[Vhfcn-l] Fancy Toys

Mon Apr 20 17:28:54 EDT 2020

Chris,  You are exactly right.  If a crew chief wants to learn about and maintain an aircraft he will do it.I was trained at Ft. Rucker on O-1, U-6 and OV-1 Mohawk aircraft, then sent to Viet Nam to a Huey unit.My first day in the hangar, SFC Newman told me to do a dye penetrant inspection of the stabilizer bar on a Huey.I think he wanted to know if I knew what dye penetrant was and how to use it.  I sprayed that stabilizer bar down from one end to the other, waited the appropriate time, washed the dye off and sprayed on the developer.I was then assigned to a PE crew, and after three months was sent to Vung Tau to a school put on by Bell to transition me to the Huey.  Three months later I was assigned as a crew chief, and two months after that Sgt, Kirk was assigning every new crew chief that he got to fly with me for a week so that I could teach them what I was doing.  I had always wanted to work on airplanes and fly, so I was a real eager beaver and treated that helicopter like I had bought it personally.  I still have people come to me at reunions and remind me of what I had taught them.My last time dealing with Hueys was in 1991 when I was assigned to teach UH-1 maintenance to the Kansas National Guard.
  Any new helicopter is going to have its bugs and new systems to learn, but any one who is reasonably intelligent and wants to do the job should be able to learn them and not have any nightmares taking care of his helicopter.
Don Jackson

-----Original Message-----
From: Arnold B Christensen via Vhfcn-l <vhfcn-l at lists.vhfcn.org>
To: Donald Jackson <Tiger129ts at aol.com>
Sent: Mon, Apr 20, 2020 2:21 pm
Subject: Re: [Vhfcn-l] Fancy Toys

Fancy only because they are newer and look cool.

Crew Chief Nightmare?  A helicopter is just another helicopter and if 
a crew chief is really interested learning his trade he will learn 
his helicopter and what is different and actually easier to maintain 
than his old helicopter. No more taking a gunner and giving him a 
Crewchief MOS with no schooling in that MOS and giving him a 
helicopter to maintain. I did not accept that idea after Vietnam and 
you cannot convince me that it is a good idea. Proven to me with time 
as The Chief Tech Inspector in a Direct Support Aircraft Company in 
Germany and the same position in a General Support Chief TI at Ft 
Campbell. I started out in Army Aviation in a Aviation Section as the 
Aircraft Parts Supply guy.  We only had 2 H-21C's and 3 different 
models of H-13's.  When I had time from the supply business I would 
roam the hangar and assist the crew chiefs on their brand of 
helicopter.  I learned what their jobs entailed. I had several great 
instructors that never signed up for that job to teach me but even if 
they did not know it they did it. One day one of the H-21s asked me 
if I would take his place flying on missions and I jumped at it. Had 
to go on several flights to learn what he did during flight. After my 
first re-up in 61 I asked for H-21 school but the Army had decided to 
no longer accept and school request at Ft Rucker as the aircraft was 
going to be phased out. The Officers and NCO's offered me a chance to 
do OJT and maintain one of our 21's for 90 days and if they thought I 
knew what was what I was made a H-21 Crewchief  and had my very own 
Tandem Rotor, powered by a large round engine and 6 blades, 
3transmissions and 2 rotor head to fly. By the way all of our 
helicopters were equipped with always fully inflated floats because 
just about every flight was over stretches of water, sometimes for 
long distances. And...we were usually hauling VIPs. Flights over the 
Atlantic along the south side of Long Island NY and down the coast of NJ.

Got transferred to Germany to another small Aviation Section and Army 
had not 21's in country but the Germans had some. The Aviation 
officer was not about to loan me to the Germans so he said that since 
I could maintain an H-21 I ought to be able to handle the units 55 yr 
model OH-13H.  Little did he know about assisting guys to maintain 
the 3 different models we had. The one in Germany didn't have any 
floats so that was one less thing to maintain. We also had a L-20A 
Airplane which some of you called a U6A. We also had a L-19D which 
some of you again may recognize as the O-1. But we were like a family 
in that Aviation Section just as it had been in the Original Aviation 
Section on Staten Island. After 3 yrs in Germany I return stateside 
and was assigned to attend the CH47A Chinook course.  Holy Chit this 
thing was big and had stuff I never saw beforE. Talk about ease of 
maintenance this thing did not have cables from one end to the other 
that had to be adjusted for tension due to changes in Temp. It had 
solid controls with rod end bearings that needed nothing but a look 
see. It did not have 6 wooden blades that soaked up water of any kind 
if left parked on the ramp. Weird rotor vibrations told you what had 
happened when you leave your lady outside and a front full of thunder 
storms come thru. Two big Turbine engine that start every time you 
hit the engine start. Small APU in the tail that could be turned on 
and provide all the hydraulic and electrical power you could ask for. 
Boy it had a lot of stuff that my old 56 year model 21 had but better 
and more room to work on it too.

There has to be adequate testing of anything toted as New and 
Improved.  People who will take care of and operate it by listening 
closely to their instructors.

I will add that it is just that easy. ;-)
Da Foot

At 08:02 PM 4/18/2020, Bruce Hendrickson via Vhfcn-l wrote:
>Awesomeness, crew chief nightmare
>
>On Sat, Apr 18, 2020 at 8:29 PM Bruce E. Carlson via Vhfcn-l <
>vhfcn-l at lists.vhfcn.org> wrote:
>
> > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4wmTaHr05M
> >
> > Respects -- Bruce
> >
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