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Flight engineer stopping the pilots or maintenance from doing something stupid


c130rlr
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I recall several FE's stories about preventing the pilot(s) from doing something stupid and would like to hear the stories.

One of mine is when we were landing and the No. 3 engine flamed out on the flair. The co-pilot grabbed the No. 4 condition lever and I stretched out my right leg over the center console pressing my No. size 13 boot on the co-pilots left hand stating "you've got the wrong engine". He immediately took his hand off the No. 4 condition lever and placed it on the No. 3 lever, shutting the engine down. We all know if I'd hadn't done this aircraft would be on the runway with both right engines and possibly running off the runway had the pilot went to reverse with No. 1 and No. 2 engines.

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I don't know about the FE stopping the pilot from doing something stupid, but I had just turned 20 years old when I got to CCK and my FE was several years older and a lot wiser than I was. He stopped the Loadmaster from from doing a lot of stupid stuff, but it was usually down town in the bars.

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When I was ststioned at Clark AB, PI, on my very first trip in country, we made a few stops before arriving at Tan Son Nhut. On our first stop, after shutting down the engines and being the consencious 2-striper that I was, I put in the NLG down lock. This was back when that down lock was a big triangle-shaped wedge. The FE would stow it on the floor behind the AC's seat. While taxiing out, the FE was moving his foot around looking for the down lock. He then asked the AC stop the airplane and had me go out and remove it. After returning to the cockpit, he said something like, "Son, you'll never do that again, will you?" Could've been a really deserved ass-chewing, but he was nice about it.

Don R.

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When I was ststioned at Clark AB, PI, on my very first trip in country, we made a few stops before arriving at Tan Son Nhut. On our first stop, after shutting down the engines and being the consencious 2-striper that I was, I put in the NLG down lock. This was back when that down lock was a big triangle-shaped wedge. The FE would stow it on the floor behind the AC's seat. While taxiing out, the FE was moving his foot around looking for the down lock. He then asked the AC stop the airplane and had me go out and remove it. After returning to the cockpit, he said something like, "Son, you'll never do that again, will you?" Could've been a really deserved ass-chewing, but he was nice about it.

Don R.

When I was going through BFE at Little Rock the F/E instructor taught me that the only thing you hang your helmit bag on the back of the co-pilots seat with is the nose gear pin. That way you will never forget it.

Fast forward a few years and on a short trip to Pope to do troop drops we took a couple of crew chiefs. The acft. had a temp. nose gear pin. We shut down to wait for the first couple of sticks to show up for the drops and of course they were late so we went to the snack bar to grab some chow. The chiefs elected to stay with the acft. One of them went to Popes bench and got the correct pin and installed it. Only they didnot tell me. We get back to the acft. and I See that my bag is still hanging from the back of the co-pilots seat. I had a good LM who after all engines were started checked for the nose pin prior closing the crew door. Well he stood in front of the acft. and asked me if I needed this (the nlg pin). I said I have the NLG pin right next to me and to throw that one in the trash can. After landing the chief and me had words, alot of them.

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Not a case of stopping someone from doing something stupid but I did safe us from being stuck in Macedonia. We were operating out of Belgium and had a trip to Grafenwoehr, Germany to pick up a few Pax and cargo. I asked where were getting fuel and the pilot said in Macedonia. I grabbed the mission kit and looked for the contract fuel forms and the file folder was empty. I asked what we were buying fuel with, our looks because there were no contract fuel forms and my credit card's limit was way short. The nav checked and sure enough we didn't have them.They called back to Belgium and they faxed the cover sheet and then the nav made copies before we left Graf. We landed in Macedonia and they had 6 copies of the form and no carbon papers with them. The local guy said no problem, we'll get our money. There was a Russian AN-12 on the ramp an the crew were waving their arms while they talked to the Macedonia guy. The Russians hadn't been paying for their fuel and the Macedonians told them no more credit for them! "We'll take dollars, Macedonian currency, German marks, French and Swiss franks, and English pounds. No Rubles because your money is no good either"! The Ruskies had to wait for the Russian Embassy to get money and pay for the fuel.

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When I was going through BFE at Little Rock the F/E instructor taught me that the only thing you hang your helmit bag on the back of the co-pilots seat with is the nose gear pin. That way you will never forget it.

Fast forward a few years and on a short trip to Pope to do troop drops we took a couple of crew chiefs. The acft. had a temp. nose gear pin. We shut down to wait for the first couple of sticks to show up for the drops and of course they were late so we went to the snack bar to grab some chow. The chiefs elected to stay with the acft. One of them went to Popes bench and got the correct pin and installed it. Only they didnot tell me. We get back to the acft. and I See that my bag is still hanging from the back of the co-pilots seat. I had a good LM who after all engines were started checked for the nose pin prior closing the crew door. Well he stood in front of the acft. and asked me if I needed this (the nlg pin). I said I have the NLG pin right next to me and to throw that one in the trash can. After landing the chief and me had words, alot of them.

Not sure how to take this post. Seems that flight crews had a penchant for disappearing leaving the chief there to care for the aircraft. In this case the chief does what's expected of him, no one from the flight crew bothers to pre flight the plane, (except the LM, who did his job) when the NLG pin is discovered still installed it's the chiefs fault. In the mean time the proper pin is simply thrown away. I wonder who should have had words (a lot of them) with whom. Also, I wonder what happened to the "remove before flight" banner? If it were hanging on the pin it should have been seen long before engine start. If the banner wasn't there, that's the only mistake the CC made.

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Not sure how to take this post. Seems that flight crews had a penchant for disappearing leaving the chief there to care for the aircraft. In this case the chief does what's expected of him, no one from the flight crew bothers to pre flight the plane, (except the LM, who did his job) when the NLG pin is discovered still installed it's the chiefs fault. In the mean time the proper pin is simply thrown away. I wonder who should have had words (a lot of them) with whom. Also, I wonder what happened to the "remove before flight" banner? If it were hanging on the pin it should have been seen long before engine start. If the banner wasn't there, that's the only mistake the CC made.

First, If you had read my comments you would have seen that the crew chiefs had ELECTED to stay with the acft. not left behind!

Second, on ops. stops the crew was told if there was ANYTHING done on the acft.

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Before all the Ops guys start a MX bashing fest, I'm gonna leave this right here. This was last year at Bagram, from an FE with over a 1000 hours. Got called out when they landed, tried to talk to the FE, and he just handed me the forms. I read that and asked him if he was serious, and he smugly replied, is there a problem? For which I responded that he was a fucking idiot, then left the plane to go order a pressure reducer. Stuff like that makes me not want to fly with some of you guys.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]4333[/ATTACH]

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