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Finally

By lex, on February 16th, 2009

An FA-18 I wouldn’t fly.

Down for preflight. I do hate me some bees.

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February 16th, 2009 | Tags: | Category: Flying

12 comments to Finally

  • Tailspin
    February 16, 2009 at 10:41 am

    Had a HUGE swarm take a liking to an orange and blue biplane I was supposed to fly. Only it was in the runup area with two pax on board. Told the tower we need immediate clearance to take off or taxi back. Your choice, they said, we can see the problem! I figured we could fly faster than they could (barely), but maybe not taxi faster, so we departed. No stings, no anaphylactic shock.

    Which reminds me of the A-7 driver that was allergic and punched out. Hobson’s choice. CAG was not very sympathetic. I thought his way we might have lost both the pilot and the plane, but we did anyway when they pulled his wings. There may have been more to the story?

  • Quartermaster
    February 16, 2009 at 11:07 am

    When I took my class 1 I was required to reveal if I were allergic to bee stings. I got the impression the allergy was disqualifying.

  • STEVEC
    February 16, 2009 at 1:12 pm

    Well, while waiting for the bees to ‘buzz off’ you can check this out:
    Red Flag.
    http://www.hulu.com/watch/24197/fighter-pilot-operation-red-flag
    Pretty darned neat Air Pron.

  • G-man
    February 16, 2009 at 1:46 pm

    At least it wasn’t on the hangar deck. And beats the brown tree snake found in the cockpit on Guam-o.

  • geo6
    February 16, 2009 at 1:48 pm

    SteveC- that is one awesome vid. Thanks for the link.

  • JoeC
    February 16, 2009 at 3:13 pm

    I just pity the poor plane captains and mechs that had to remove the mess those bees left behind….of course without further damage. I wonder if the pulled the engine after that? And shoot! I forgot to also add my thanks to Steve for the link.

  • 11B40
    February 16, 2009 at 5:20 pm

    Greetings:

    Sends me back to the summer of ’68, cruising in an OH-23, above the Brazos, near Fort Wolters, Texas.

  • virgil xenophon
    February 16, 2009 at 5:26 pm

    11B40/

    My Dad was stationed at then”Camp” Wolters for a while in WWII. Is it still open these days?

  • MaxDamage
    February 16, 2009 at 10:02 pm

    That’s a bee swarm, they’re not making a hive yet and gumming up the works. Like men everywhere, they’re waiting for the Queen to make up her mind and decide if things are Just Right or if we need to re-arrange the furniture some more or perhaps seek a larger house.

    Given the state of bee-keeping these days, with wild swarms being incredibly rare and thousands of hives infested with mites, I’d be terribly suprised if this isn’t the most valuable tail cone on the planet.

    – Max

  • Curtis
    February 16, 2009 at 11:48 pm

    Now if we just had the right type of Hoover we could this up in a jiffy!
    and MD, they’re not males, they’re drones. Kinda like staff: waiting for the admiral to make up his mind and select a COA to move out smartly with.

  • Steve
    February 17, 2009 at 6:29 am

    Must be a hangar queen bee.

  • JoeC
    February 17, 2009 at 10:00 am

    Max – Having had a couple of residences play host to passing swarms, my experience says they left debris behind. Both times the swarms did a bit of hive building leaving some comb behind and a few dead bees.

    Since this swarm appears to be on the back end of a blowtorch, I don’t suppose there’s much danger from gumming up the works. Just figure that a maintenance chief would assign the cleanup to someone who ran afoul of the chief’s latest poor opinion. Call it backdoor disciplinary action…..in every sense.
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