Searching for interesting Stories ... Uh-Oh's, if you like

Your dead right Canada, I was real tired when I posted that last night and didn't look properly. You can see that it came in at an angle so I guess I was right. Incidently I was told this story a couple of years ago by someone who claimed to have witnessed it at Bankstown in Sydney. I have mentioned this on another post but after researching I found that it really did happen in Parafield SA, which means I was lied to and I have untill now been continuing that lie, albeit unknowingly.

LEE.

OK, another personal one and again from my cadet days. I was invited along on an aircraft parts retrieval mission to a town (Dubbo) about 4-5 hrs west of Sydney. This guy had a museum of military equipment more or less in an old farm paddock. There was all sort of gear including a De Havilland Sea Venom and Vampire. And in the middle he had an ex RAAF Lockheed SP-2H Neptune. The guys I was with were part of an historic society that had their own airworthy Neptune and they got permission from the owner to salvage any parts needed. I was busy ripping off bits from the glycol tanks in the wheel wells under the engine nacelles and various parts from those big R-3350's. I needed to get up on the port engine, why I cant remember, and a friend was on the starbord wing tip salvaging something possibly from the nightsun pod. Anyway to cut it short we started setting up a standing wave in the wings by jumping up and down out of phase with each other. Suddenly the head guy who is now the president of the society stuck his head around from underneath and said quietly, "Umm I really wouldnt do that there are only two small temporary bolts holding on each outboard wing". Needless to say we looked at each other with wide eyes, cut short our game and carefully walked towards the fuselage.

LEE.

[edit on 13-4-2007 by thebozeian]

In 1956, 8 Hawker Hunters were being ferried between airfields and were approaching their destination when they were turned away due to severe weather over the airfield at the time.

Unfortunately, one of the drawbacks of the Hunter at the time was the short range - just 385nm combat loaded.

On the way to the alternative airfield, seven of the eight Hunters ran out of fuel and crashed, with the loss of one pilot. The remaining Hunter landed successfully and promptly ran out of fuel while vacating the runway.

It was this incident which led to the RAF investigating ways to increase the Hunters endurance.

Originally posted by RichardPrice

On the way to the alternative airfield, seven of the eight Hunters ran out of fuel and crashed, with the loss of one pilot. The remaining Hunter landed successfully and promptly ran out of fuel while vacating the runway.

wow even then that was a costly mistake. not cheap airframes or hell even the lose of a pilot. I'm surpised though too why weren't the pilots properly prepared for the event of going to an alternative airfield? I'd like ot get more info on this accident if anyone remebers anything else or has links. thanks eh

Back about 1992 or so, we had 5 B-1Bs doing an exercise out at Hickam. One of them was coming back with an anti skid problem, which is a problem, because you KNOW they're going to blow tires. It's a given that as soon as they hit the brakes, the tires are gone.

He touched down on 4R at Honolulu, which is one of the shorter diagonal runways. They wanted him there, so that when he stopped he wouldn't be blocking either of the main runways.

About halfway down the runway, you can see where he panicked and locked his brakes up. The skid marks got REALLY black and thick from the halfway point to where he stopped at.

By the time he stopped, all he had left were the two nose wheel tires. Then the scrambling started.

My father wound up using every jack they had on Hickam to get the other four B-1s up, so they could take 2 wheels off each of them to put on the broke one. Unfortunately, that left them with the problem of not having any way to get the broken on up to put the GOOD wheels on it.

After a couple of hours of thinking about it, he started going to airlines at HNL, begging for jacks. He came over to Delta, and asked the guy if they could borrow at least one jack to get the bird up and get the wheels on. The guy said sure, but it'll cost you. My father asked him what he wanted in return, and he said "Get me on one of those things and let me see what they're like inside." So he said "Deal. Be at the front gate tomorrow at 9." and got his jacks.

About 8 hours after touchdown, they finally had the 8 wheels put on the bird, and got it towed back to Hickam. Later that night we had a special KC-135 flight arrive from their home station of Dyess AFB, TX carrying nothing but wheels for the remaining B-1s, along with about 10 spares.

