November 2010 Newsletter

[Herk]

Mike,
The enthusiasm you showed in both your speaking and writing were wonderful!!!    Could have easily listened for the additional 2 hours.  Maybe food for a future meeting.

Steve

[Lee_K]

Yep, it was an excellent presentation and all of us who were there got a real treat.  Thanks again, Mike!

Lee K

[Anthony Leger]

Thanks for the great viper talk today two thumbs up

[mmittenzwei]

Mike, many thnaks for the wealth of information that you shared. When are you publishing your first book? By the way the CCIP you referred to is the Common Configration Improvement Program being done at Ogden the Viper home. It seems to be mainly avionics. It is strange to imagine that worldwide modellers may have to pay a royalty fee to UAE for the rights to a prodcution F16 Block 60!! I wonder if they are actally policing that? Maybe that is between Hasegawa/ etc & the powers that be i the Gulf.  It was an enjoyable meeting for many. Thank You once again for your service.     

[MKopack]

You're SO welcome - I hope you guys enjoyed it even half as much as I did. You don't want to get me started, I could have literally gone on for a couple more hours, I look up at the top of the thread, and I didn't even touch on most of those questions (and if we'd gone from info to stories, we'd have all missed Thanksgiving...)

Mike

By the way:

- Is it a Viper, or a Fighting Falcon?

On the flightline we usually called them simply "16's" - unless they weren't flying well. Then I probably shouldn't post what we called them...

- General Electric versus Pratt & Whitney?

Loved the GE F110. Massive power and the deep roaring sound. On top of that they were very reliable, which means early nights for evening shift on Friday night. Self trimming meant few trips out to the trim pad. Touchy on the oil level though, on the P&W you just had to keep it filled between the lines on the sight glass and you were good.

- If you stand up into a triple ejector bomb rack during an aircraft recovery, how long will it take to pick yourself back up off the ground. How many stitches?

Not long to stand up. Big headache. Should have gotten stitches.

- Why do you have to 'pump up' an F-16 before you can start it?

The F-16 uses a Jet Fuel Starter (JFS) a small jet engine (located behind the left main landing gear wheelwell) to start the main engine. The JFS is started by compressed air, which is usually replenished by the engine during the previous flight, although if you have a leaky JFS/Brake accumulator, or you have two "no starts" (there is only air for two attempts) you will see the crew chief install a about 2 1/2 foot long t-handle into a small pump in the left MLG wheelwell and start pumping. As it recall it will take about 300 full pumps to recharge the 3000 psi accumulator. Hope you've got a couple people to pump...

- How much weathering is realistic for a model?

American F-16's, especially at their home base are kept very clean - actually they stay pretty clean on their own. In general you can eat off of them (and I have, lunch up on the wing). I would keep a bottle of 409 in my toolbox and if the jet wasn't flying and we weren't working on another bird, we'd be doing some cleaning (and I wasn't even one of the 'clean freaks' in our squadron.) Our flight chief and the squadron commander checked the birds almost daily, and you didn't want to be 'called out'. Deployed jets, especially in, let's say "arid areas", had a bit more leeway, but still wouldn't be dirty. The way I've seen some foreign birds though would actually result in disciplinary action for the maintainers in the US.

- What does Mil-H-5606 hydraulic fluid taste like? Better or worse than jet fuel?

I've always thought that it's got kind of a fruity smell and tastes like, well, oil. It's also god a red color that makes it easier to ID. Jet fuel is nasty (well, not that I'd recommend trying either of them). MIL-L-7808, or engine oil, was another possibility - although you really didn't want to have that leaking. When working out at EOR (end of runway inspection) if I'd see an unidentified leak, I found it was a lot easier to troubleshoot if I touched it and gave it the 'taste test' - could immediately ID hydraulic fluid, fuel, or just water. As I said, I wouldn't recommend it - none are even close to safe for human consumption - maybe that's half why I act like I do today.

- 'Gold tinted' canopy, or clear?

The gold canopies were, well, gold. We won't go into why, but they aren't used nearly as much today. You will see some, even inside a squadron, that are gold, or clear, sometimes a gold canopy and a clear aft transparency (or vice versa) on the same jet. When you order a new canopy it was always a surprise as to what you'd find in the box...

- Will O2 from the liquid oxygen system 'cure' a hangover?

Kind of a quick shot of energy to clear your head, but could give you a headache. Well, at least I'm told...

