Military BS Stories or the last liar wins.

[actaeon277]

They just have to remember the runway doesn't rock back and forth.

It's also not moving forward around 40 mph.

 

[KellyinAvon]

Thats why test pilots earn the big bucks.

View attachment 303792

An F-16 Crew Chief I knew back in the day had worked on F-111s previously. He talked about how in England an F-111 came in hot with the wings stuck fully swept back. Tailhook caught the wire of the arresting barrier, SSSPPPRRROOOIIINNNNGGGGG!!!! It stopped it, really fast.

 

[KellyinAvon]

It's also not moving forward around 40 mph.

How hard can it be? Officers do it

 

[actaeon277]

An F-16 Crew Chief I knew back in the day had worked on F-111s previously. He talked about how in England an F-111 came in hot with the wings stuck fully swept back. Tailhook caught the wire of the arresting barrier, SSSPPPRRROOOIIINNNNGGGGG!!!! It stopped it, really fast.

I didn't know F 111s had tailhooks.

And shouldn't the barrier stop the FRONT of the aircraft, not the back?

 

[actaeon277]

How hard can it be? Officers do it

During an interview with my Department Head (Chief Engineer) for my sub quals (which is the interview right before the board), the ChEng was flipping a switch on a piece of equipment on the starboard side of the control room.

Now, the control room is outside my area of expertise, I'm always in the aft of the sub.
But sub quals are for the ENTIRE sub.
So, he asks me what the equipment is, that he's flipping the switch.

I go blank.
Total blank.
Jaw drops.
Sweat starts.

ChEng (pronounced cheng) laughs, and informs me it's a piece of equipment disconnected because it was replaced, but left there as it was too much trouble.
And, it's the only equipment the Enlisted lets Officers touch, because they can't F it up.



And then he laughs, because he got me back for sending people into their Division Head interviews after telling them the Reactor Compartment view port was yellow because of radiation striking the glass, and giving off a yellow tint as the electrons decayed in their orbit.

It was really because of the lead tint.
But I was being funny.
Sometimes, being funny can boomerang.

 

[KellyinAvon]

I didn't know F 111s had tailhooks.

And shouldn't the barrier stop the FRONT of the aircraft, not the back?

Arresting wire is before the barrier. If it catches the wire the plane stops. If not it hits the barrier.

The Power Production shop in Civil Engineering maintained the barriers. I used to deliver the barrier parts to them.

Edit: Wow that was... a long time ago. Almost every shop I'd go into was more than happy to show you what they did and how the equipment worked. Time for a post!

 

[actaeon277]

I still didn't know they had tailhooks.
That's usually a Navy/Marine thing.

 

[Nazgul]

The mention of an F111 reminded me of an incident during exercises in the North Atlantic. We were steaming as a 5 ship formation on high alert to be attacked by a squadron from England flying F111's. I had a few minutes to run topside and see the ocean/get some fresh air. Cool overcast day, nice North Atlantic weather. Spotted something on the horizon off the stern moving fast. It was coming straight on to us right on the surface of the water. It was an F111 in afterburner trying to penetrate our defenses. It was followed by one of our F14 Tomcats nearly in his tailpipe. When it got close I could see it was below the level of our flight deck, about 60 feet. It did a barrel roll over the carrier with our F14 following him. They were loud!!

Very impressive.

Don

 

[actaeon277]

They were loud

Norfolk NAS (Naval Air Station... I think it's changed designations since then), there was a F-14 breaking in it's engines after a rebuild.
They literally bolted the plane to the ground with some kinda struts.
I was on the other side of the fence, just absorbing the sound and vibrations.
It was something else.

 

[KellyinAvon]

1986: VERY young mosquito-wing Airman (1-striper) KellyinAvon is stationed at Moody AFB, Georgia working in the main Base Supply warehouse.

The 347th Tactical Fighter Wing flew F-4E models back then. The F-4 used an externally-mounted pod for the laser designator for laser-guided bombs (called a Pave Spike, no doubt the project nickname from when it was a classified project.)

When I retired in 2007, I knew a lot about a few things, and a little about a lot of things. 21 years earlier? I look back on it and I really didn't know duck **** from apple butter about Big Blue.

So one day I'm dropping off parts. One of the guys in the shop said they had a Pave Spike in test mode and wanted to know if I wanted to see how it worked. I'm like, SURE!

They had it out of it's housing and it was going through a diagnostics test. The laser designator was turning every which-a-way. That makes sense, the aircraft is yanking and banking, the laser has to stay on target. This is when I realized, a Pave Spike is a laser designator for laser guided bombs like the GBU-10 and GBU-12 (GPS guided JDAMs wouldn't be around until 1993.)

Now keep in mind, I grew up on a farm in Washington County. Hay rake: rakes hay. Hay baler: bales hay. Post hole digger: digs post holes. Corn picker: picks corn. Plow: plows the ground.

A Pave Spike: DOES NOT spike the pavement. This would be an excellent runway-denial weapon by the name of it.

There are runway denial weapons that spikes the pavement. These are called, cluster bombs.

 

[actaeon277]

While I was in Groton, CT attending a class (previously mentioned in a post) I decided to take a tour of the Nautilus.
Kind of a 'Mecca' for a nuke I guess.

Anyway, during the tour, while looking at the 'kitchen', one of the women in the group saw a small device labeled "dishwasher" and she said, "So, I guess I have to go on a sub to get a dishwasher".