I have my own from yesterday. On a research flight, I penetrated too far into a thunderstorm and encountered pretty good size hail. Front of the radome took some damage, wingtip lights gone, beacon on rudder gone, and plastic cones on the front of the wingtip tanks broken too.

My father was on his last trip before retiring from the Air Force. Two amusing points happened during it. He was flying with the same pilot from the fire warning light incident (they were good friends, and my father wanted him to be the pilot for his last trip). When you return from your final flight, you are generally met by your family, and a fire bottle. When you exit the plane, your spouse hoses you down, then you get champagne.

Before that part though, they were going from China to Australia on the third leg of their trip. The Flight Engineer kept coming back to where they were sitting muttering about how they were going to run out of fuel. After about the fourth time, my father looked at him and said "When the guy in the Aircraft Commanders seat comes back looking worried, I'll panic. Until then, shut up, we've got plenty of fuel." They landed in Sydney with about 10,000 pounds left.

They got back to Hickam (where they arrived way too early for some people ), and the same Flight Engineer came back with this shocked look on his face. He looked at my father, and said "The whole damn fire department is out there waiting for you." My father looked at him and said "Yeah right." He went forward and looked, and sure enough, every fire truck on base was sitting by Base Ops waiting for his flight, lights flashing. Every one of them wanted to be the one to wield the hose, and they wanted to use one of the big hoses, instead of the fire bottle, but my mother told them SHE was going to do it, and solved the argument by walking over and picking up the hose.

After he came down, and was standing there dripping someone came over and told him "I wanted to take you into Hangar 35, and set off the sprinklers, but the fire chief wouldn't let us."

My father was held in very high regard by those he worked with, and as many people as could possibly find ANY excuse to be there were waiting for his wetting down ceremony. You'd think the President had arrived judging by the people out there that morning.

[edit on 4/13/2007 by Zaphod58]

My father was stationed at Westover for a few years in the early 1970s. One night my mother was awakened by a loud "BANG" coming from somewhere near by. She woke my father up, and asked him "Do you have any planes flying tonight?" He said "Yeah, why?" She told him "Because I don't think it's flying anymore."

Turns out that the KC-135 that was doing touch and gos was flying around the pattern and they took a lightning strike to the nose. It penetrated the radome and exited the tip of the refueling boom. They landed safely, just had to change a few shorts before they filled out their forms.

Originally posted by thebozeian
In the meantime still havent found the SR-71/ATC story but here is a personal one.

Was that the one about the SR going into Beale, when they picked him up on radar in Pheonix?

I saw this one on a video. (Yes, I'm actually posting one that didn't happen to me or my father. )

They were in the Pheonix Center radar room watching the radar returns. The ATC controller looks up and says "This one is a 747." You'd hear "Blip." "Blip." and it would barely move. He looked up and said "Here he comes." A short time later on the radar screen they heard "BRRRRRRRIIIIIIIPPPPPPP" and this return went screaming all the way across the screen. He started decelerating in Pheonix and blew out windows in Beverly Hills.

[edit on 4/13/2007 by Zaphod58]

Nope thats not it but that IS a funny one. I havent found the original story so I'll tell it from memory, but not right now as I'm going out. Will try one last time to find it but either way I'll stick it up this weekend.
Nice send off story for your father too, I guess your mum hosed him down herself for all those years he woke her getting outta bed at some ungodly hour to fix a busted aircraft!

LEE.

Well I gave up looking for the original copy of the SR-71 story so I'm going to attempt if from memory. Its probably close to ten years so I have forgotten some detail and I'll need to invent part of the SR's callsign. The original story teller was a crew member on a USN C-9 Nightingale.

One day we were on a flight and had a second pilot on board in the jump seat. Part way through flying between bases and slightly bored I was listening to an airforce ATC who was obviously on or near his first day on the job. He was real unsure of himself but was getting the hang of it. Listening I heard an exchange that made my ears prick up as a legendary callsign sprang forth from the usual chatter. It was that famous callsign "Habu" and it was obvious the rookie ATC guy had a hard time believing the Blackbird's request. Smiling I turned to the AC's commander and said " boss I dont think this guy knows what an SR-71 is, or what it can do". We all listened intently to the following exchange as did probably every other aircraft on that frequency.

