DAY 151 - 15 JANUARY 1991 - How to fix a transmission with rags and a stick
DAY 151 - 15 JANUARY 1991
Airhead --- The War can start Today... but it didn't.
I was on the beach det, we were transfering cargo to the beach today. As 10 set down a load and turned to go back to the ship, I looked up and saw a stream of fluid pouring out of the aft hatch area, and I do mean pouring. I tried to get the LSE's attention, but by the time she saw me, she'd already passed control to the pilots and they were heading away. I looked around and realized we had someone close by with a radio, so they called the ship and told the pilot to land ASAP. By this time they had noticed the leak, did a quick turn and came back to our flight line, quick landing, and immediate shut down. Fluid was still pouring out like a river as the rotors coasted to a stop. It didn't take more than a second to see what the problem was. On the Aft Transmission, is a valve used for draining the fluid. The transmission casing had cracked and the whole drain valve was gone! That left a hole about 2 inches in diameter, which should also give you an idea of the capacity of the transmission, to have leaked a stream like that for as long as it did!
So, now we have a problem. We're parked on the beach, with no way to get back to the boat, except to fly. And no one wants to fly a transmission with no lubrication, right?
Well, 07 is still half tore apart for its forward transmission change, so that's not an option. Turns out we had some Marine CH-46E in the area, so 3 of them came over to help us out. First they brought some of our maintenance crew and tools and parts from the boat. Then we gave them a crash course in how to do VERT-REP. Now, I should say that the Marines have been trained on VERT-REP, but they don't get a lot of practice doing it, and no where near as much as our pilots get.
Our pilots have been trained in how to get in quickly and out quickly, by combining some really cool looking moves together. So for instance, you would fly in to the load, but want to be facing the opposite direction when you pick up the load. Well, the slow but careful way would be to fly in straight, then turn around, then pick up the load, then lift up, then go out. Well, our pilots do things called "button hooks" and "side flares". To stop or slow down a helo, you pitch up, so that all your lift is going backwards, so it stops you. Well,that's great but you still have to turn around. By doing a Side Flare, you come in, and turn sideways as you start the flare, so when you stop you're already half way turned around. Kick the rudder pedal a the end of the side flare, and you have a Button Hook, so that by the time I have the load on your hook, you've completely turned around and are ready to go.
We only had about 40 lifts to go when 10 sprung the leak, so it shouldn't have been much more to do. But they were all right at 3000 pounds each, so we couldn't double them up. And they had big stickers on the loads "SHOCK SENSITIVE", so we had to be kind of gentle with them!
Mean time, our awesome Mechs came up with a compromise solution. They took a few rags, and a piece of wood broken off of a pallet, and hammered it into the gaping hole in the transmission. They then dumped in 2 cases of transmission fluid, and immediately launched for the ship, with strict orders to not look back, don't turn around, and make the first landing a good one!
And then, to add insult to injury, we got all the Cluster Bombs back, that we had spent all day delivering. Oh well, right?
We got back to the ship around 1800, ate some dinner, and then kicked back for a while. Then we hung the forward blades on 07, I took a sample on our hydraulic test stand "jenny", and secured at 2230.
The new deadline for the war is any time after 0100, 16 January, 1991. Ready or Not...
Airhead --- The War can start Today... but it didn't.
I was on the beach det, we were transfering cargo to the beach today. As 10 set down a load and turned to go back to the ship, I looked up and saw a stream of fluid pouring out of the aft hatch area, and I do mean pouring. I tried to get the LSE's attention, but by the time she saw me, she'd already passed control to the pilots and they were heading away. I looked around and realized we had someone close by with a radio, so they called the ship and told the pilot to land ASAP. By this time they had noticed the leak, did a quick turn and came back to our flight line, quick landing, and immediate shut down. Fluid was still pouring out like a river as the rotors coasted to a stop. It didn't take more than a second to see what the problem was. On the Aft Transmission, is a valve used for draining the fluid. The transmission casing had cracked and the whole drain valve was gone! That left a hole about 2 inches in diameter, which should also give you an idea of the capacity of the transmission, to have leaked a stream like that for as long as it did!
So, now we have a problem. We're parked on the beach, with no way to get back to the boat, except to fly. And no one wants to fly a transmission with no lubrication, right?
Well, 07 is still half tore apart for its forward transmission change, so that's not an option. Turns out we had some Marine CH-46E in the area, so 3 of them came over to help us out. First they brought some of our maintenance crew and tools and parts from the boat. Then we gave them a crash course in how to do VERT-REP. Now, I should say that the Marines have been trained on VERT-REP, but they don't get a lot of practice doing it, and no where near as much as our pilots get.
Our pilots have been trained in how to get in quickly and out quickly, by combining some really cool looking moves together. So for instance, you would fly in to the load, but want to be facing the opposite direction when you pick up the load. Well, the slow but careful way would be to fly in straight, then turn around, then pick up the load, then lift up, then go out. Well, our pilots do things called "button hooks" and "side flares". To stop or slow down a helo, you pitch up, so that all your lift is going backwards, so it stops you. Well,that's great but you still have to turn around. By doing a Side Flare, you come in, and turn sideways as you start the flare, so when you stop you're already half way turned around. Kick the rudder pedal a the end of the side flare, and you have a Button Hook, so that by the time I have the load on your hook, you've completely turned around and are ready to go.
We only had about 40 lifts to go when 10 sprung the leak, so it shouldn't have been much more to do. But they were all right at 3000 pounds each, so we couldn't double them up. And they had big stickers on the loads "SHOCK SENSITIVE", so we had to be kind of gentle with them!
Mean time, our awesome Mechs came up with a compromise solution. They took a few rags, and a piece of wood broken off of a pallet, and hammered it into the gaping hole in the transmission. They then dumped in 2 cases of transmission fluid, and immediately launched for the ship, with strict orders to not look back, don't turn around, and make the first landing a good one!
And then, to add insult to injury, we got all the Cluster Bombs back, that we had spent all day delivering. Oh well, right?
We got back to the ship around 1800, ate some dinner, and then kicked back for a while. Then we hung the forward blades on 07, I took a sample on our hydraulic test stand "jenny", and secured at 2230.
The new deadline for the war is any time after 0100, 16 January, 1991. Ready or Not...
posted by Carlin at
10:21 PM
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