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The Week for Whatziss

By Bill on March 5, 2009 | | Comments (30)
Okay, since John played Stump the Chump Stars earlier with one of his bits of arcane artillerabilia, I figure I'll give you guys an easy one. *And* I didn't blur the background or crop it tantalizingly or photograph it on top of a simulated wood grain laminated ammo box or nothin' arcane like that there -- with me, you get *context*!




No, HF6, it's not the external beer cooler for a skinny Chinook.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 
Instant Update!

John said it looked like the tailboom of a Hip, so it might have had something to do with a countermeasures thingy.

What he's talking about is --



the silvery flare 'n' chaff dispenser mounted *forward* of the Whatziss. Geez, do I give these things away, or what?

Heh.

BTW, that's a grad of one of my "Mr. T's Inadvertent IMC Crashproofing Course" talking with one of my fellow contractor-parasite 'Structor Pilots. The week after I gave him his diploma, he got caught by a dust storm -- at night.

I got a grin and a five-minute double-armed Iraqi hug about zero seconds after he spotted me...

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30 Comments

By John of Argghhh! on March 5, 2009 6:37 AM
It's either the blue-water cleanout point or the ElTee's seat.
 
By BillT on March 5, 2009 7:19 AM
Same thing.

And "nope"...
 
By Josh on March 5, 2009 7:36 AM
That's the onboard head for the gremlins.  Pretty fancy, the gremlins on my plane just crap on the windshield...

By the way, is that a big yellow label reading "PROPELLER"?  If you don't know where the propeller is, I really don't think you should be operating the helo...
 
By RetRsvMike on March 5, 2009 7:40 AM
access panel for the rear hamster wheel. (gotta have some way to sweep out the cedar chips)
 
By Josh on March 5, 2009 7:43 AM
And why does the flare/chaff dispenser look like it's attached to the aircraft with two really large hose clamps?
 
By BillT on March 5, 2009 7:57 AM
And why does the flare/chaff dispenser look like it's attached to the aircraft with two really large hose clamps?

Ummmm -- because it *is*?

BTW, the aeronautical term for 'em is "Marman clamps" -- invented, believe it or not, by Zeppo Marx.

If you're wondering how I came to be a fount of such esoteric knowledge, we used smaller versions on the Loach to attach the exhaust stacks to the combustion chamber.
 
By John of Argghhh! on March 5, 2009 8:30 AM
I like Mike's answer.
 
By BillT on March 5, 2009 8:43 AM
Yeah, me, too.

Still *wrong*, though...
 
By Fishmugger on March 5, 2009 8:56 AM
Escape pod chute.

Since that looks like a maintenance door, it could be where the crew stash their back copies of Playboy or where the pilot looks in to make sure there's enough grease on whatever is supposed to be greased in there...like a universal coupling on the drive shaft.
 
By Oldloadr on March 5, 2009 9:16 AM
Is it a recon pod?  The second pic seems to show a glass window...
 
By LaMigra on March 5, 2009 9:29 AM
A box-shape device attached to the lower part of the rail beam houses the electronic countermeasures (ECM) system?????
 
By Eric Wilner on March 5, 2009 9:42 AM
It's the aft hardpoint for a ground-penetrating munition (the Soviet version of the "Tallboy").  When carried externally, these needed support at both ends to prevent twisting.
The door is for the Bombardier's Mate, who had the job of ensuring that the tail of the bomb was in fact free before it was dropped, as early testing had shown that releasing the front of the bomb before the back would have adverse consequences.

 
By Pat on March 5, 2009 11:09 AM
It's further rearward than in any pics I have found, but I think it is a doppler radar fairing for measuring drift and airspeed whilst hovering or low and slow.
 
By BillT on March 5, 2009 12:14 PM
Wow! Great guesses! Magnificent research from some of you, too!

Nope...
 
By Slinky on March 5, 2009 1:55 PM
I like Pat's answer, the RADALT(Radar-Altimeter) and GSI (Ground-Speed Indicator) housing on our H60 looks suspiciously similar.  Though ours don't run on vaccume-tubes. 
 
