topboltsto400

32 years...Wow!!!

Congrats and best wishes on your transistion!!

But now you gotta share some highlight stories!! I've been Air Force'ing it for ~14, love hearing the "old dude" tall tales....uh oh, guess the 14 yr mark might get me in the range as an "old dude"..............

Well, big picture, same but different nowadays. I'm almost half a 70 yr old FE, loads are still (mostly) young. Most of us FE's are prior MX, however I did meet a FE who was a prior personellist...whole other story. You guys paved the way, and I thank you for that. Some of the "hostile repair" procedures we have now are said to be a product of you guys.....

...I've seen it on here quite a bit, gotta ask...what are you guys talking about when you say "3rd wiper"? Never heard that since I've been around, probably some lingo of a bygone era. Oh, speaking of lost lingo, nowadays we aren't supposed to call the chowhall a chowhall, it's a "dining facility"....

rysponycar...what's up buddy....

APU mod, that should fix it, 100 F and 4300ft in this hell hole, all below 60 secs....

-fresh GTC load control t-stat may help...make sure the starter sensing lines are all tight as well....never know

other than that, welcome to the west!

Cool, neat-o read...thanks for sharing!

Never asked the question or heard anyone talk about it,...Why did they get rid of the pods on the W's? ...hmmm, got something to throw around at the smoke pit now....

I don't miss the pods...

cool photos, thanks for sharing.

I've been lucky, had a couple of good TDY's recently, ie Tucson, and Indianapolis.

Hit the Pima museum, and the AF museum out in Dayton (short drive from Indy). Was down at Hurlburt a few months ago, even hit up P-cola NAS museum as well. Even though I see planes everyday, still like to check the old ones out...feel bad for the 141's, as no one else used them, what is left is it, rest are gone.

1864 and 502...worked on both of them at Pope and Ramstein....probably the desert as well, but that is just a blur

did many touch and go's down there, shame they closed that place. Nice flight down there from Pope, then up the coast and fly over Kitty Hawk....

The locals here in Hell..oops..I mean clovis...have to learn to love that sound, they asked for it, now they got it...had a open house the other day......

locals-"these things are noisy, you always fly over my house at night..."

"do you always have to fly at night..."

"are those jet engines on the wings?" (while pointing at re-fueling pods)

No worries Dan...

I heard some bits and pieces, heresay stuff, it was a Cannon crew, I'm at Cannon...you know the stuff that floats around....

There is more to it, but I'm not willing to put it out on the internet....there are some interesting findngs but you'll have to phone a friend to hear about it.....sorry for not sharing.

Not a Wombat...

No tanker involved....think you misunderstood the story...read this part again.... "an aircrew from Cannon's 524th Special Operations Squadron failed to refuel its DHC-8/Q200 transport. " focus on AIRCREW and ITS.....

$hit happens......thankfully no fatalities

1994 Mustang GT here....

Will do w/ the pictures.... Hoping to start this weekend, been collecting this stuff for 2 years (gotta feed the kids and that stuff ain't cheap)...on the shelf are Eddy Performers, cam, rockers, 42lb injectors, blah blah blah. Got a Kenne Bell, been on there for a while, stepping it up here soon with the heads etc. If you heard of a Tweecer (tuner), been messing with that for a while too...pretty cool piece, computerized hotrodding.

I was in a junkyard in Albuquerque a while ago...found a Mark 8 with the 32v motor, only 17k on the odometer. They only wanted 180 for it, which included the accesories and wiring harness....I was so close to doing that one....Swap the cams, port the heads, put on some long tubes and a big Kenne Bell....Sweet!! Little fabbing and a new k-memeber not so bad...but after looking for a t-56/ 6spd swap kit and seeing the price tags....I put that one on the backburner. There was a 460 out there too....my sole purpose for that one would to see if I could rip the motor mounts out on a hard launch....maybe ripple the roof....

Hoping to send a piston thru the hood or a rod thru the block (not really) but.... that'd be good enough justification to do a 347, maybe a 200 shot or ~15 lbs of Vortech...oh man,....the wheels are turning again.....really want to do a FOX 'vert, with the 32v, and a full Maximum Motorsports suspension....nice, fast cruiser....ahhhh, someday...

sorry for the long read..been in some W conversion training classes last few days, software engineers don't know anything about things that spin and use gas, likewise I don't know anything about software....nice to do a little car BS'ing

hahaha

thanks Will!!

