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Originally posted by BLUEHAWK
Question for ya... I see those Navy planes whose wings fold up... what were the maintenance rigors for a mechanism such as that? I mean to ask, did they tend to be sensitive and break down a fair amount, or were those hinge turning flip up fall back twist sideways dealies pretty reliable?
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I never delt with the maintenace end of the birds, we had squadron pukes for that. But from all my time on deck, I don't recall to many fold and stow problems. Navy Birds were built fairly tough, wing fold was a major inovation and well thought out.
Some were wing tip folds (F4 A7), others were cross over folds (A6), tuck back folds E2.
Now the only time I did see a major SNAFU was when an Marine H-53 went Plam Tree on us. (Couldn't get the rotor blades to fold)
then the turbine went tit's up and the damned thing wouldn't start! Wound up they took the blades off manually with the help of the Air Craft Crane- Tilly. What a job, bird went to the basement untill spare parts arrived, then the reverse of the blade removal! For the rest of the cruise the Air Boss would not let one of those things shut down on deck!
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"I fly this plane for my country, when it stops flying it's not my fault, it's the countrys." CDR Fred "Bear" Vogt. The Last Skipper of VF-33's, F-4's.
A veteran - whether active duty, retired, national guard or reserve - is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America", for an amount of "up to and including my life." That is honor, and there are way too many people in this country who no longer understand it. -- Author Unknown
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