Re: Fav CAG story (was Re: US Navy nose cone colours?)

On 03 Dec 2003 21:25:41 GMT, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Gordon) wrote:

>Chimp Head?  I'm dying over here.
>
>I remember one "fly off from hell" - one of the Turkeys was hard down the whole
>cruise.  No wait, that was nearly ALL of them... At any rate, one of them had
>become a picked over shell, nearly picked clean by maint piranhas, with the
>assumption that it would be craned off if we were ever allowed to return to
>port.  
(lot's of good stuff snipped)

Oh man, does that bring back some memories.  Way back when I was
young/foolish and, well ok a flight hour hound I was also a PMCF (Post
Maintenance Check Flight) NFO (aka "Stunt Mole") -- if it broke, I got
to fly in it after it was fixed -- allegedly fixed as it turned out at
times...(and I can pimp maintenance all I want having spent the bulk
of my ground jobs in maintenance, incl. MO :) )  Had a similar deal on
a flyoff after workups, this E-2 had been hard down for radar (needed
serious depot work to fix it) and had become the parts donor.  Well,
no one wants to crane off an E-2 so we had to fly it off.  Did I
mention that among the parts it donated was one of it's starters?
Well, no biggie, we just parked it behind a good bird for a buddy
start.  Mom Nature and Uncle Murphy being what they are, we, of
course, blew the good starter on the start and now sat forlorn, in the
middle of Chimp Heads flight deck, completely broke dick and unable to
start, with the first launch of the flyoff scheduled to commence.  I
just unplugged from the ICS and waited in back until the dust settled
and snuck down below, real quick.  COD brought out new starters (4)
robbed from hangar queens in Norfolk, we went through all 4 BTW to get
a good check and launched the next day with the Chesapeake Bay/Bridge
tunnel *not* *too* *far* off the bow =:o  One of the shortest flights
I'd had in the hummer, including a few airborne aborts,  as we went
straight into Oceana -- where we had a birdstrike on landing and blew
a tire on rollout, in the middle of the active runway, of course ....
and then my fiance left me cooling my heels as she thought I was
coming in w/the ship up in Norfolk :/  Man do I appreciate cell phones
today...

  Of course I didn't learn my lesson and continued as Stunt Mole for
the reminder of a colorful career (umm, try an E-2C DACM vs. an F-16
at Key West and night traps in a Whale, in back)

Will Dossel
Last of the Steeljaws (VAW-122)