- How long will it take for a pitot probe to burn your fingers if the heat is left on?

Faster that you can pull your fingers away. Same for the strut in the intake. Amond the other things that you don't want to do are walk directly behind a running exhaust, even at idle (singes all the hair on one side of your head - smells really bad and you end up looking funny)(no it wasn't me...) On the other had, on a cold winter's day you could warm your hands in the ECS (environmental control system) exhaust located just in front of the left wheel well while you're waiting to kick the chocks. It's about 325F but can feel so good...

- What does an F-16 have in common with an Me-163, and what does Hydrazine smell like?

The F-16 uses a hydrazine powered emergency power unit to assure that even if the main engine fails, the aircraft won't be without hydraulic or electrical power. Chemically the H-70 that we used is quite similar to the fuel used in the Me-163 Komet. It's an incredible oxidizer, but horribly poisonous. They say that it you can smell it, you've already been exposed. Smells like ammonia, been there.

Being an inherently unstable aircraft with full fly-by-wire with no mechanical backup, if the F-16 loses electrical power for even a second, it becomes completely uncontrollable and can even begin to "tumble" irrecoverably. As I said, there is no mechanical backup whatsoever - if you pull the four screws in the side mounted control stick in the cockpit, there is only an electrical cannon plug that attaches to the aircraft.

- How loud is it when you're standing here (above, 80-0509) with the jet on the trim pad?

The most amazing, awe-inspiring, overpowering sound and feeling in the world. I don't even know just how to describe it. You've got to wear double hearing protection ('squishy' ear plugs inside a set of ear defenders) and you feel it as much as hear. Sitting under the horizontal stabilizer, only feet from the flames, you can watch the whole exhaust begin to glow red and orange in afterburner. You can literally feel each tooth vibrating against the ones next to it and the ground shakes from the just brute power. It's one thing that I wish everyone could experience (well, aside from flying, but I never got to do that either...)

[Ryan K]

Mike,

Thanks for all that info on the 16.

[MKopack]

We had a guy at MacDill who walked straight into a pitot tube. It punched a perfect circle dead center out of his forehead - right to (fortunately not through) the bone. Looked like a third eye. Someone had to go out and pull the little 'plug' of meat out of the end of the tube with a piece of safety wire (thankfully not me.)

Doctor took a look at him, put a band-aid over the hole and sent him back to work.

Here's another:

Was working over outside of fuel cell one day when from two airplanes down I could just hear, "Mike, Mike, help, Mike..." I ran down only to find one of our younger Airmen, who had been pressure draining / depuddleing the residual fuel out of an defueled airplane into a bucket. Once the bucket was full, he'd attempted to close the drain port, only to find the screw stripped. He was standing under a shower of jet fuel frantically struggling with the stuck drain port, completely soaked to the skin, head to toe. He actually dumped jet fuel out of his boots.

I thought he was going to cry when I walked up, told him to move out of the way, and just put my thumb over the hole stopping the fuel. It took a minute or two with the screwdriver and a couple of rags to close the port. He was so worked up over it I thought he was going to light up a cigarette, which probably wouldn't have worked out well.

[MKopack]

- Will O2 from the liquid oxygen system 'cure' a hangover?

?

Ooooo, I know the answer to that one! 

Ben

Down at MacDill in the late 80's Tuesday was nickle beer and nickle wing night at the local pub. We could never keep LOX (liquid oxygen) in the jets on Thursday...

Alex, what is a lawn dart?  Grin

Or the "Electric Jet". On base I'd rarely hear them called anything but "16's".

Why do the European F-16 have parachutes in the tail

Several of the European users operate their aircraft (either normally, or during contingency operations) from small airfields, sometimes under some poor conditions (think roadway in northern Norway in January) and it makes for shorter and safer landing roll outs.

Lockheed Martin has an 'available options' page on their website (you'd think you were buying a Toyota) at: http://www.lockheedmartin.com/products/f16/f16currentopts.html which says: "The drag chute decreases stopping distances for short field operations, poor braking conditions, and emergencies. It also reduces brake wear."

Believe it or not, the aircraft (F-16A 79-0377) in the second photo I attached up above (smashed into pieces at the end of the Nellis runway - notice the hole cut into the canopy to extract the uninjured pilot) actually flew again, and crashed again, and was repaired again and flew again - again. And was later sold to Israel (think they knew what they were getting?) That's why 377 is "Twice as Nice".

