Told to me at the 1998 reunion.
Sgt. Leonard Patterson
A plane came in from a mission and the pilot was
complaining about a nose-gear shimmy. You know how
you
always have to change the dampener on the nose-gear.
We removed the nose-gear and put the plane on
RED "X"just like you're supposed to
do. I took
it in to have it sent off to get another one. When it
came back I went out and put it on.
You know you have to get it inspected before you can
take-off. I don't know, but some SSgt. ( I forgot his name) had went
and pulled the pins. (some kind
of shear pins) They were like real long bolts
that went all through it that held the nose wheel
lower section to the part that raised up and down. I
didn't know he had pulled the bolts out to get them
Magna-fluxed.
They inspected the plane and took it off of RED "X". Of course they had to
go out on the runway and raise the nose-gear and then
pop it back down to make sure it didn't shimmy. Well
they went to the end of the runway and ran that Dude
up. (preflight)
With all that vibration the pins fell out.
The pilot
started to taxi off and the nose-wheel twisted around
and came up right through the bottom of the
plane.
(laughter)
I'm here to tell you, you talk about tearing up an
airplane, that nose-gear did it.
Well, getting it back up where
we could get the pins back in it was a DEAL!
In other words, with it down we couldn't get a jack
under the nose.
Somebody came up with a bright idea
of getting the loading ramps and then getting the
Cleat-track and running it up on the ramps. That
would get enough weight on the back where we could
get it up.You know that's what
we finally did. There
must have been 50 guys
come out there to help us. Everybody got under the
nose of it and we picked it up and put a stand under
it.
We got the nose wheel back down and seen where it had
knocked a hole in the bottom of it. The pins were
laying right there!(laughing)
They had just vibrated out. We got the pins back in
it. Somebody got some bolts and we got it all back
together and taxied it back.
I'll tell you what, that plane
really wound up being
in great shape. It was up at Base Shops about three
months while they were trying to repair it. I was
assigned to the plane so I went up there and
compleatly redid the cockpit. I put all new sand
stuff
on the floor to keep you from skidding, repainted
everything flat black. It turned out nice after I got
finished with it.
After I got discharged I was an auto mechanic.
Sgt. Leonard Patterson
pattul@prodigy.net