Warbird Information Exchange

http://www.wcnc.com/news/topstories/stories/wcnc-ad-8_29_06-hanger.4937d3e4.html

The Hendrick Motorsports NASCAR team (Owners of Jeff Gordon's team, among others) has their own aircraft hangar. Said hangar has a foam fire supression system. Said system was triggered, though thankfully not by a major fire. The resulting mess looks like all kinds of fun to cleanup......

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Phil K.
Yankee Air Museum
Systems Admin / Ramp Crew / Professional Photo Ruiner

Been there.........
Done that..........
I got AFFFed in the Navy once.
Once was enough!

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Don't touch my junk!!

BTDT....had the AFFF system go nuts on the Kitty Hawk once. Hanger bay 1 & 2 both got deluged. Fortunatly for us <VFA-97> all our birds were buttoned up. The VS guys had an S-3 completely blown open for a major Phase

Every panel plus the cockpit got filled with that stuff! (seats were out)

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Rob

I remember that day! That was the day I was very very happy not to be on the Emergency - Rec team anymore. VFA-22 had a few birds down in the hanger that day, of course one of our a/c just lived down there all the time (305 or 306 if I remember correctly, I know 306 had about 1000 less hours on it than the other 11 birds, she was our hanger Queen. 305 then took the name “Christine” because it started to be a real pain for the pilots and ground crews, that started to spend some major time in the hanger also)

Tim

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www.tailhookstudio.com

Your lucky day....but not mine! I was in 12C that was a big darn mess to clean up! Still glad I wasn't a VS guy though.

So you were there huh? Small world!


Remember "Pick a fight?" (Pickavance....or was that the other KH cruise...memory's shot )

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Rob

"Pick-a-fight" doesn't ring a bell for me.

I was in the IWT (AT) shop of VFA-22. I had tried to get into the "Shooters" but my supervisor wanted to get a dirt bag out of the shop. All in All I'm glad Lumpy went and I stayed but I would have liked to play "Hero" for a Cruise.

12C? that is not ringing any bells, Maybe I've been removed too long, is that Corrosion Control?

Tim

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www.tailhookstudio.com

Yup Corrosion Control...

Pickavance was an earlier cruise now that my brain cells have woke up.

IWT...us Airframers had an idea about what "IWT" stood for


It's all good though...we made you tron chasers sweat every time we got near a grey box with our hammers and rivet guns

You remember the great "jack-ex" just before pulling into Hawaii?

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Rob

I'm not sure if I could disagree with your other meaning for IWT (Idiots with Tools), there were far too many in my shop that needed to be kept far away from any tool.

The good ol' landing gear collapse on the USS Independence, Yes that was such fun, saved us a ton of work for the "Airshow". Speaking of which remember VF-213 exploding M-61? That was funny.

What Squadron were you on for the previous Kittyhawk Cruise? A friend in VFA-94 was in VF-51 at the time and had some interesting stories from that cruise, the China show down, one about what might have happened to a F-14 (??? Sometimes he got a bit carried away but …). I remember reading about the China Sub hunting the Kitty. He was most likely TAD for the cruise, he was TAD and in the Line for the Lincoln Cruise I worked with him on.
Tim

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www.tailhookstudio.com

Idiots with tools...yeah, we got a few here in VX-31...they call 'em AO's though, the AT shop is pretty squared away.

VF-213...yeah, I remember the exploding M-61! put a nice hole in the AWG-9 and twisted the barrels up like messdeck spaghetti. They also had that rampstrike.

213 has had their problems....that's for sure!

Of course, we put nose tires on w/ EA-6 bearings, which blew the wheels on a cat stroke, which fragged the engines, which turned the aft section to junk (burned a big hole in the keel, had to be craned off)


That gear collapse on the Indy was VFA-27...plaining link failure I think. They had gear problems on the prior cruise with us on the Hawk....and so did we.

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Rob

I was in VFA-97. I remember the Chinese sub thing now that you joggled my memory...We spotted them way out and they got all insulted at "losing face"...got spotted by an F-14 too boot! (which annoyed the heck outta the Anti-sub guys)

I also remember going through the straights of Tiawann at warp speed under EMCONN and deceptive lighting late at night....right through a pack of Chi-Comm "fishing boats". I'm suprised we didn't hit any.

That was also the second cruise in a row we planted a Hornet in the water 200 miles from Hong Kong...sumpthin about that place.....

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Rob

I had heard on of the F-14 took a hit by something while keeping the "peace" and was sealed into a hanger bay for "Clean up". I assume it was one of VF-51s birds, never could confirm that story, but figured it might be one of those "never happened" things.

I thought 213 and my squadron were in a race to see who could crash the most aircraft at one point. We ended at 3 lost and 213 won with 4 (while I was in, they lost several over the few years prior to me getting there).

I remember when VAQ-135 lost a bird on workup, I was talking with one of your AT’s who was trying to figure out how to get the radar package out with all the shock mounts broke due to a VERY Hard landing. I still can't believe that the radar did not go through the nose on the wire. We joked that a bird would splash before the det was over, I think that was 30 minutes before the Captain came over the 1MC and said we lost an a/c.

Tim

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www.tailhookstudio.com

Well I wouldn't be suprised if a 51 bird got hit with something....don't know for sure but things were not allways civilised "out there".

It was a Prowler that impacted the water "at a high rate of speed". Word we got was he was in a dive (for what ever reason), came out of the fog and SPLAT. Pilot and ECMO 1 were partially ejected, GIB never cleared the rails.

Some of the things that happened in the Atlantic and Med with the Ruskies would curl your toes....or laugh hystericly. (Forrestal and Saratoga '88 & '90)

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Rob

Don't ya'll know that AO stands for Always Outstanding

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Don't touch my junk!!

Keep telling ourself that what it means I know it means "A$$ed Out" as in "AO of every other Rate in the Navy"

Tim

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www.tailhookstudio.com

I thought AO's were AT's that rocked out of "A" school.....


Seriously though, our AO's are a good bunch...they just have a few bone headed moments (okay, a LOT of bone head moments, 'specially the young ones!)

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Rob