Mike

[BenB]

- Will O2 from the liquid oxygen system 'cure' a hangover?

?

Ooooo, I know the answer to that one! 

Ben

[Anthony Leger]

Why do the European F-16 have parachutes in the tail

[Bill L2]

- Will O2 from the liquid oxygen system 'cure' a hangover?

?

[Ryan K]

- Is it a Viper, or a Fighting Falcon?

Alex, what is a lawn dart? 

[MKopack]

Ok guys, start thinking of some questions, we're going to go Viper crazy on Sunday.

- Is it a Viper, or a Fighting Falcon?
- What ARE all those Block numbers?
- General Electric versus Pratt & Whitney?
- If you stand up into a triple ejector bomb rack during an aircraft recovery, how long will it take to pick yourself back up off the ground. How many stitches?
- Why do you have to 'pump up' an F-16 before you can start it?
- How much weathering is realistic for a model?
- What does Mil-H-5606 hydraulic fluid taste like? Better or worse than jet fuel?
- 'Gold tinted' canopy, or clear?
- Will O2 from the liquid oxygen system 'cure' a hangover?
- What was the largest operational strike mission that 16's have been involved in? How did it not work out all that well for two members of my squadron?
- How long will it take for a pitot probe to burn your fingers if the heat is left on?
- What does an F-16 have in common with an Me-163, and what does Hydrazine smell like?
- How loud is it when you're standing here (below, 80-0509) with the jet on the trim pad?
- What on earth happened to this jet (also below... 79-0377)?
- How well can you balance a landing airplane on a centerline tank (below)?

So if you'd like to know the answers to these, and a million other trivial questions, we'll see you on Sunday. Bring any 16's that you've built and any questions, comments, and stories you have and we should be able to have some fun!

Mike

[Lee_K]

Squadron Alert!

The official newsletter of IPMS Eagle Squadron
http://www.ipmseaglesquadron.org

Next Meeting

Sunday, November 21, 2010, 1:30 PM
Classroom 126A, Engineering Tech Building, Wake Technical Community College


Last Month's Meeting

    B-24 crewman Rudy Tempesta regaled us with stories of the lovely Italian girls he met and the days he spent busted on KP while serving as a ball turret gunner with the 484th Bomb Squadron during World War II.  Rudy has 65 years of service with the US Postal Service, more than any other USPS employee.


This Month's Meeting

    "Everything you wanted to know about the F-16, but were afraid to ask".  Our own Mike Kopack, a former Viper crew chief, will give a presentation about the airplane and focus on things that modelers need to know.  Warning: you guys thought 109s were complicated?  You ain't seen nothing yet...

    All Eagle Squadron members are encouraged to bring in built F-16s from their personal collections to supplement Mike's lecture.


Rudy Tempesta B-24J Project

   As with other Veteran's Projects, we are building a model of Rudy's airplane "Oh Forty Nine".  Woody Griffin and Clyde Mills are coordinating the effort and are building and painting the Hasegawa 1/72 scale model.  Tony Leger will apply the decals.  William Reece has the engines and props.  Lee Kolosna has the landing gear.  Lee Griffin is painting a figure or two.  Joe Marranca is painting the turrets.  Spanky McFarland is providing the weathering for the aircraft and also building a tractor and an ambulance.  Ryan Koschatzky will create a display base.  We plan on having these tasks complete for a presentation ceremony at the February 2011 meeting.


RDUCON 2011

   Planning is underway for our big regional contest on May 14.  We should see a greater number of model entries and general attendance than our previous two events at Wake Tech, so preparedness will be essential to allow us to handle the numbers smoothly and efficiently.  Please volunteer your time to make this contest as good as it can be.


Future Meeting Calendar


•   Sunday, November 21 -- Lecture: The F-16, by Mike Kopack

•   Sunday, December 19 -- Year in review, Most Improved Modeler Award, Holiday gift exchange, Officer elections for 2011.

•   Sunday, January 16 – Swap Shop.

•   Sunday, February 20 – Demonstration: painting wood effects, by Joe Marranca.  Presentation: Rudy Tempesta B-24J


Local Contest and Event Outlook

   Saturday, March 12.  Contest, hosted by IPMS Blue Gray Renegades.  Lynchburg, VA
   Saturday, April 30. Contest, hosted by IPMS Northern Virginia.  Fairfax, VA
   Saturday, May 14.  RDUCON, Raleigh, NC