By RetRsvMike on March 5, 2009 2:18 PM
torque flywheel plenum, where the excess leftward torque is stored until needed, and the cables feed it back in a reverse loop, converting it into rightward torque.
 
By BillT on March 5, 2009 2:29 PM
A GSI on a *Hip*?!?

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

 
By John of Argghhh! on March 5, 2009 3:09 PM
Heh.  As ubiquitous as this bird is...   there's not a lot of detail out there.

I've found many pics with what appear to be "remove before flight" ribbons and/or warning labels, which indicates this thing sucks air in, or blows it out.  Meaning it could be an exhaust for something or an intake for something like an oil cooler, etc.
 
By BillT on March 5, 2009 3:42 PM
Yeah, I waded through half the dot-ru and dot-pl sites on the net before I gave up trying to find pix of the instrument panel for the IIMC course slide show. And most of the paint schemes were civvie regalia.

Guess who's got 'em *now*, though?

Ever seen a Mike-India One-Seven-*India*?
   
By John of Argghhh! on March 5, 2009 3:52 PM
I found you a *virtual* cockpit, and then I found these.  And the Indias are the newer ones, aren't they?  Of course, that's just wikipedia talking.  My knowledge here is pixel deep.
 
By BillT on March 5, 2009 4:38 PM
LaMigra scores with the pic of the Slovakian India Model, but the Iraqis don't have the weather-radar chin dome. Your Virtual Cockpit has the interior layout right, but the actual instrument display has a few differences, and the overhead switches aren't there -- there are so many of them, the graphics guy probably gave up before he even started. 

Biggest visual difference is the cockpit instrumentation, the streamlined nose and an improved main rotor stabilization system -- the yellow "pads" on the rotor head in the pic LaMigra found. Nice, buddy!
 
By jon spencer on March 5, 2009 6:36 PM
 According to wikipedia (I know grain of salt)  Zeppo was not the inventor.
Zeppo's company did produce the clamps though.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marman_clamp
 
By HomefrontSix on March 5, 2009 7:36 PM
Man...the ONE day where I'm away from the computer and you put this up. Sheesh. How'd you know?


So, did LaMigra get it? And (using best Valley Girl voice)...duh! Of COURSE it's not an external beer cooler for a skinny Chinook. Everyone knows that "skinny Chinooks" don't exist. Just like "skinny warrant officers"!
 
By AFSister on March 5, 2009 8:32 PM
+1 HF6.... Lmao
 
By Cannonshop` on March 6, 2009 2:25 AM
Based solely on what I've seen in aircrafting (which isn't choppers, sadly-we build somewhat slightly larger vehicles...)  I'd guess that it's a maintenance access for the hydraulics and/or driveshaft that runs through the tailboom.  Probably for ground-support-techs when the bird is on the tarmac, since it would be impractical in the extreme to access it in-flight, and the volume of that boom isn't big enough to manage more than a very tight crawlspace.  The door is clearly intended to be opened while hte bird is landed, in other words-note the latch at the top-and in that area, there's only a limited number of things you'd need access for, mostly tied to the tail-mounted anti-torque rotor.

Of course, it could also be the spot where they toss the crew-chief's spare tools in case the bird's grounded and needs a fix in the field, too-but why not put the tools up front with the crew? 

I think I'll stick to calling it a maintenance access.
 
By BillT on March 6, 2009 4:56 AM
Just like "skinny warrant officers"!

Heh. There are nine other 'Structor pilots over here with me, and all but one is a retired Warrant.

The only one of us who has any excess avoirdupois is the retired *Major*.

 
By John of Argghhh! on March 6, 2009 8:15 AM
The only one of us who has any excess avoirdupois is the retired *Major*.

[tippity-tappity]

[checks size of last DFAS/VA deposit]

Yeah?  So?  What's yer point?
 
By BillT on March 6, 2009 8:35 AM
Warrants have better posture?
 
By John of Argghhh! on March 6, 2009 9:28 AM
Well, certainly when shown in profile.  We Majors frequently get mistaken for re-runs of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.