Airplane Porn (and the occasional helicopter)

[DanielC]

Just curious, how do you balance the propeller for a B-29?  Is not each of the four blades about ten or eleven feet long?  Do you do it there at the airfield, or do you take the propeller to your shop, and balance it there, and bring it back to the airplane?

 

My dad was a navigator on a B-24 in WW2.

[KiloTango1200]

Simply stated; two sensors attached to the engine provide data to a prop balancing computer during three brief engine run-ups to 2000-2200rpm. After each engine run-up, the computer prescribes an increasingly accurate corrective weight amount and location to balance the entire rotating group. The weights (AN washers) are temporarily located under one or more spinner screws or bolted directly to the ring gear on some Lycoming engines. After the prop generated vibration level is reduced to near zero (usually after the third engine run-up) the spinner is removed and weights are permanently installed in accordance with F.A.A. approved specifications.

The F.A.A. considers Dynamic Prop balancing to be a minor repair when applied to engines rated under 500HP.

Dynamic Prop Balancing should be performed after either engine or prop overhaul and checked again at mid-time. Balance should also be checked whenever the prop is removed and reinstalled for any reason. If a prop balancing entry can't be located in the maintenance logs (since the last engine or prop overhaul) it should most definitely be checked ASAP. The entire procedure takes approximately 2.0 hours. 

In other words, it is a lot like balancing a tire. The computer tells you how much weight and where to put it in the back plate of the spinner. Or on the bombers, a bracket holds the balance weights.

[KiloTango1200]

Just curious, how do you balance the propeller for a B-29?  Is not each of the four blades about ten or eleven feet long?  Do you do it there at the airfield, or do you take the propeller to your shop, and balance it there, and bring it back to the airplane?

 

My dad was a navigator on a B-24 in WW2.

Thanks for your Dad's service to our country. My Dad was Sargent Major Communication Chief Headquarters Troop in the 1st Cav. in WW2.

[wayno]

My uncle Lester was in a B17 over Germany during WW2 and survived, one time a hole appeared in the plane between his legs, it was nearly impossible to get him to talk about that part of his life, I think he just wanted to forget about it.

[DanielC]

So if the engines are ran up to 2,000 RPM, and started three times, it must require about 25 gallons of high octane av gas, just to balance the propellers on FIFI.

[DanielC]

Wayno, My dad was the same way.  He referred to B-14's as "four engine coffins", but said he still preferred the B-24 over the B-17, because he said it was slightly faster.

[wayno]

I actually don't know for sure it was a B17, it might have been a B24, but I know for sure it was one of the bombers that were dropping out of the sky like rain, he was shot down over France and hid in a attic for an unknown to me amount of time, my cousin went over there several years ago and visited the people that hid my uncle and a ship mate while the people that saved them were still alive, I suspect when you board a plane and think you are going to die, you just want to forget about it and all the ones that didn't make it back after it is over with.

Wayno, My dad was the same way.  He referred to B-14's as "four engine coffins", but said he still preferred the B-24 over the B-17, because he said it was slightly faster.

[KiloTango1200]

So if the engines are ran up to 2,000 RPM, and started three times, it must require about 25 gallons of high octane av gas, just to balance the propellers on FIFI.

25+ gallons x 4

[VFR800]

[Jesse C.]

 

http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/the-ghost-rider-b-52-rises-from-the-grave-to-ride-aga-1686588702

[VFR800]

[Mattndew76]

Can we add RC Air Porn to this thread?

[laotsu]

 

 

held together by epoxy!

[RaptorReed]

 

Simply stated; two sensors attached to the engine provide data to a prop balancing computer during three brief engine run-ups to 2000-2200rpm. After each engine run-up, the computer prescribes an increasingly accurate corrective weight amount and location to balance the entire rotating group. The weights (AN washers) are temporarily located under one or more spinner screws or bolted directly to the ring gear on some Lycoming engines. After the prop generated vibration level is reduced to near zero (usually after the third engine run-up) the spinner is removed and weights are permanently installed in accordance with F.A.A. approved specifications.

The F.A.A. considers Dynamic Prop balancing to be a minor repair when applied to engines rated under 500HP.

Dynamic Prop Balancing should be performed after either engine or prop overhaul and checked again at mid-time. Balance should also be checked whenever the prop is removed and reinstalled for any reason. If a prop balancing entry can't be located in the maintenance logs (since the last engine or prop overhaul) it should most definitely be checked ASAP. The entire procedure takes approximately 2.0 hours. 

In other words, it is a lot like balancing a tire. The computer tells you how much weight and where to put it in the back plate of the spinner. Or on the bombers, a bracket holds the balance weights.

