Alright, it's been five years (and a new Reddit account, since my old one got hijacked) so, in honor of the recent surge of aviation maintenance tales, I'm reposting some of my old ones...
My maritime patrol squadron is on a winter deployment to (very) northern Japan and the snow is getting deep. It's so deep that the clunker-car my buddy bought for the six months were stuck there got totaled by the snow-plow clearing the parking lot, because the lot was otherwise completely empty and the car just looked like a snow drift.
The snow is piled up so high against the outside walls of the hangar that we don't even need a refrigerator in the AT (Avionics Technician) shop... we just slide the window up and carve out holes in the wall of snow pressed against the side of the building to hold our drinks and snacks.
All that ice and snow presents a problem when you are required to maintain a "ready aircraft" that's kept prepared for an emergency launch order at any time. De-icing takes time, as does warming up a frozen plane's systems. The only solution is to keep the ready aircraft inside a closed-up, heated hangar and do the daily pre-flight inspection to make sure everything works properly right there indoors.
Now, this is happening back in the mid '90s before GPS became all the rage and everyone was accustomed to using it. In fact, the aircraft being checked out that day was one of our squadron's first equipped with a GPS receiver and the navigators weren't all comfortable with it just yet.
The ATs are sitting in our shop waiting for the next summons when the bitch-box intercom crackles and we're told to get over to Hangar Two because the ready aircraft has got problems. Upon arrival, we're informed that the aircrew can't get the new GPS system to work.
Navigator: "The GPS isn't picking up any satellites."
Me: "Sir, where is the plane's GPS antenna located?"
Navigator: "It's right up there on top of the fuselage." (He points up.)
Me: "What's above that?"
Navigator: "The satelli... Oh, the roof."
Me: "The metal roof. On a metal building, with closed metal doors."
Navigator: "That must be the problem."
Me: "I think you're right, sir. Is there anything else, before we go back to our shop?"
Navigator: "No, I guess that's all for now."
As we're walking through the ever-deepening snow back to our shop in Hangar One, I mention to the other tech how we're lucky he remembered the plane was inside before attempting to test his communication radios. Now, the VHF and UHF transmitters aren't very strong and probably nothing bad would happen if he did fire them up in there, but the HF system is intended to let the crew talk to people on shore when the plane is a thousand miles out to sea. It's so powerful that transmitting with it inside a hangar will cause the overhead lights to flicker and can even explode the bulbs.
A couple of weeks go by and one day we hear the familiar crackle of the intercom followed by the dreaded call... "Sweepers, sweepers, man your brooms. It's raining glass in Hangar Two."
Submitted September 26, 2017 at 09:42PM by Hokulewa http://ift.tt/2hvu3lA talesfromtechsupport
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