Comments on: Spin Hop

By: My_Name_Is_Earl

My_Name_Is_Earl — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 03:03:33 +0000

I came across this page while doing a Google search for images of aircraft I’d worked on in the navy & found your photo of the T2 I worked in Powerplants in the last 2 years of VT9 @NAS Meridian. they went to civilian contract & I transferred to AIMD powerplants. I was originally stationed in Meridian after A school too in VT7 after a brief time in the line division I had a chance to get a back seat hop in the TA4. loved it!!!
then I was off to the powerplant shop till I transferred to P3’s in Brunswick Maine with VP10 the “Red Lancers”. I liked working on the A4’s best, guess cause I got to know them so well. I worked the night shift. Which a lot of times sucked because you didn’t have a shift to relieve you at a certain time, unless you were there till the day shift came back in. Quitting time was when there was enough “up” aircraft for the morning launch. But I took pride in doing my mechanical work on the A4’s. Many times we were loaded to the gills with work & understaffed. I had gotten good at engine removal, many times for the sake of saving time I’d do the whole bit to remove an engine. Normally, before we could remove the engine the electricians had to disconnect all their wiring harnesses, the hydraulic guys had to disconnect all their lines, Airframes guys had to disconnect all the control cables & remove the tail section from the plane, then we could remove the engine. It’d take 3-4 hours on a good night to wait for ppl to get their parts done to and have the engine out to go to AIMD. I watched all the shops do their job & eventually started doing them all myself. On a good night I could go out in the hanger, get everything disconnected, remove the tail & have the engine out in less than 2 hours all by myself.
Loved reading your story Lex, thanks for sharing it. Anyone replying to my comment, please drop me an e-mail. Chances are that I won’t find this page again. Merry Christmas to all my fellow Veterans. U S Navy 1977 – 1988

By: Justthisguy

Justthisguy — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 04:25:57 +0000

So *that* is why my Dad’s old geezer friend got so nervous when he let me fly his Grumman Widgeon, for a few minutes. That, and the throw-over control column, and no rudder pedals on my side, and my, uh, “insouciant” attitude.

Now I see it; he was thinking something like “OMG this kid is gonna get us almost, but not quite, killed, but with horrible crippling revolting painful disgusting disfiguring injuries, AND get us both arrested!”

By: Cap'n Billy

Cap'n Billy — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 01:58:46 +0000

There are a million stories in the Naked Aerodrome, and yours was one of them. Here’s another:
http://www.capnbilly.com/class61f_texterror.htm

By: Nose

Nose — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 19:02:15 +0000

Funny the things you remember. When you said “Generator Lights” I thought “Check Engine RPM.”

Guess I learned it deeper then I thought.

Good tale.

By: Domenico Bettinelli

Domenico Bettinelli — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 17:12:48 +0000

I once ripped the wings off a T-2 … in a simulator. Was part of a NROTC aviation orientation group from Boston at NAS Corpus Christi back in January 87.

One day we took turns in the simulators.Since I was last in, I got the most stick time, so I decided to see how fast I could go. Got plenty of virtual altitude, put it in a low dive, full throttle, and watched the airspeed indicator spin up.

Suddenly everything froze, lights came up, all kinds of excitement. Instructor looks in and assesses the situation and tells me I ripped the wings off. All of my peers nod their heads and say, “Cool.”

We also took a ride out to Beeville for short orientation hops in the TA-4J among other fun activities that week. One of the best of my life.

Makes me kinda wish I wasn’t such a screw-up then and had stuck with NROTC.

By: Jimmy J.

Jimmy J. — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 06:07:14 +0000

Such a good point about not letting your guard down.

When I was teaching formation and gunnery at South Whiting ‘60-’62 we often had Academy Middies come out for fam rides in the T-28. Usually it amounted to demoing a few acrobatics and, if the kid wasn’t getting airsick, a spin.

After the demo I’d trim the plane up straight and level and let the Middie fly it. Usually it was a few shallow turns and just guiding the 28 around the area. No efforts to do anything very ambitious with the plane. That was what I expected.

However, one young lad when I said, “Okay you’ve got it,” grabbed the stick, flung us over into a 90 degree bank and then pulled! The G’s were so strong my arms were pinned at my sides. We were in a death spiral and losing altitude way too fast for my tastes. Fortunately, at around 2000′ the young man let off on the Gs enough I was able to get my hand on the stick and recover. That was the end of the demo as I explained, somewhat heatedly, how foolish it was to try such a thing with no flying experience.

Needless to say I never relaxed again when giving the airplane to any student, but expecially Middies on summer orientation.