 

 

I've done prop balancing a bunch of time on P-3C Orions when I was stationed at VP-69 up at NAS Whidbey Island, it can either be a super quick or sometimes it can take several hours to accomplish, especially if you have to do more than one propeller. The equipment used for prop balancing is known as the Chadwick, when it gives us the printout of the balance, it will show us the weights in each of the four quadrants on the prop.  The reason it can take several hours is as for us, every time we add or remove weights to one quadrant sometimes we may need to add or remove from another. So it becomes a back and forth of add, remove, add until it's just right. P-3Cs use Rolls Royce-Allison T56-A-14 Turboprops.

On the T56, the weights go on the front of the propeller assembly, but we also have to remove the lower afterbody panel to install the sensors, then tape up the wiring to the wing all the way back up into the plane. For the T56, upon install of a new prop or engine, we were allowed 2500 flight hours before it was absolutely required to prop balance it and our maintenance control loved to push that limit. 

 

This is of T56 on a C-130, but it's identical to a P-3 T56, just right side up (P-3 version is essentially a upside down engine), but that's where we put the weights on the T56, KiloTango1200.

 

 

 

 

Oh and this incident happened a year before I reported to VP-69. VP-1 may have been operating it, but I believe our Maintenance Officer or Safety Officer was the pilot of A/C 331. 

 

 

The P-3C that almost went into Puget Sound waters a few days ago was

>>> from NAS Whidbey.

>>>

>>> It was a CPW-10 aircraft being operated by VP-1.

>>>

>>> Squadrons don't own aircraft any more.

>>>

>>> The P-3 fleet has so deteriorated because of under-funding and over-use

>>> that there are less than 100 still flyable*.

>>>

>>> The P-3s belong to the wing and are "lent to the squadrons on an

>>> as-needed"

>>> basis.

>>>

>>> The mission was a NATOPS pilot check, with a CPW-10 pilot (LT) aboard, a

>>> VP-1 LT and LTJG, plus VP-1 aircrewmen that included two flight

>>> engineers.

>>>

>>> The word is that the crew finally recovered control of the aircraft

>>> about 100 feet above MSL by pulling 7 Gs.

>>>

>>> The bird was landed back at NASW.

>>>

>>> Max damage was sustained by the aircraft, including almost tearing off a

>>> wing.

>>>

>>> Aircraft BuNo 161331.

>>>

>>> My first thought is that this was a Vmc incident:

>>>

>>> At Whidbey, P-3C 161331 was doing a Functional Check Flight.

>>>

>>> They shut down #1 engine.

>>>

>>> With #1 off, #2 engine exhibited vibrations and was shutdown.

>>>

>>> With two engines off on the same side the aircraft stalled.

>>>

>>> 7 G's were reported to pull it out of the stall.

>>>

>>> 45 consecutive rivets were pulled out on the stbd wing during the 7 G

>>> pull out (rolling pull), after peaking at negative 2.4g's as well.

>>>

>>> They did five spin rotations from 5500 ft -- they bottomed out "between

>>> 50 and 200 ft."

>>>

>>> They could see the inside of the fuel tanks when they landed.

>>>

>>> They were at 160 KIAS, appr flaps during a prop fails to feather drill

>>> on #1 when #2 started surging.

>>>

>>> They bagged #2, but while doing so got to 122 KIAS.

>>>

>>> When they added power, they were way below VMC air, and departed.

>>>

>>> SDRS recorded the flaps being raised and the landing gear being cycled

>>> down and then back up.

>>>

>>> Aircraft released all the fuel in tank #3 when it appears that the seam

>>> between planks 3 and 4 split.

>>>

>>> Tank #4 also lost its fuel load when plank #1 separated from rest of the

>>> aircraft wing.

 

The plane can fly on two engines, when it's one on each side, not so much when it's both engines on one wing^.

 

The Aircraft was sitting at the end of our flightline stripped of all engines and most of the equipment inside as well as numerous parts and panels were removed to fix other aircraft. We robbed a few switches out of it as well to fix one of our planes, just as everyone else has done the same to the static display on base from time to time for needed parts. Until finally a couple months before I left for Afghanistan, that the civilian contractors towed out to the high-power turn area in the middle of the airfield and cut the aircraft down into pieces. 

 

 

More P-3C Porn 

Not me, but I loved being on the flightline being a P-3C Plane Handler, however being a F/A-18E Plane Captain was much more fun. 

[VFR800]

[VFR800]

[VFR800]

 

 

[Mattndew76]

[VFR800]

[VFR800]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jesse C.]

That last pic of the Mustang "Quick Silver" is such a horrible mess of markings! Post war star and bar with invasion stripes, very wrong! Damn shame, it is a nice bird otherwise

[]2eDeYe]

Saw this one on my way home from work on Friday. It's always fun to see them cruising down the interstate :lol:

 

 

 

 

 

[Abe Froman]

[Z-train]

Four Wright R-3350's flew over my house today.

[VFR800]