Yes.
Exactly.
Having to wash dishes in your home, by hand, for how many people?
The sub gets to feed around 100, in an hour.
And that 'dishwasher', well.. it doesn't really wash the dishes. A member of the crew does it. And not the cooks. The cooks are there to... cook.
Different subs have different rules, but on my sub it was.. when you're a NUB (Non-Useable Body), usually right when you come on board, you wash dishes.
Nukes wash for 30 days. Non-nukes (Coners, cause everyone forward of the reactor is in the 'cone' of the boat) wash for 60 days.
Basically, nukes get a break, only 30 days, because they're usually short of watchstanders, and it takes a LONG time to train them to become a watchstander. BUT, the Capt. doesn't want to have the nukes totally get out of it, possibly creating a morale problem. So, nukes get to wash, and it's pointed out to everyone how long it takes to get them to be useful.

ANYWAY...
So, if the crewmen wash dishes, why the dishwasher?
Cause.. it's a sanitizer.
Place the newly washed dishes in it, and it brings the dishes over 160 degrees.
It's even checked by the doc every so often to make sure it hits over 160.
Now, it only fits so many dishes in there, and the crew is about 100 (depending on the boat and the mission), so that means you have to reach in there and yank the dishes out and put them away, and then put the next load in.
No. You can't wait for them to cool down. No, we don't have gloves for it.
So, when you first start "Cranking", or "Mess Cranking", you reach in and juggle as you move them.
After a while, you stop noticing.

Not something you normally think about when thinking about a submarine.

 

[2A_Tom]

I don't read a lot of the tl ones, but yours are usually educational.

 

[Alamo]

The mention of an F111 reminded me of an incident during exercises in the North Atlantic. We were steaming as a 5 ship formation on high alert to be attacked by a squadron from England flying F111's. I had a few minutes to run topside and see the ocean/get some fresh air. Cool overcast day, nice North Atlantic weather. Spotted something on the horizon off the stern moving fast. It was coming straight on to us right on the surface of the water. It was an F111 in afterburner trying to penetrate our defenses. It was followed by one of our F14 Tomcats nearly in his tailpipe. When it got close I could see it was below the level of our flight deck, about 60 feet. It did a barrel roll over the carrier with our F14 following him. They were loud!!

Very impressive.

Don

 

[Alamo]

I still didn't know they had tailhooks.
That's usually a Navy/Marine thing.

F-15, F-16, F-35A all have tailhooks. Maybe others as well. It’s actually called a “emergency arrester” or something like that. Not as robust as Navy tailhook, but not for every day use either. Most USAF bases have a complementary cabling system also, and there is a deployable version of it. They’re only supposed to be used in an emergency like no brakes, or has to land too fast or otherwise unlikely to stop in the normal allotted runway length.

 

[Alamo]

My mom had 7 brothers, all vets of WW2 or Korea. Each had a firing squad at their funeral. Every time the squad would quietly march out BEHIND the attendees and fire the salute. It always scared the crap out of the crowd. I mean screaming and crying from some of the women. I was a pall bearer at several and standing facing everyone I could see what was going to happen and tried to warn people.

Don

I was at military funeral at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio a while back. There were so many funerals going on that day that the firing squad would fire their rifles, right face and march directly to the next funeral, fire, march to the next funeral, lather rinse repeat. They only stopped to fire the rifles.

 

[Alamo]

Norfolk NAS (Naval Air Station... I think it's changed designations since then), there was a F-14 breaking in it's engines after a rebuild.
They literally bolted the plane to the ground with some kinda struts.
I was on the other side of the fence, just absorbing the sound and vibrations.
It was something else.

The mention of an F111 reminded me of an incident during exercises in the North Atlantic. We were steaming as a 5 ship formation on high alert to be attacked by a squadron from England flying F111's. I had a few minutes to run topside and see the ocean/get some fresh air. Cool overcast day, nice North Atlantic weather. Spotted something on the horizon off the stern moving fast. It was coming straight on to us right on the surface of the water. It was an F111 in afterburner trying to penetrate our defenses. It was followed by one of our F14 Tomcats nearly in his tailpipe. When it got close I could see it was below the level of our flight deck, about 60 feet. It did a barrel roll over the carrier with our F14 following him. They were loud!!

Very impressive.

Don

The F-111 used a P&W TF-30 engine. Same basic engine was put into F-14A and Navy A-7A. First after-burning turbofan engine. It worked fine in F-111 and A-7A, not-so great in the F-14A - compressor stalls were an issue, e.g. Goose, Revlon.

So Actaeon and Nazgul may have been listening to the same engines (including the chaser and the chasee), depending on the vintage of F-14s involved.

 

[2tonic]

Thats why test pilots earn the big bucks.

View attachment 303792

Announcer: "....and as we complete the pre-game flyover, the pilot waves to the stadium crowd below..."

 

[actaeon277]

The F-111 used a P&W TF-30 engine. Same basic engine was put into F-14A and Navy A-7A. First after-burning turbofan engine. It worked fine in F-111 and A-7A, not-so great in the F-14A - compressor stalls were an issue, e.g. Goose, Revlon.

So Actaeon and Nazgul may have been listening to the same engines (including the chaser and the chasee), depending on the vintage of F-14s involved.

Probably, I remember compressor stalls being a problem.

 

[actaeon277]

F-15, F-16, F-35A all have tailhooks. Maybe others as well. It’s actually called a “emergency arrester” or something like that. Not as robust as Navy tailhook, but not for every day use either. Most USAF have a complementary cabling system also, and there is a deployable version of it. They’re only supposed to be used in an emergency like no brakes, or has to land too fast or otherwise unlikely to stop in the normal allotted runway length.

thanks for the info

 

[actaeon277]

I don't read a lot of the tl ones, but yours are usually educational.

thanks

I try

Sometimes it's difficult to put in a readable post.
I try to space them more. Makes them longer, but hopefully easier to read.