In aviation circles, nothing can put some ruin a good day like some F.O.D. (Foreign Object Debris/Detection/Damage) on the flight line. Those B.A.H.M.'s (Big Arsed Hoover Machines) A.K.A. Roll Royce Jet Engines, can surely suck-in anything in their path.
Consequences can be from funny as above, to very serious. Though in this particular case FOD was not sucked-in to the jet engine, in none-the-less caused the lives of all on board.
Therefore you will find much attention given in policing the runways, flight lines, and flight decks in search of the despised F.O.D's.
No - WAIT, wait. *wrong* FOD Walk
Yeah - That's what I meant.
Anyhow, during a routine FOD Walk, the crew of the USS Harry Truman, found an unusual FOD. here *it* is being handled by a crew-member:
Full article on this little bugger: HERE
BOQ
Consequences can be from funny as above, to very serious. Though in this particular case FOD was not sucked-in to the jet engine, in none-the-less caused the lives of all on board.
Therefore you will find much attention given in policing the runways, flight lines, and flight decks in search of the despised F.O.D's.
(Click to Enlarge)
(Click to Enlarge)
No - WAIT, wait. *wrong* FOD Walk
(Click to Enlarge)
Yeah - That's what I meant.
Anyhow, during a routine FOD Walk, the crew of the USS Harry Truman, found an unusual FOD. here *it* is being handled by a crew-member:
(Click to Enlarge)
PERSIAN GULF (March 17, 2008) Aviation Boatswain's Mate Handling 3rd Class Alex Dieringer holds "Fod," a screech owl that was found on the flight deck of the Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75). The owl was discovered in the left-main wheel well of an F/A 18 Hornet during a pre-flight inspection of the aircraft during flight operations aboard the carrier. Truman and embarked Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 3 are deployed supporting Operations Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom and maritime security operations. U.S. Navy photo by Aviation Structural Mechanic (Equipment) 2nd Class Shanon Kollmar (Released)
(Click to Enlarge)
Full article on this little bugger: HERE
BOQ
Very cool. The owl, that is. Yeah.... daily FOD walk on the carrier before flight ops start. At an airbase, we were taught to always keep a scan on the ground as we were walking to the aircraft, and while engaged in tasks around the aircraft.
The other area where extreme care is taken is in "Tool Control". ALL tools are accounted for at all times and when one goes missing, there's hell to pay.
My crew was about 2 hours out from Naval Air Station Brunswick, Maine, headed to our assigned area in the Atlantic when we got a call that a socket was missing from a tool case. That particular tool had been used on our aircraft earlier in the day, specifically on the number-4 rngine (starboard outboard).
As a precaution, we aborted our mission and headed back to BNAS, and we took precautions of putting on our parachutes and squaring all our gear away and reviewing bail out procedures just in case.
While we were landing, the socket was found. One of the mechs had stuck it in his coveralls pocket while working, and no one had checked the tool box to see whether anything was missing until after he had left for the day (he was on night shift). It wasn't until the case was pukked again that the missing socket was noticed. Everyone in that chain of custody got their butts chewed out for that incident, and with good reason. Wasted flight time, fuel, and the risk to not only losing an aircraft but the 10-man crew isn't anything to sneeze at, and not worth saving a minute's extra time putting a tool back wghere it belonged.
V/R
I always love this types of military stories. More like scene went:
Owl Rescuer: "Crap, Chief, I found an owl, what the heck do I do with it?"
Chief: "Owl? You wouldn't know an owl if it bit you on the..."
"No seriously Chief, an owl, here look at it...!"
Chief: "JUMPIN JEHOSOPHAT! Those things carry diseases! Have you lost your ever lovin mind troop!?"
Owl Rescuer: "Well I found him on FOD walk and.."
Chief: "Well you found some FOD, good job. Not put that thing and go find some more!"
(intro Falconer) "Did I hear you say you found an owl? I'm a falconer! I would love to..."
Owl Rescuer: "Yea! He's just a little bitty guy and..."
Chief: "Oh I love this. You two arse clowns think you actually brought me something good don't you? An endangered species, on my ship, on my flight deck, where jets rumble on and off all afternoon. If it IS true it better be on someone else's watch! You two swabbies got that?!"
Owl Rescuer & Falconer: "Yes Chief!"
Chief: "Yer a Falconer, you say? Fine. YOU take charge of this thing. I want it off my take deck, secured and squared away below double time, got it? And you get back on deck!"
Owl Rescuer & Falconer: "Yes Chief!"
Chief: (as they walk away) "Cute little fella anyway...."
Called to the scene my kiester :)
All I ever found at China Lake was a preying mantis! (Which I thought was cute, and was when I found out the only other female in AIMD is terrified of bugs.)
They like people. We're warm and smell good or something. They're friendly enough, anyway. Never got bit, and they can make a noise that sounds like a purr.
I think that the infantry version was, "If it isn't growing, pick it up; if you can't pick it up, paint it."
And I ain't paintin no King Cobra.
1990, Fairchild AFB, WA. Self-propelled FOD (live coyote) strikes nose gear of KC-135 tanker on landing rollout. Part of said FOD destroys left inboard engine, remainder of critter breaks out nose gear landing light and splatters across runway. Tower calls vac sweeper truck for cleanup. Squeamish airman elects not to scoop critter guts with shovel into grass infield. Sucks up guts and glass fragments before parking truck in hot sun. Two days later, same airman gets to personally clean out same vac sweeper truck under energetic E-5 supervision.
This is an interesting piece on the screech owl. By the way, birds have a way to show they are relaxed, they pant. My father's parents had a farm, with the born, with both a screech owl and a great horned owl. First time I saw all one of them fly, I said to my father, “There goes a bird with no head!” The strange thing about owls is they make no sound when they fly. They have little tuffs of feathers which deaden the sound. The prey depend on that sound to survive, yes, this means they are “SOL”.
Armorer, you talk about tarantulas, on more than them one occasion, I've had the experience of waking up and finding one on my chest. I gently moved it to a safe horizontal surface. It does appear that they have a working agreement with you, “You don't bug me and I don't bug you.” It was comical when the tarantula decided to change quarters, you heard some very strange responses to the situation. It wound up staying in my quarters and nobody annoyed me.
By the way, the pun was intentional. : – )
Fish, you would be surprised, if somebody used your strategy, they would find another one there the next morning. Remember, mama Nature always gets even. You would be surprised if you saw the larger cousin of that bird, the great horned owl. Now that bird can kill many of the poisonous snakes in just one grab. I've seen this happen with a timber rattlesnake, done by my grandparents' great horned owl. Please enjoy : – )
Todd, it seems to me, that I remember a different kind of FOD, on an aircraft carrier. One of the deck crew walked in front of, I believe it was an F-4 Phantom used for electronic jamming. Yes, it was a human who got sucked up into the air intake. If I remember correctly, the F-4 coughed a little and spit him out, promptly. He had minor injuries, nothing serious
If it was a B-52 base, they probably cleared the cobras by having KC-135s taxi over them a few times with full fuel loads...
Grumpy, if it's the incident I'm thinking about (and I'm pretty sure it was) it happened in 91 on the Teddy Roosevelt, and it was an A-6. I heard about it in 93 from a Petty Officer who was my class leader at DLI who was on the Big Stick when it happened. Guy got too close to the intake and got pulled in. It sucked off his helmet and vest (which is what FODed out the engine, and he got wedged in on the V strut inside the intake. It broke his collar bone and he got just a bit singed by the flameout, but he came out of the intake. He said for weeks afterwards, guys would walk up to Intake Man and touch him for luck.
Video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jxcSY1AwrM