In the RCAF in 1965, we were still flying Canadian built T-33s. They were getting long teeth, but had been upgraded several times and were the perfect plane for advanced training, long flights, and jobs like towing targets. We always flew them with the tip tanks on, because each tank held about 150 gallons of JP4, which doubled the range. This one fine day, the T-birds were all towed out for flying, and a new airman, fresh from training, had a little unsupervised time while his supervisor was pulling the pins and doing the ground checks before the pilots accepted the aircraft. He decided to climb the ladder and have a look inside the cockpit, and while looking around, he saw a red button, with a yellow and black square, and a red paper seal over the button. I guess he must have thought it was a joke, and decided to push the button. The act of pushing the button, pickled off the two full tanks, one of them narrowly missing the supervisor. It made a hell of a mess, and I'll bet the pair of them spent a few months sweeping the hanger floors. Bob
Might as well had a sign : "Do Not Push" There was a comedian's routine: You can tell a person there are a billion stars and they will believe you, but put a "wet paint" sign and people have to touch the paint with their finger. 1 more car I promise, Rex Winter Dry n windy Rex Winter
Hi 1more car.That reminds me of a line in the movie"To Hell and Back"about Audie Murphy.GI comes running to another GI down behind a wall in front of a farm house.New guy says whats up?First GI says among other things there`s a machine gun in that farm house.GI pokes his head up and the MG42 opens up and damn near takes his head off.Drops down in a sitting position,eyes big as saucers.First GI says"I bet you don`t believe in wet paint signs either". Good luck.Have fun.Be safe. Leo
Just a few months ago there was a big international breaking news story about a hostage situation on an airplane, possible tear or ism, etc. Turns out the pilots were giving a tour of the cockpit and some reporter wondered what the high jack button on the transponder did. So she pushed it. Guess what? It really works! Oops.
I missed this posting, and felt I should add a little information regarding this subject. I have been retired for 20 years, but the rules after 9/11 changed cockpit access rules forever. In the large commercial aircraft with a cockpit door, no person, other than a crew member, may enter the cockpit during flight. As a matter of fact, there are even special rules established when a pilot needs a physiological break. The other item that you may find reassuring is, that once the signal has been triggered, it cannot be turned off, and even if it was possible for someone to disable the system, it will still be treated as if it was a real occurrence. You can't unring the bell. I am just stating how seriously we took this issue even before 9/11. The unique thing about all this, is that even before 9/11, we were being continuously updated on potential threats, but the specialists never considered a situation where the aircraft itself would become the weapon. It took a lot of fun out of flying overseas, because we had the opportunity to meet a lot of interesting people. The enjoyable part of the flight was when we could open the door to visitors. 9/11 changed that forever. Happy New Year everyone, Bob
BS. This is getting a little off the beam, but in the mid '90s while in the .mil I was talking to some muckety mucks and turns out that this exact scenario had long been a huge security concern, that someone would hijack an airliner and fly it into the White House or Capitol. After 9/11 lots of "experts" and political types were aghast and stated things like "nobody could have seen this coming" and "who ever thought somebody would use an airliner as a weapon?" Everyone knew of the threat, there's no doubt about that.
10 airforce flying fighters, 30 years commercial airlines, mostly on overseas, flying DC8, DC10, and 747. We got regular security briefings, particularly on threats, such as when Bin Laden declared war on the US, and not once we were ever briefed on the scenario that took place on 9/11. This is direct knowledge, not second or third hand. There was a documentary done by one of the major networks many years ago on the intelligence failures that took place between the CIA and FBI. The interviewers found that the first time this scenario was discussed, was as part of the chatter that took place during a meeting of extremists in Indonesia. The intelligence failure was, that the CIA learned relevant information, but was prohibited by law from passing the information on to the FBI. This is thoroughly discussed by some of the members of both agencies that were involved in the investigation. Bob
LOL!! can assure you this wasn't "second or third hand knowledge." I was there. But, by all means continue with the dickwaving. Hell, Tom Clancy even wrote about it in one of his books. I'm just sayin', everybody in Washington knew it was a huge threat.
Executive Orders is the book. Copy write 1996. If my math teacher was successful that means Tom Clancy foresaw it and made it public 5 years before it happened. Although I'm willing to admit I may have been taught wrong. As to the question why not do something about it? Prevention is costly and less popular until after the event. Scrib.
Interesting about the T-33's. Didn't your "Silver Stars" have battery start capability? Our's didn't, had to use a GPU. You ever fly '101's? We used to turn RCAF Voodoo's from the 409th From Comox.
You are correct, the Canadian Tbirds had the 5200 lb thrust Rolls Royce Nene 10 engine, and was capable of doing a battery start. I was dual qualified, T-33 and Voodoo, and knew the secret of carrying an extra quill shaft for the starter on away trips. If you were doing a battery start, this was the part that could break, on the first start of the day in cold weather. With an APU start, this was never a problem Yes, I was in 409 on the Voodoo, but although I did a couple of excursions through the US, doing NORAD exercises in the Tbird, I never made the trip to Los Vegas in a Voodoo. Bob
My mistake, I should have said I turned "Night Hawk" Voodoo's @ McChord back in the 60's. Also did a few "Clunks", don't recall where they were from.
Interesting, that you would have known about that old beast. We have one on display in Comox. Although McChord was our SAGE Command Center, I personally never flew there but if memory serves, it was not an uncommon destination. The AVRO CF-100, affectionately called the Canuck, Clunk, or leadslead, was a fine interceptor for its time. It would have had a longer service life, but the problem for it was, that because of the wing mounted engines, it could not be economically modified to perform as a supersonic weapons platform. That was the reason for building the Arrow. However, the Clunk does have the distinction of being the first straight wing aircraft to be intentionally flown through the sound barrier (Mach 1). This was accomplished in 1952 by S/L (Major) Jan Zurakowski, who went on to be the chief test pilot for the CF-105 Arrow. Over 690 CF-100s were built, and although they were officially retired in 1981, two aircraft continued to fly as NORAD electronic targets until they were replaced by the CF-101 Voodoo. I never flew the CF-100, but they had a history of being a very reliable aircraft. Bob
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