Learned a few things wrenching on these things, miss it ALOT now that I'm a FE...no more getting stabbed by .32 and not knowing till blood is everywhere, the rings aorund the bottom of the shower, no matter how often I cleaned....whole house smelling like JP-X after a fuel control swap etc....never did find an answer to one of the most disturbing issues: how come no matter how hard or with whatever you use to scrub your hands clean...they're always cleaner after you wash your hair....disturbing, yet oh so true.

I have to get a fix every now and then...and my car is the victim...seems to get faster every time. Heads, cam, intake and supercharger are going on soon....all sitting on the shelf just need some spare time...prolly next weekend.

Use to day dream about mounting a GTC in the backseat....that'd be one bada$$ supercharger, 35 psi ducted up to the throttle body.....but I didn't want to put a pintle hook on and tow a fire bottle around town....prolly couldn't justify getting the 3lvl out to the parking lot to stand ground whle I started it to go home either....

those are for fixing up a split fingernail....or getting "cleaned up" for a night out....

yup it'll arrive in full Wombat garb, nice and freshly modded...ready to kick a$$

only to be re-modded...holes cut in it and grow a bunch of tumors....

poor little bugger will never get to be chased by thirsty helicopters/22's, or see the bunny rabbits scatter across the dirt LZ with the IDS....

....but she'll blow sh1t up....and who doesn't like that?

Hilarious....sad yet , so true..

....I got a few of those boxes checked.....

No shit?

I just wrote it off as T2 elitism from this guy not wanting to be out done.

well I stand corrected.[

LOL, I spit my drink out when I read that....

Heard "other plane" rumors, never anything T2 related....

often overlooked, may be worth it to pop the horsecollar and check out the c/p's. Loose c/p would be along the same line as chasing the harnesses.

Back in my engine troop days, I can remember 3 events caused from the firewall c/p's....

@base X, came in on X shift, other shift changed an engine and were swearing to me that ALL of the Y-boxes were bad....I popped the horsecollar and tightened the Missy's, strange they all worked after that...

different base X, X shift wetn thru a SYNC and 2 V/H's, prop wouldn't do anything electric...I got turn over on the line, went back inside, checked the log book, engine was on the wing ~a month, opened the horsecollar, loose C/P....I left the g081 for them to clean up as well as turn in their parts....

in the desert, crew says no rotation, FE got it down to the horsecollar bleed vlv not opening, good on him. again loose c/p

having said all that, if you happen to find a loose plug back there, you'd want to get in a book and chase the schematic, make sure that plug goes to a component that could cause your symptoms..ie; prop brush block conduit probably won't shut an engine down....validate your find kinda thing....

Sure they're safety wired, and shouldn't back off, but we all know stranger things have happened...

good luck

that's what I did...130 engine guy to 130 FE....while I kinda miss 13 minute prop removals (test cell) and getting stabbed by safety wire, the FE gig is pretty cool. On more than 50 occasions, the pilots have turned around and said its nice having a prior engine troop as a FE. Not knocking the guys/gals that x-trained from non 130 mx jobs, but I've found it to be huge advantage as far as being the liason between mx and ops....you know the lingo, next move,what the mx guys are doing....and the big one...its fun!

The Wombat....that's my ride...pretty neat thing we got going on with it.

Sure we can all agree that we hope an accident doesn't happen...

Be advised, Cannon (AFSOC) is out there now, and they're taking new CP's. I'll leave it at that......

(spoken in salty FE voice..) you should do your time at one of the big 3, (pope, the rock, or dyess), get a good handle on the mobility mission, be it on J's or whatever they have at the time/place. Deploy a few times, get some experience, all the while being a good, aspiring, young officer, developing a good reputation and at the same time not kissing a$$. Go for an overseas assignment, (I loved Ramstein), more (professional) exposure to a different command, same but different type missions. Live it up, enjoy all the things the host country has to offer.

By now you're a seasoned A/C type, and as others have mentioned, I'd say go for the AFSOC gig. Different world, new play book with different rules. With that background you'll appreciate the air conditioning packs on (some of) the AFSOC planes, also depending what plane you came off of. It'll be nice not doing cargo runs every night, but doing the "mission" sets (type of plane dependent), little hair raising and exciting situations you find yourself in.

