Tiny inaccurancy on the -8 flightdeck

[charliearon 3,017]

34 minutes ago, Steve Dra said:

And....do you remember the tolerance mnemonic at the end of the resistance codes?

 

Gold ,Silver, No Color  or Get Some Now!

[JRBarrett 3,049]

47 minutes ago, Steve Dra said:

And....do you remember the tolerance mnemonic at the end of the resistance codes?

 

“Get” is the first word, and in the current climate I shall say no more...

Oops - Charliearon went there..

[GACSavannah 227]

56 minutes ago, Steve Dra said:

Lol...i know that exact saying JR!

Black, brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, green, white.....I think.

I was incarcerated at NATTC Millington too Charlie...good times Lol 

Ha! I got you both beat. I was BORN there. Literally. Loooong time ago :0)

[charliearon 3,017]

10 minutes ago, GACSavannah said:

Ha! I got you both beat. I was BORN there. Literally. Loooong time ago :0)

My condolences! 

[Steve Dra 7,579]

1 hour ago, JRBarrett said:

“Get” is the first word, and in the current climate I shall say no more..

LOL...bringing back so many memories!  I passed thru Millington back in '81 for both A and C school (I was an AFTA sailor..if anyone knows what that meas, hehe), some 37 years ago and those are still fresh in my mind...but I can't tell you want I had for breakfast this morning.  Funny how the mind works!

1 hour ago, charliearon said:

1 hour ago, GACSavannah said:

Ha! I got you both beat. I was BORN there. Literally. Loooong time ago :0)

My condolences! 

I share my condolences.  The few times I made it off base, I don't recall the town being a mecca for exciting things to do.  Memphis was quite nice the few times we went there though.
Never knew so many guys here had relational experiences in the Navy/military.  Sometimes the career I had in the Navy seemed like a dream when I have nobody who can relate to it (very few of my colleges in my current career have relational-able experiences)

Anyone remember what the acronym MOSFET means (without googling it, hehe).  I thought I was pretty cool after C school that I not only knew what it was, but could design a circuit around it.  Now I cant even tell you the voltage drop across a 10kΩ resister at 1 amp...sigh.

[Steve Dra 7,579]

3 hours ago, downscc said:

4 hours ago, Jude Bradley said:

I still have a lovely dolphin-shaped scar on my hand from when I spilled solder on my hand back in the 80's from the solder baths.

I can relate.  I  still have a scar on my right index finger from when I grabbed the scope probe that was inserted into a test point and my hand slid down to the metal rings and I came in contact with the B+ (ca. 250VDC for those not familiar with vacuum tubes, or valves as the Brits called 'em). That was in tech school, and I don't think it ever happened again.  I remember seeing a black and white photo on the wall of a HF site in the Azores of a guy reaching into the lower compartment of a transmitter. He was dead.  The photo was a warning that the B+ on those 45,000 W transmitter tubes would reach out to you if you got close enough.  Serious stuff.

Because a sailor ALWAYS has to have a better sea-story...here is the one still etched into my memory.

In my last squadron, we had an electrician in the shop (The ATs and AEs shared the same shop) who was....challenged.

He was troubleshooting a problem on a bird in the hangar, it would not hold power from a GPU.  So he hooks up the external power from the receptacles we had in the hangar and goes in the cockpit and tries to power on the bird.  Like the MAF (Maintenance Action Form) said, power comes on for a second, then trips back off.

So....with the external power still connected and ON....he goes into the nose electronics bay, where on the right bulkhead, the rather large and bulky solenoid relay that brings external power into the bird resides.  I'm just getting off duty and walking away from the bird...almost outside of the hangar when I heard a loud SNAP, accompanied by an equally bright flash of light (aka like a lightning bolt).

When I turned around, I see him staggering out of the bay holding his hand and speaking sailor (i.e. cursing like a sailor).  You see....it was his bright idea (no pun intended) to test the relay by touching his screwdriver across the contacts to see if he could hold power for more than a few seconds.  I went running to him naturally, and the smell of ozone and burning plastic was quite strong when I got closer to him and the bird. When I glanced in the bay, I could see what was left of his screwdriver arc-welded to the contacts, with the melted plastic of the handle dripping on the TACAN receiver.

We didn't let him troubleshoot the planes anymore after that (at least alone)...he mostly swept the shop and did paperwork.

His only injuries were a little flash blindness that wore off and a headache after cracking his head on the top of the bay.  Luckily, he had his helmet on because he was just on top of the bird (Navy requirement to wear the helmet when you went above a certain height on the plane) and left it on when he went in the bay.  Otherwise the gash in the back of it would have been in his head when he reared back involuntarily from the lightning bolt a few inches from his face.

[downscc 1,327]

14 hours ago, Steve Dra said:

You see....it was his bright idea (no pun intended) to test the relay by touching his screwdriver across the contacts to see if he could hold power for more than a few seconds.

Thank you Steve for this.... it reminds me of the quiet fall morning in a particular Kasern in Germany full of headquarters folks when two stooges that worked for me had trouble starting the USAF Blue Dodge van and did the same trick with the starter solenoid.  This started the van and it was in drive, which is why they couldn't start it, and it drove away through the parking lot crashing through a dozen civilian cars belonging to high ranking officers.  The worst part was that they worked for me...... what a day.  No one but our reputation was hurt.