Gender reveal crash

This is actually a cogent point. I’m going to start calling these events “sex parties.”

Be the change.you most wish to see in the world.

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I've mentioned this here before bit I think it bears repeating. The C-130 in that video was an A model with Aeroproducts 3-blade propellers. It became very obvious to Lockheed and the USAF that the harmonic vibration from those props were wearing out the wing spars on those early C-130s at an alarming rate and they switched to a Hamilton Standard 4-blade prop system incorporating a synchrophaser that did exactly what it sounds like, it kept all of the props in sync and the vibe issue disappeared. It was the same thing the Electra/P-3 went through. Any aircraft, helicopter or airplane, will age directly in simpatico with the amount of vibration (work hardening aluminum), some quicker, some later. I honestly wish I didn't know anything about this. As far as the video I remember somewhere back in the deepest canyon of my brain an AD about Piper airplanes and their wing attach points, I've never worked on a Piper so my memory is spotty at best.
Wrong. A models had a synchrophaser. You could mechanically adjust it, and fine tune the vibration back and forth along the longitudinal axis of the airplane. That went away in the later models with the solid state synchrophaser instead of the vacuum tube version. But the A models had one.

This A model wing spar failed because of improper maint practices. It was 50 years old and they were not following the proper depot level inspection cycle. Because, money.
 
Wrong. A models had a synchrophaser. You could mechanically adjust it, and fine tune the vibration back and forth along the longitudinal axis of the airplane. That went away in the later models with the solid state synchrophaser instead of the vacuum tube version. But the A models had one.

This A model wing spar failed because of improper maint practices. It was 50 years old and they were not following the proper depot level inspection cycle. Because, money.
Okay, you're the expert. It's amazing, I never knew the A-models had a synchrophaser. Want to know why? Because no one flew them and I was cranking out 54H60 valve housings with yellow tags because everyone wanted them. I ran multiple test benches, one could test the valve housing by itself and the other would run the pump housing and the valve housing as a unit. The drive motor and the pump motor were probably 800-1000 lbs each, it was hard to keep the temps reasonable when everything was running. On the other side of a wall the props were being overhauled, balanced and assembled. But please tell me about Aeroproducts synchrophasers, I'm curious.
 

I saw that yesterday. Thought about posting it but didn't want to give it O2. Plus, I'm not sure it's even real.

I grow despondent when I see the wings rip off an aircraft (almost certainly do to crap Mx), a pilot die, and then a headline come out talking about "Gender"

WTF is the matter with people right now? Is it that we are now living in a era in which a whole generations have never read a newpaper and at least one whole generation has grown up drinking the internet poison directly from the pitcher? Is it a vicious cycle in which a small group of people is intentionally manipulating those insecure, uniformed, malinformed GenTweets into believing that everything is a polemic, and then, the more things are polemicized the more people polemicize things?

A headline like that can almost certainly mean only one of two things:
1. The "author" was being intentionally incendiary.
2. The "author" was being unintentionally crack-brained.
 
Not the first, either.

2021, also in Mexico:



2019 in Texas:

Here's how we used to report the crashes of airplanes attempting to convey messages by air: "Crashed" "Place" "Time"
Banner Tow Crash Headlines.png
 
Okay, you're the expert. It's amazing, I never knew the A-models had a synchrophaser. Want to know why? Because no one flew them and I was cranking out 54H60 valve housings with yellow tags because everyone wanted them. I ran multiple test benches, one could test the valve housing by itself and the other would run the pump housing and the valve housing as a unit. The drive motor and the pump motor were probably 800-1000 lbs each, it was hard to keep the temps reasonable when everything was running. On the other side of a wall the props were being overhauled, balanced and assembled. But please tell me about Aeroproducts synchrophasers, I'm curious.
Are you goading me? Ok I'll bite.

This is an A model cockpit. Ask me how I know.

Just below the throttles. On the left side there 5 silver switches. The far left one is.....you guessed it....the synchrophaser master switch. It only has 1 switch associated with it unlike the later solid state version of the synchrophaser that had 2 control switches. 1 master switch and 1 for resynching the props. The control switch on the A model Is a three position switch. Up is #2, middle is off, and down is #3. Thats how you selected a master prop to control the other props. Runs off the essential AC bus. Powered by the #2 generator. Which got it's signal from the pulse magnet located on the pump housing. What you cant see in the pic is the control panel that was located on the right side copilot shelf. Which housed the adjustment switches so you could control the phase of each prop individually. Moving that annoying hum around on the airplane until it was out of the cockpit and back in the back somewhere.