All in all, have fun doing it. 130's are a great gig. I've been in the AF for xx years, all with 130's be it as an engine mechanic and now FE. That association has taken me around the world, the good and bad spots. and it during the good and bad it's been...fun. Wouldn't trade it for anything

Beg kick and scream to go to the Rolls Royce class. It will de-bunk some of the myths some of the less knowing guys will "teach" you, there is some pretty good folklore people have come up with over the years. RR can sh!tcan alot of that for you. The class is brilliant, incredible amount of knowledge to take away from it.

If you like deploying and doing TDY's, 130's are cool. Different mission than the long haulers you're coming from, meaning they don't go off station and come home next day. They go to the theater and stay for a while, and the MX guys have to go as well, keep the planes inline when they get homesick.

Any idea where you'll be working ?(FL, ISO, Backshop).I worked all the areas, and have a toss up between the FL and Test Cell. Test Cell was definently the better job,however I liked the FL and the traveling that came with it (not sure about Kirtland guys going TDY with the planes as they're mostly training out there) The shop and ISO were cool to work at, lot of different things to do/learn in there, not really my thing though. If you're doing the backshop gig I' encourage you to do some politicing...talk 'em into letting you move around the different areas after a few months of working in each. Builup a few engines, buildup a few turbines and gearboxes, do a few props, spend some time at the Cell. Do that, and see if you can move out of the shop, maybe get to the FL, or if you like the shop stay. Or if you do the FL, get in the troubleshooting books. Replacing parts takes some skill, but knowing the what and whys to change a part are essential. The 2J-T56-56, a backshop TO, has a good t-shooting refernece in the back. Good to start with as it doesn't really get into the airplane, sticks with engines...good baseline. Then read into the 60 ish (props)and 70 ish(engines) (forget the actaul #'s) Fault isolation guides, they get into more airplane stuff (wiring etc) but again, lot of good info. And get to know the limits real well, and be able to refernece them from a book. Although not ideal, these things leak all the fluids they have....knowing what is leaking, how much is leaking, can be the difference in getting a mission off or cancelling.

And put some anti-bacterail type of stuff in your bag or locker...inevitably you will bleed after working on these things...safety-wiring in the nacelle can be a bear, you will hack yur hands up and get the ol .020 under the finger nail...good to have that stuff and some duct tape to patch yourself up and keep going. Hell, I might have blood samples on half the fleet of t-56's, along with all the other mechs that have worked on them a while. Pleasant thought, huh? hence the anti stuff...

good luck and have fun,

welcome to Hercs

never had any problems with the 47's....160th had their $h1t straight (my experience w'them)...few plugs left and right, get their gas and gone.

the 22's however, and not knocking them, had alot of "swing and a miss", then "hey eng, I think they put a hole in the drogue..again".....and thus have been awarded the title.

probably along the same line though, 22's are fairly new, let alone getting gas in one...bet the prior 53 guys bite their tongue alot.

I have, not bad...not as slow...we call them drogue slayers...seems they liked to beat the cr@p out of the drogues....

IIRC the ramp & door air speed is 150 KIAS. It would seem the fighters had to slow to near stall speed.

I know the palnes I fly on (H2, modded as W's) have the ramp strengthened, allowing us to do 250. Probably the case with that one as well...

I was there for that one, and that was some funny $h!t...snow wasn't forecasted, just kinda happened... the plane was grounded, was a trainer only, normal line mx guys never really touched it.

Great pic, laughed my a$$ off, again, first time was in person!

OK I give up I have searched the net and still no answer, whats LIRCUM ?

try searching for LAIRCM

pronounced like that but...it's actually an acronym...Large Aircraft Infa Red Counter Measure

and not trying to be to knit picky, but I think the U-boats actually have DIRCM...same but different..Digital in place of Large...

Accually your backwards about the nozzles.

2 min in LSGI is there to burn off any coking of the fuel nozzles.

not trying to knock you, but can you offer more detail on this burn off of coking....my understanding of this whole LSGI thing is cooling the nozzles preventing "coking"..all the burning takes place downstream of the nozzles, they're in the path of compressor discharge air, which is hotter in Normal GI/lower at LSGI, the 2 mins of exposure at LSGI is to cool them off...

not saying this is your case, but I've heard people say "TIT is hotter, burns the fuel off the nozzle" however TIT is downstream of the nozzle, not sure the nozzle cares about TIT, however it does get whacked by CDP pretty good

just talking here