Warbird Information Exchange

Hi all. This happened a few days ago at my airfield.

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ ... d_in_blast

As the desk sargent said in Hill street blues, "Lets ALL be careful out there"

Rgds Cking

I really hate to hear of incidents like that one. One cannot take anything for granted around airplanes. Not that this is what happened in your link, but a former B-58 mechanic once told me to NEVER walk up to a landing gear from the side after a recent movement or landing. He said they learned from bad experience to always come up from behind or ahead of the wheelset so that if one "cooked off" the parts would be going away from you. I still think of him when I chock a jet today.

A friend of mine injured his hand and his partner got a cracked skull from an incident like this. Each one thought the other had let the air out of the tire as they started to remove the bolts. With certain tasks you should refuse help just to avoid confusion.

I was washing a Robinson R-44 at a previous employer's place. Was not fully up to speed with what all was going on yet. They had wheeled the chopper out and asked me to wash it. Was a typical hot summer day in TX and as I was washing on the other side of the helicopter, one of the ground wheels, which had NOT been let up blew up. It rocked the helicopter and I ducked for a minute thinking I was being shot at. The instructors had a good laugh at me as they could see me ducking and hear the noise from 75 yds away where they were. The inner tube had blown THROUGH the top of the tire.

Ryan

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Aerial Photographer with Red Wing Aerial Photography currently based at KRBD and tailwheel CFI.
Websites: Texas Tailwheel Flight Training, DoolittleRaid.com and Lbirds.com.

The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD. - Prov. 21:31 - Train, Practice, Trust.

While on Ad with the USAF as a Crew Chief on A-7D's, I was at Nellis during a Red Flag and we had a plane come in from the end of runway (EOR), and when I started to chock the AC I felt the heat from the tires, and backed up immeadiatly. I told the pilot to hold for a minute, as the USAF has a policy of parting planes with hot brakes in the EOR area untill they cool down to prevent damage from blown tires in a crowed ramp. Before we could get any guidance on what actions to take, the overheat blowout plugs in the rims did there thing and the air came out of the tire, one first, and the second about a minute later. Then they finally said to shut the AC down and we just let it cool in place with a fire truck on standbuy watching it for a half an hour. I have seen F-15s come in with brakes on fire from hyd fluid leak from brakes, and you don't want to spray a hot tire on fire with cold fire ext fluid. Not a good thing.

Kurt

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A-7D, the Short Little Ugly "Flyer" and A-10A Warthog, weren't called an ATTACK plane for nothing. Remember for a little relief on the ground, call your local Air Force to "Go Ugly Early"!

That sounds like good advice period and it made me think twice. My job at museum airshows is tug crew, hefting drawbars and throwing chocks. I haven't seen an airplane tire come apart yet, but I have seen split rim type, high pressure truck tires let go.
Food for thought
Doug

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"I love the smell of 100LL in the morning."