Those 4 switches next to it? Prop governor control switches. Those 4 green lights next to that? NTS lights. That big black thing with the knobs below that? Autopilot. To the right of the autopilot with the red guarded toggle switch is the JATO control panel. Armed and fire the JATO bottles from there. To the left of the autopilot was the normal rudder trim and aileron trim switches and emergency elevator trim switches.

Shall I keep going or is my e-peen big enough for you?

All that to say A models had synchrophasers.


C130Interior2.JPG




Heres the source link if you want to zoom in.

 
Are you goading me? Ok I'll bite.

This is an A model cockpit. Ask me how I know.

Just below the throttles. On the left side there 5 silver switches. The far left one is.....you guessed it....the synchrophaser master switch. It only has 1 switch associated with it unlike the later solid state version of the synchrophaser that had 2 control switches. 1 master switch and 1 for resynching the props. The control switch on the A model Is a three position switch. Up is #2, middle is off, and down is #3. Thats how you selected a master prop to control the other props. Runs off the essential bus. Powered by the #2 generator. Which got it's signal from the pulse magnet located on the pump housing. What you cant see in the pic is the control panel that was located on the right side copilot shelf. Which housed the adjustment switches so you could control the phase of each prop individually. Moving that annoying hum around on the airplane until it was out of the cockpit and back in the back somewhere.

Those 4 switches next to it? Prop governor control switches. Those 4 green lights next to that? NTS lights. That big black thing with the knobs below that? Autopilot. To the right of the autopilot with the red guarded toggle switch is the JATO control panel. Armed and fire the JATO bottles from there. To the left of the autopilot was the normal rudder trim and aileron trim switches and emergency elevator trim switches.

Shall I keep going or is my e-peen big enough for you?

All that to say A models had synchrophasers.


C130Interior2.JPG




Heres the source link if you want to zoom in.

So you were flying 3-blade Aeroproducts C-130s? No, you weren't, because no one with a brain flew them. I have no doubt you've spent a lot of time burning holes in the sky in a C-130, but if you did somehow find yourself flying around in one of those I can only wonder why and be thankful you made it out alive. Show me a picture of the wings, right or left, it doesn't matter. You weren't flying Aeroproducts equipped C-130s.
 
So you were flying 3-blade Aeroproducts C-130s? No, you weren't, because no one with a brain flew them. I have no doubt you've spent a lot of time burning holes in the sky in a C-130, but if you did somehow find yourself flying around in one of those I can only wonder why and be thankful you made it out alive. Show me a picture of the wings, right or left, it doesn't matter. You weren't flying Aeroproducts equipped C-130s.
Nope. Not 1 hour. Doesn't change the facts.

That cockpit is from an A model with aeroproducts 3 bladed props. Sorry but it is.
 
Our gender reveal was low key. Just family only. No social media BS. We took 4 rounds of IVF to get this one, $60k cash drained in this effort over 2.5 yrs.


It’s such a taboo subject in my culture/religion/background, I haven’t even told my parents. I have told only my 2 younger brothers. The older brother and my parents, no.

FWIW, I wouldn't lump what you did into the same category as these stupid social media stunts. Nobody cares about the sex of your expected child, not your friends, not the internet, not anyone......other than maybe, perhaps, the grandparents/immediate family. Private thing for them doesn't seem weird to me. And congrats. I know several couples who struggled through multiple rounds as well. It takes its toll, I know.
 
Nope. Not 1 hour. Doesn't change the facts.

That cockpit is from an A model with aeroproducts 3 bladed props. Sorry but it is.

Interestingly, some (at least one) Herc’s on display had their four-blade props pulled and replaced with three-blade props for display purposes.
 
Are you goading me? Ok I'll bite.

This is an A model cockpit. Ask me how I know.

Just below the throttles. On the left side there 5 silver switches. The far left one is.....you guessed it....the synchrophaser master switch. It only has 1 switch associated with it unlike the later solid state version of the synchrophaser that had 2 control switches. 1 master switch and 1 for resynching the props. The control switch on the A model Is a three position switch. Up is #2, middle is off, and down is #3. Thats how you selected a master prop to control the other props. Runs off the essential AC bus. Powered by the #2 generator. Which got it's signal from the pulse magnet located on the pump housing. What you cant see in the pic is the control panel that was located on the right side copilot shelf. Which housed the adjustment switches so you could control the phase of each prop individually. Moving that annoying hum around on the airplane until it was out of the cockpit and back in the back somewhere.

