Aviation Megathread

Hey all! A forum member made a great suggestion that we have an official AVIATION off-topic thread, so here goes! Photos, stories, jokes, whatever. If it flies, post it!

I'll start this off by posting a few photos I've taken over the years:

 

Great thread already! I did all my flying in the pre-internet days, so I can’t prove that I piloted some of the coolest aircraft on earth…such as the mighty C150 Aerobat, C172, and an Archer a few times. Oh well, I’ll sit back and read cool stories and look at cool pictures lol.

 

Your logbook is more extensive than mine. Mine totals 12 hours in a C150...

 

Mmm. Guess I better get busy then!

 

Great pics so far. As much as I like airplanes, helicopters are on a higher order. Those are magical machines. Wouldn’t mind a MD-500 myself lol.

 

And regarding A&P folks…hats off to you. I swear nothing would scare me more than getting home and wondering “where exactly did I leave that screwdriver?”

 

I worked big jets for 26 years before I ever touched a helicopter. What an experience. 17 years on helicopters. So much to learn and so very different. To be honest, now that they belong to someone else, I don't miss them.

 

I wondered how much crossover there would be from fixed wing to rotorcraft from an avionics and maintenance standpoint. When you said you'd worked on both I was surprised.

 

I figured it wouldn't take long before someone commented on the tools in the inlet. It is learned to be very disciplined about tools and where they are at all times. The next thing is to be humble and ask someone else to check your work and your tools. On the helicopters, I always asked a pilot to check my work and make sure I didn't leave anything behind. Trust is earned much slower than it is lost. Being humble enough to ask them to make sure I did everything properly made us all family. Because I knew each of their wives (and one husband) and we all had to be able to sleep at night.
There were a few times in the middle of the night that I would sit straight up in bed and wonder if I left something in an area I was working in. Nowadays just being able to send a text in the middle of the night to a pilot flying in the morning to check _______ where I was working because I thought I might have left a tool, or a rag or something. I had a very good record of being guilty of doing that even I woke up in the middle of the night.

The second thing that builds major trust is being the first one that flies with the pilot after some major maintenance. It is everything because they have to have confidence in my technical abilities.

And yes, I did attend factory schools on everything we fly.

 

Well, I was dragged into helicopters. I did small jobs on them for a couple of years. Then I was asked to be the Director of Maintenance for this company. I think I turned pale when I heard that. I thought no way, I'm not qualified to be in that position. It was the FAA Maintenance and Operations Inspector that convinced me that I was more than qualified.

Crossover? Not as much. The powerplant is different and the method of flight is obviously different. And vibration! The biggest two fights with helicopters is corrosion and vibration. Getting rid of vibration is one of the black arts. And I am only a Journeyman.

 

I'd never really thought about the responsibility of being an aircraft mechanic from a safety standpoint (which is strange, since it's so obvious now that you mention it). I can see that being a much bigger stressor than most kinds of technicians have. With most jobs, people won't fall out of the sky if you did sloppy work. I think a testament to how good aviation mechanics are is how long most aircraft stay operational.

 

We never lost an aircraft, helicopter or jet while I was taking care of them at the company I work for now.

My first aircraft loss was in November 29th, 1982. I was 20 years old. Lost an entire B-52 on the runway, due to a failed antiskid detector. Blew a tire with 50,000 lbs of fuel on board. Piece of the tire cut hydraulic tubes and battery cables and that is how the fire in the wheel well started. The crew got out of the airplane before it exploded.

Next was the United Airlines Boeing 767-222 N612UA that was flown into the World Trade Center by terrorists. I and many of my colleagues overhauled that airplane back in the 90s.

A short time later, the United Boeing 757-222 that crashed into the field in Pennsylvania was the third. I and many other overhauled that airplane too.

Thank God I have lost nothing else since. An FAA and NTSB investigation is not something that I ever want to repeat.

 

Exactly this. The responsibility is huge. And my head spins every time I think about what it takes to do even simple jobs. So many little one-time-use fasters in some of the turbines. Or back in the old days with multi-engine airliners with compound radials with turbos and superchargers lol. Can you imagine a “simple” job of changing the sparkplugs on a constellation? What are those, like 28 plugs per engine? Lol

 

Wow! That's incredible to have worked on both those aircraft at one point in time! I can only imagine how stressful that would be to take part in an NTSB or FAA investigation. Yikes.

 

A lot of people don't understand when I use the term "my airplane" or "my helicopter". I didn't own them, but they were mine. Because I was responsible.

The worst part of the FAA and NTSB investigations is that you don't find out what happened to the airplane that actually caused the accident. It was eighteen months before I found out what happened to that B-52. The worst part of it was when the FAA reads you your rights before their testimony under oath takes place. I was 20 years old!

After that, it was the ribbing of all the other peer mechanics in the Air Force that I worked with that were merciless. We had 24 B-52s at our base which means probably a hundred mechanics.

 

Yeah, that's stressful. I can see how not having answers would be the worst. My buddy was a flight mechanic and the last person to speak to John Denver. John offered him to ride shotgun, but he very quickly declined when he saw how "relaxed" John's attitude towards safety and maintenance were (to put it as diplomatically as possible). He's now the chief pilot for an extremely large construction company, and loves his job. He did not, however, love the FAA investigation. After hearing your take on those investigations, I don't blame him one bit.

 

B-52G refueling on a KC-135A at an extreme bank angle back in the day. This high degree of bank refueling maneuver has long since been discontinued and prohibited.

 

Two B-1Bs from Dyess AFB performing a stadium fly-over in afterburners before the start of the Texas - Georgia football game on October 19, 2024.

 

Even though I was just an admin. clerk in the Marine Corps, I was able to get several rides in CH-46's, Sea Knights are incredible! It sure made the job of being a clerk more bearable. Knowing when the guys were going to fly made it kind of easy to get a ride. Sure miss riding in helicopters.

 

My uncle owned one of the Aero Commanders back in the 70s. Loudest twin prop known to man. The guy in the video was a nut. Bob Hoover.
https://youtu.be/bQWXMLtR-LA?si=7xpl868FbYrs7Zn6

 

Bob Hoover was "certifiable" , saw him perform at Osh Kosh several years ago... Mister Deadstick! Aero Commanders are awesome.

 

Does anyone want to know more about the largely unregulated industry of retreaded aircraft tires?

 

Like recaps? If I had a plane I wouldn't want them. Some planes can land a certain number of times before tires are switched out... OK, lets hear it.

 

Since I take on average of 60 airline hops a year, no, not so much.