ATC: "Habu21 say again you want clearance to FL 1200?"

Habu21: " Thats afirm"

ATC: "Thats FL 1200? thats 120,000 feet!"

Habu21: "I say again thats afirmative"

ATC: (In an incredulous voice) " Well if you think you can get on up there then go ahead and try!"

Habu21: " Roger control, were outta FL1400 descending to FL1200"

ATC: ......(Nothing but stunned silence)

Meanwhile all of us in the cockpit of the C-9 were laughing so hard that if it wasnt for the autopilot we would have been in trouble. And I swear you could hear every other aircraft crew listening to the exchange laughing, even without their transmit switch being depressed!

Not so much of an UH OH!, but a bloody funny story none the less. Since looking for the original story I came across a similar one involving a controller out of LAX. I'm sure this scenario happened more than once over the years.

LEE.

These are a couple of stories from my old man, he served in the British Royal Navy 1950s-1970s on board aircraft carriers. Like every story told to you by a former sailor you have to take each with a pinch of salt.

Picture the scene. A British aircraft carrier is getting ready for departure from Gibraltar - and they need to take on enough fresh water for their voyage home. The ship has two fresh water tanks deep within the bowels of the ship, one port side another starboard.

The key is to fill both tanks at the same time ....

The officer newly assigned to the ship & who was responsible for this operation decides to initially fill the port fresh water tank only ... the ship takes on a ever so slight list to port whilst still at the quayside. And unknown to him on the flight deck above the guys there have just removed the chocs in order to move a Fairey Gannet aircraft to the correct place on deck for departure.

Result ? One Fairey Gannet, still coupled to its tug, starts a slow roll down the deck, with crewmen scattering to get away from its path, it plunges over the side, through the catwalk and straight into Gibraltar harbour.

Another auspicious day in the annals of the Royal Navy

His other story concerns an ever so pompous British Admiral who had been invited to visit an American aircraft carrier that was in the vicinity. The Admiral was well known for being a right royal pain in the ass.

Rather than do the sensible thing and go over from his ship to theirs in a launch or even by helicopter, the Admiral decided that he'd like to go visit as a back seat passenger in a Royal Navy F4 Phantom - make a grand entrance kinda thing.

So off the Admiral went in his F4, they landed successfully on the American carrier and were greeted by a American welcoming party. They got an ever so long tour of the ship and an even longer meal ... the pilot had been led to believe it was only a goodwill visit for a couple of hours and couldn't understand why they were still there 7 hours later. For every time they were about to make their excuses and leave, the American officers would give the Admiral yet another round of drinks.

All was revealed when it was time to leave .... the Americans had totally resprayed the Royal Navy F4 Phantom in American colours, removed the "ROYAL NAVY" logos and replaced the lot with "COLONIAL NAVY" logos instead .... as a huge joke ....

And one very embarressed Admiral had to fly back to his own ship in that.

Nice one

Originally posted by Niall197

Rather than do the sensible thing and go over from his ship to theirs in a launch or even by helicopter, the Admiral decided that he'd like to go visit as a back seat passenger in a Royal Navy F4 Phantom - make a grand entrance kinda thing.

I would be very suspect of this story, as Royal Navy Phantoms and US Navy Phantoms have different attach points on the front gear for the catapult couplings - the loadings are totally different and incompatable.

I would be *very* surprised to find a RN Phantom doing any sort of takeoff from a US carrier.

There is though a pic of an F-105 that landed at a USMC base once, and ended up having half the plane in USMC markings.

Not necessarily, this photo below shows a Phantom FG.1 landing on the USS Independence in a cross deck exercise, such exercises were quite common and I likewise have a picture of a USN F-4J parked on the deck of Ark Royal.

