F-15 upgrade mystery

a reply to: tinner07

No, but pilots leave cameras by the control stick, or drop replacement batteries for their camera by the ejection seat.

a reply to: Zaphod58

yeah I just had to throw that out there since I have 0 knowledge of aircraft. But... speaking of ejection seats, are those like a 2 part system? Like is there an anti-ooppps wrong handle sort of thing?

a reply to: tinner07

With very few exceptions the ejection handle is not touched except to eject. And they're very clearly marked with black and yellow markings.

We had an ORI going on with the Hawaii Air National Guard F-15 unit. The guy from the Inspector General office that was supposed to go up in the back seat of an F-15 was a former A-10 pilot. They were strapped in and getting ready, and suddenly the canopy shot straight up and back down onto the back of the aircraft. He tried to close it and pulled the handle to the first stop and blew the canopy off.

a reply to: Zaphod58

well thats pretty funny, it didn't eject him though? Is that the "first stop"? blow canopy, second stop, shoot my ass out?

Looks like a big bottle of motor oil lying butt first on the fuselage, dunnit? They ought to put a Mobil label on the thing.

a reply to: tinner07

The first stop clears the canopy. That way if there's something like smoke in the cockpit they can blow the canopy off and clear it. When it goes, it pulls two lanyards that arm the seat. If you pull it again, or someone coughs really hard, out you go.

In this case the entire ramp stopped dead and watched it go up and come down. The crew chief ran up the ladder to safe the seats, and said you couldn't even tell they were breathing.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Cooler for the beer?

Sorry, got nothin' else...

a reply to: seagull

More like heater with as cold as it gets up there.

It almost looks like an AN/ALE-50 module; but the top of fuselage mount makes that seem unlikely... weird weird weird... thanx for the headache zaph

a reply to: Zaphod58
Mounted directly above the starboard engine, could it be a generator to power another device. Perhaps to power a laser to be mounted on a hard point. I'm just guessing here.

It is an antenna to allow the the aircraft to talk to the F-22s and F-35s, probably has something to do with them having more advanced comms systems. Only 2 of the F-15s have the upgrade so far

a reply to: Jinn82

They're only getting four Talon HATE pods so there might only be two getting upgraded. Talon HATE is being used as a stepping stone to MAPS. It'll be interesting to see if they continue with MAPS now that they figured out Chameleon.

originally posted by: tinner07
Do mechanics ever leave their tool bags on top of an aircraft? or the pilots groceries???

Do pilots ever fly off only to realize they forgot their starbucks on the canopy?

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: tinner07

No, but pilots leave cameras by the control stick, or drop replacement batteries for their camera by the ejection seat.

No? Are you kidding?

I was an F15 crew chief and I peronally know of two times a mechanic left a mag light in a wheel well which fell out and struck a car after taking off at Langley as well as a another one who left several tools in an engine bay during a recent swap.


It looks like it might be a TEWS extension or upgrade?

a reply to: Tempter

Do mechanics ever leave their tool bags on top of an aircraft? or the pilots groceries???

He didn't ask about leaving tools in other places, he said on top of. If they're leaving things on the outside and everyone is missing that, they all need to be fired.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: Tempter

Do mechanics ever leave their tool bags on top of an aircraft? or the pilots groceries???

He didn't ask about leaving tools in other places, he said on top of. If they're leaving things on the outside and everyone is missing that, they all need to be fired.

To be fair, EOR crews are rarely the top of the class airmen.

a reply to: Tempter

True, but they're also not asked to do a lot beyond "is it on fire?" And "is there a steamer hanging down? "

Just the right size for a pickanic basket, booboo.

originally posted by: Phage
Just the right size for a pickanic basket, booboo.

What's alarming is the number of young engineers who do not understand references to such archetypes as "Kill da wabbit" or singing frogs.

Especially since the singing frog effect is both a classic systems integration issue and extremely common at dog and pony shows.

Zaph,

Any clue to where they are testing the Talon HATE pods at? I have seen one similar device on an F/A-18 parked at the Fallon Air Station but never really thought of it until this post.