Dyess B-1 damaged

a reply to: Zaphod58


You know there were times we had parts come in through supply that did not fit the airplane, were not talking once or twice it was a literal roll of the dice to see if we could use the parts we did manage to get.


The retirement of this plane cant come fast enough for me.

46 days and counting.

It'll be a few days before I get back through to check on 109, but the rest of the fleet was cleared to resume flight operations beginning today.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Zap,
Have you seen this?
theaviationist.com...

a reply to: JIMC5499

Yeah, I read it yesterday.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I wouldn't have wanted to be the guy sitting on a misfired ejection seat. A little pucker factor there.

a reply to: JIMC5499

"Come on AC, let's grease this thing in....." Heh.

"Don't bounce, don't bounce."

a reply to: Zaphod58

Probably needed a Proctologist to remove his seat cushion. I remember the A-6 landing on a carrier with the B/N sticking through the canopy because of a misfired seat.

Then there was the maintenance guy in the A-7 when the seat fired in the hangar bay of the Ranger.

a reply to: JIMC5499

Hawaii ORI where the IG popped the Eagle Canopy sitting in parking.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Did the seat on the Eagle fire? The guy on the Ranger was sitting in the seat when it fired. Avionics tech fixing a communications problem.

a reply to: JIMC5499

It armed, but didn't fire. He pulled the handle to lock the canopy after they closed it, and blew the canopy off and armed the seats.

Yesterday, at Dyess, Air Force Strike Command presented Maj. Christopher N. Duhon, instructor pilot, Capt. Matthew Sutton, Weapons system officer instructor, 1st Lt. Joseph Welch, student pilot, and 1st Lt. Thomas C. Ahearn, a student Weapons System Officer at the time with the Distinguished Flying Cross for their actions during the in flight emergency on May 1st.

The aircraft at Midland is 86-109. In an interesting turn of events, I just took pictures of 86-110 flying as Slayer1, landing at Dyess just after declaring an emergency. In the words of the pilot they were going to need fire support because they were probably going to burn the brakes up stopping, but should be able to taxi off the runway.

A portion of the ejection seat was crimped, most likely through deformation of parts around it. When the handles on the seat were pulled, the signal never reached the activator. A secondary method to activate the seats was found, which is why the grounding was lifted. They're working on a T.O. change now to fix the issue.

taskandpurpose.com...

It looks like they got started with the actual work on the aircraft about 10 days ago or so. They've had the hangar doors opened up some, like they were taking parts in and out.

Parts replacement?Gone are the days where a hammer and a sandbag was all they needed to fix a plane.

a reply to: Blackfinger

They wouldn't be doing that with this one anyway.

Possibly a bad sign for the repair effort. We went by last Friday, and the hangar was wide open, as it had been for about the last month. There was another B-1 parked at the other end of the airport. Tuesday afternoon, the hangar doors were closed up tight against the aircraft. The only time I've seen that recently was when they weren't working on the aircraft.

The aircraft was set to leave Midland either today, or tomorrow, depending on results of the Dash 1 checks. It will fly straight to Tinker, and go into the Depot. The flight will be made on three engines, with the wings locked in place, and the gear down the entire flight. They will have limited systems availability, including radar.

The is no longer a B-1 at the Midland airport. I was passed earlier this afternoon by the pickup pulling the Dyess Mobile Command Post, and when I went by the airport, she was gone.

Damn, looks like I just missed her taking off.
www.afrc.af.mil...