Originally posted by waynos
Not necessarily, this photo below shows a Phantom FG.1 landing on the USS Independence in a cross deck exercise, such exercises were quite common and I likewise have a picture of a USN F-4J parked on the deck of Ark Royal.

Interesting, I am suitably very surprised!

I was more surprised to see the F-4J on Ark Royal, Richard. Especially since the modifications to the F-4K were intended to allow it to land on and take off from our smaller carriers. Were we conned?

LOL guys I just googled the term "F4 Phantom Colonial Navy" and although there's no photo there's one link which mentions a magazine as follows ...

"Air Pictorial December 1978: Ark Royal and after - a farewell article with a good selection of monochrome pictures, including several 892 NAS F-4s (including one showing three 'zapped' by the USN, one with a 'COLONIAL NAVY' title on the fuselage!)."

Ha. My old man is such a storyteller sometimes you just don't know what to believe. But there might be some truth in this one. I wonder if he's got any photos in his old navy papers ? I'll give him a ring tmorro and see what he's got.

Signed.
The penitent ex-doubting Thomas

Originally posted by ULTIMA1

Originally posted by Zaphod58
The ejection specialists went racing out to the plane, scrambled up ladders, looked at both pilots and said "Sirs, don't even BREATHE funny." They said both pilots were sitting there with their arms at their sides, not even blinking until they got the safety pins installed under the seats.

No personal items in the cockpit.

I had a similar thing happen. At RAF Alconbury, UK. i was working End Of Runway inspection, its to make 1 last check on the plane before it takes off.

Here is a bit of a crazy personal experience which happened to me back around 1995.

I was on a skydiving load out of Cedar Valley airport (about 45 mi. south of Salt Lake City International). There were approximately 10 jumpers and 2 pilots on the load. The plane we were flying that day was a Beechcraft Queen Air.



On the jump planes, all seats aside from the pilot seats are removed and the jumpers are seated on the floor in two rows facing the back of the plane. We stack in pretty close so that the next person is seated between your legs. I was seated with my back to the pilot seat on this load.

We proceeded to climb to 12,000 feet AGL and were flying VFR along the side of a large cloud bank. A minute or two prior to our turn onto jump run, our pilot put us into a very steep dive. I remember being stuck to the ceiling of the plane for a few moments and trying to push myself away from it. As the pilot pulled out of the dive, I was in freefall for another few seconds and remember bobbing up and down next to the window. My thoughts at the time were exuberant as I thought this had been intentional by the pilot as a bit of a thrill for everyone.

About that time he pulled sharply out of the dive and everyone hit the floor in a heap of jumbled limbs. There were some very minor injuries but nothing serious. I looked up toward the cockpit and saw Jeff, the owner of the plane who was flying 'right seat'. His eyes were like saucers and he was white as a sheet. I still remember the look on his face as if it were yesterday.




An L-1011 flying IFR had exited the cloudbank at our same altitude. Our pilots later recounted that if the airliner had not been banking at the time that we would have impacted their wing. As it turned out we dove just under the wing instead. Jeff stated that he was able to see one of the pilots faces in the other cockpit for a moment. I do recall seeing something flash past the window and wondering if part of the engine cowling had come off the plane but this must have actually been the airliner flashing by. We had a transponder on the aircraft as required, but the pilot claimed he did not recieve a warning until he had already started his dive. Someone in ATC must have not been paying attention that day.

Anyhow, we made another pass and all but one of the jumpers was able to make the dive. That was one crazy day at Cedar Valley Airport.

The only other crazy event that I recall was when one of our pilots out of Airport #2 forgot to replace the gas cap after re-fueling. This time we were in a Cessna 182. We were climbing out from the airstrip when I saw liquid streaming off the wing and told the pilot. At the time I had no idea that the vacum created by the wing will cause the gas to be literally sucked out. Man, I've never seen a pilot in such a hurry to land...I had no idea of the urgency until we had already landed. I never did fly another load with Larry as the pilot. Freakin' idiot! How do you miss something like that?

[edit on 26-6-2008 by SystemiK]