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The Ladder


tinyclark
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You guys will love this. USAF personnel can no longer climb the ladder with anything in their hands. So, if you need to do intake/exhaust inspections, tighten a fastener, whatever, someone has to hand you the appropriate tool. You certainly can't put anything in your pocket.

Oh yea, the rear crew door is not allowed to be open if the aircraft hand aux pump is being used, such as during towing ops.

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AFOSH at it's best .When I was at Rhien Main 84-86 some rocket scientist decided that it was no longer safe to walk between the fuselage and the inboard engines, ( yes, while the engines where not running, Ha-Ha). Well, that was a little inconvenient but "whatever". Later they decided that wasn't good enough so someone came up with a "prop bungee chord" that stretched from #1 eng. prop (they slipped snugly around the prop blade pointed toward the ground) under the belly of the plane to the # 4 prop blade. One can only imagine the lives saved by that device (sarcasm alert).

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IIRC it was CMS Chick Anderson (22nd AF) that told me the only way a static prop can hurt you with out bleed air is to fall on you. I remember someone tried to keep the FEs from walking between the inboard props and the fuselage. It was pointed out a change to the - 1 would have to be done. That ended it.

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so with your mil-spec b5 stand jacked up to to work top/prop panel area you discover you need

another tool ....... I guess you need to lower the stand completely, then go down on hands and

knees, leaning over the edge of the stand to reach your colleague (who has in the mean-time

decided to grace you with his presence)handing the tool to you ......... guess it will save a life or

limb somewhere ........... :-)

p.s.: don't overbalance ......

p.p.s.: how the hell are you going to get that

generator up there to change it ...??

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Guess i would have caught hell when we broke down in Ketchican. Engine wouldn't light off. Used the ladder to open the cowling. Up the ladder, open fasteners, down ladder, move ladder, up ladder, open cowling, down ladder, move ladder, ended up jumping the speed switch, down, move, up, close, down, move, fasten, down, still no light off. Tools in flightsuit pocket. Spent the night with just our flightsuits. Got a good meal and free drinks at the VFW though. They sent an engine guy down with a geneva lock.

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I guess this safety bullshit is just out of control anywhere. In the mission statement of OSHA it says ( paraphased) NO employee will be exposed to lack of visibility, excessive heat, possible collapse or explosion conditions, entrapment, or other work conditions not conducive to a safe work environment." Uh, I guess my entire career I was in violation, huh???? I once worked for a construction company whose local manager referred to OSHA regs as " A complex collection of red tape, split hairs, and bullshit randomly applied with a shotgun." In civilian or military life, most of these standards come about because somebody did something STUPID, and the reg was written by somebody who had no idea of what the job requirements were .

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so....maintenance guys are being supplied with a "tool handling monkey"? Is there a tech school for that? Maybe prop safety issues could be best dealt with by removing the props every time the aircraft is parked. Can the head shed come up with any more ridiculous "safety" rules? I'm sorry someone got a bump on the head,,,,But.. PULEEEEZE!

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In the recip days I can see the concern about walking in the prop arc., etc. (hot mags, p-leads, etc). But with the Herc, without bleed air on the plane, I just don't see how the prop would rotate. I don't know but are there any turboprops out there with electric starters?

I'm pretty sure the Russian AN12 has electric starters.Was watching one start in New Delhi and never heard a GTC.All 4 engines were very slow to come up to speed.

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Hard for me to believe anyone with acft.maintenance experience could sign off on this.

They're going to keep safety regulating everything so much that the people won't be able to do their jobs unless they're wearing a flourescent yellow haz mat suit and full crash helmet, wearing a respirator with 4 canisters.

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Excessive safety regs! :( Back in the day when refueling recips over the wing (gas, oil, ADI) we had no safety equipment. If we were sliding off the back of the wing we just held onto the hose and it slowed us down so we didn't just crash. Usually we just landed on our feet. Easy to do during inclement weather if you weren't careful. Pulling that heavy ass hose to 4 different fuel tanks (C-118s) on each wing was no fun.

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I wonder how many injuries and deaths have occurred as a result of the plethora of stupid ass safety regs. I know that a lot have occurred in the fire service due to the excessive weight and heat retention of turn out gear, for instance. I can remember when firefighting was dangerous, but sex was safe............... my how the world turns!!!!!!!!!!

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I've related this story before in another post, but back in the winter of 1963, I was an A/3C at Langley AFB, VA. I was up on the wing of a B-model sweeping snow off of the wings with a big shop broom. I slid off and landed in a snow drift twice. My crew chief told me to get back up there, but this time to carry a big screwdriver with me. That was all the safety equipment I had.

Like Giz said, "my how the world turns." Of course, back then no one wore ear protection either. No wonder I can't hear crap.

Don R.

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I'm pretty sure the Russian AN12 has electric starters.Was watching one start in New Delhi and never heard a GTC.All 4 engines were very slow to come up to speed.

Maybe a technicality but the OV-10 and most smaller turboprop aircraft use an electric starter. It is actually a starter generator. I never heard of one shorting out and kicking the prop over unless the switch was moved to start by a live person.

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