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The Ladder


tinyclark
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Somewhere in-country in the '70-'71 time frame, I was setting across the top of #3 engine finishing up a TD valve housing change... The troops were tossing tools to me as the ladder was being moved about the acft for the pre-flt.. It would appear with someone climbing up to hand me a part.. Then disappear again.

The flt crew had a good card game going on the nav table..

Soon a small jeep appeared and an army, full dress bull col. got out. "I'm gonna' set it 'afar' if it's not off the ground by sundown!!! I am not backstoppin' for a gd mortor magnet!!!" He was looking dead at me as he shifted his twin pearl handled P-38s.. Got in the jeep and drove off..

Flt crew showed up as he departed wanting to know 'what did he say?' As I was finishing up the cowling some one was digging the ladder out of the plane.. They forgot about me up there... I was coming down the ladder as #1 was turning.. The bird was moving as we threw things in the back and climbed in...

We rotated at sunset... Good ground check...

My Ladder story and I'm sticking to it!!

Jack.........

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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.

I wonder how many furlough days it would take to pay for all that equipment.

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

GVS, the sad part is maint. don't get to sign off on any of the STUPID regs that comes down from ground safety and higher . Most STUPID regs come from the brass that are so far detached from aircraft maint. that they have NO earthly idea how their CYA rules affect the actual effort to fly and maintain airplanes. The STUPID regs come after an incident so that there are no more black marks on the higher ups record on his watch. These people will never understand there will always be broken, smashed or bent body parts in aircraft maint! That is the nature of the beast. They need to suck it up and press on...the STUPID rule makers that is! Bill

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Much of what you see results from some eager safety "O" seeing some neat gear in a safety catalog and thinking "me too." More likely it is the continuous improvement circle (jerk) where one group "invents" a new requirement, spends oodles of cash buying the new gear and training the masses. Awards, brownie and OER points are given, O-2 makes O-3, then transfers. New batch of safety Os come in, old CO transfers out, Maintenance waits patiently for these changes and presents their case that all of this was just another time waster and has slowed production. Safety gear/toys are chucked to the trash or DRMO, reg are hunted down in every binder and hard drive and burned or shredded. Life goes back to normal, Os are awarded Atta-boys and brownie point for increasing production. Three to four years later a new, eager safety officer transfers in.

Rinse and repeat.

PS The Lab Safety Catalog is dangerous safety department porn.

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Okay, ya wanna hear "SAFETY" run amok????? Goofy ass OSHA has a standard 1910.134, that covers respiratory protection of all kinds, and somehow, they got into the black world of fire suppression. amongst all the totally ridiculous bullshit is this requirement..paraphrased, of course..........Before interior firefighting activities can take place, adequate personnel must be on scene so that there are two members whose only assignment is to provide back-up for the two-person attack crew. these members cannot have any other assignment such as pump operator, incident commander, ventilation, etc. This can only be circumvented in the case of a KNOWN rescue situation. We asked a sissified little OSHA talkin' head if that meant if we did not know for certain a rescue situation existed, and we did our primary search to search for victims, like we have been trained to do, would we be in violation if we did that with the first in engine company or whatever with only two or three guys. This stupid bastard said 'ABSOLUTELY, you would be in violation." One grizzled old truckie in the group said 'Well, Sonny boy, I hope to hell if it comes to that, it ain't your family that's involved.""" And don't even get me started on the changes in breathing apparatus, all of which try to protect stupid people, poorly trained ones, and cover the asses of equipment manufacturers

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  • 3 weeks later...

They sent an engine guy down with a geneva lock.

Or............(and I have actually seen this done, names withheld to protect the guilty)

1. Take off the non-working geneva lock

2. Remover the cover

3. Using your Chinese made MK1 vise grip, break out the guts and discard

4. Replace cover

5. Reinstall

6. Fly the next two days sorties while waiting for a new geneva lock to arrive

Oh yeah, don't forget to pull the T-handle every time you shut it down or the ramp will get real wet. And remember to push it in when starting.

Alright, I guess you can't do that in the military, so the AF procedure would be:

1. Order new geneva lock

2. Offload golf clubs

3. Head to the nearest resort for a week while waiting for an engine troop and part to show up

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Or............(and I have actually seen this done, names withheld to protect the guilty)

1. Take off the non-working geneva lock

2. Remover the cover

3. Using your Chinese made MK1 vise grip, break out the guts and discard

4. Replace cover

5. Reinstall

6. Fly the next two days sorties while waiting for a new geneva lock to arrive

Oh yeah, don't forget to pull the T-handle every time you shut it down or the ramp will get real wet. And remember to push it in when starting.

Alright, I guess you can't do that in the military, so the AF procedure would be:

1. Order new geneva lock

2. Offload golf clubs

3. Head to the nearest resort for a week while waiting for an engine troop and part to show up

Luckily, or unluckily depending on your view, the engine troop showed up the next day and fixed the plane. I don't know but sitting on the Ketchican airport ramp with a broke plane might have been costing the AF a fair chunk of change. Notwithstanding the troops that we were supposed to pick up. Besides free beer at the VFW. Who can argue with that?

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