey, Viper, Scooter and Combat Buckeye Phlyer

On Sat, 7 Feb 2004 17:00:51 -0600, "Jake Donovan"
wrote:

PS - All CIA and NASA birds are registered civil aircraft and could be, if
these agencies so desired, sold to private concerns. I included the CIA as
many CIA aircraft used in SE Asia made their way back to the US in private
hands and are still being flown today. (Mary, I know some of the NASA birds
would NEVER be sold)

Well, sort of. We assign N-numbers to them, but we don't always
bother to tell the FAA which numbers go with which airplanes. I was
looking at the N8nnNA registrations one time and found that the only
two aircraft listed had been given to museums a while back.

We also really can't sell them, exactly. We have to put them on the
surplus list, the same way every other agency has to. The list is
circulated in-agency, within Federal agencies, and then to state,
county, etc, agencies in order. Only after every governmental agency
in the entire United States, including the Antelope Valley Mosquito
Abatement District, has failed to request the item can it be sold to
the public. And I think that GSA handles the actual sale.

We surplused the C-47 Gooneybird and a large public university in the
south picked it up. It was in flyable condition, too. In fact, we
made a mistake and sent the N-number with it and had to have them
re-number it because we didn't mean to include the N-number (we
couldn't, actually, because these aren't transferrable).

In case you're ever thinking of buying anything off the gov't surplus
lists, let me give you a little warning. Don't expect to get an
unappreciated treasure this way.

We usually don't surplus our aircraft because they're either research
aircraft, promised to a museum, or ex-military aircraft, with
restrictions on disposal (or both). Typically, the support aircraft
get turned into displays or gate guards. We gave the city of
Lancaster a clapped-out old F-18 for the baseball stadium; the stadium
is "The Hangar", where the Jet Hawks play, and the city fathers
thought that every hangar needs an airplane, I guess. A few years
later, the USAF gave the city an F-4D to put by the Metrolink station.

The KingAirs would probably be surplused, though, since they're just
stock airplanes, with FAA certifications and everything. They've been
maintained to FAA standards, too. But we'll fly them until they
really can't be operated properly because it's so hard to get
replacements.

Then there was the PA-30 Piper Twin Comanche....

Mary

--
Mary Shafer Retired aerospace research engineer