Those 4 switches next to it? Prop governor control switches. Those 4 green lights next to that? NTS lights. That big black thing with the knobs below that? Autopilot. To the right of the autopilot with the red guarded toggle switch is the JATO control panel. Armed and fire the JATO bottles from there. To the left of the autopilot was the normal rudder trim and aileron trim switches and emergency elevator trim switches.

Shall I keep going or is my e-peen big enough for you?

All that to say A models had synchrophasers.


C130Interior2.JPG




Heres the source link if you want to zoom in.

Minnesota ANG Museum?
 
I've mentioned this here before bit I think it bears repeating. The C-130 in that video was an A model with Aeroproducts 3-blade propellers. It became very obvious to Lockheed and the USAF that the harmonic vibration from those props were wearing out the wing spars on those early C-130s at an alarming rate and they switched to a Hamilton Standard 4-blade prop system incorporating a synchrophaser that did exactly what it sounds like, it kept all of the props in sync and the vibe issue disappeared. It was the same thing the Electra/P-3 went through. Any aircraft, helicopter or airplane, will age directly in simpatico with the amount of vibration (work hardening aluminum), some quicker, some later. I honestly wish I didn't know anything about this. As far as the video I remember somewhere back in the deepest canyon of my brain an AD about Piper airplanes and their wing attach points, I've never worked on a Piper so my memory is spotty at best.
If you haven't already read it I would recommend "The Electra Story" by Robert Serling (yes, Rod of The Twilight Zone's brother). Robert Serling wrote some pretty readable aviation books back in the 60's and 70's and The Electra Story was entertaining for me - particularly when discussing how they went about testing the fix - thrilling. Starring Tony LeVier and "Fish" Salmon - absolute studs. Anyway - you and anyone else might enjoy the book.

 
If you haven't already read it I would recommend "The Electra Story" by Robert Serling (yes, Rod of The Twilight Zone's brother). Robert Serling wrote some pretty readable aviation books back in the 60's and 70's and The Electra Story was entertaining for me - particularly when discussing how they went about testing the fix - thrilling. Starring Tony LeVier and "Fish" Salmon - absolute studs. Anyway - you and anyone else might enjoy the book.


Anytime an aviation accident comes up, my mom tells me that I need to watch "mr honey", which I have surmised is actually called "No Highway in the Sky". I have never taken her up on her wish, but maybe it is interesting. Jimmy Stewart was an actual aviator after all. She turns 80 in a few months. I have a feeling that her generation will be the last who have nostalgia for the studebaker and movies like this.
 
The interesting thing about the A model Hercs and how they ended up in the air tanker contractor fleet, was an interesting story from Arizona history, that ended up in a federal indictment of two men involved in the program. One from the USFS aviation division and another who was an aircraft broker.

The infamous USFS Museum Trade program where old WWII to Vietnam contractor planes used for firefighting, such as the C-119, C-54, B-17, etc, were being traded to the USAF museum by a few contractors, who would get in trade, C-130As, and in the case of a Aero Union in CA, P-3A Orions. These turboprop planes were a first, at the time in 1987/88, to come on line to replace the old recip powered firefighting fleet planes that were getting very long in the tooth. The problem was, that the USFS was to retain overall title to the planes, but they would be flown and maintained by the contract companies. The two principals involved however, were transferring title to themselves and to these companies, in exchange for cash payments. These same companies, including one here in AZ where numerous of their A models are stored at Coolidge, were illegally using the planes for profit in non firefighting roles such as hauling cargo around Saudi and Kuwait during the 1991 Gulf War. One of the C-130As was caught hauling drugs between Mexico and Arizona. I still remember this whole scandal going on as it was happening, since it was big and local aviation news back in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

In the case of the C-130As, there was no operating or fatigue analyses done, because the assumption was that since the USAF Reserve and Air National Guard was operating the C-130E/H in the Modular Airborne Firefighting System (MAFFS) role, that these A model -130s could just be engineered with tanks and do the same thing; even though MAFFS….a portable slide-in tank, and the permanent tanks the A models would get…..were two completely different systems. Also, there is a reason these A models were in the boneyard at Tucson when they were acquired by the USFS: because they were 1956/57 models that were essentially timed out from a life of assault landings, airdrops and every other higher airframe stress mission that these birds undertook over 20+ years of service including the Vietnam war.

These A models were tired already. Now they were being placed into firefighting service as 3000 gallon air tankers. Every single drop these planes would do, with firefighting retardant weighing a nominal 10 lbs/gal, these planes would lose 30,000 lbs in the span of a minute or less. Then go reload and do it again. This constant loading and unloading on the airframe acted akin to a paper clip being bent back and forth. Unfortunately, for N130HP in Walker, California in 2002….also a 1956 A model, that problem was seen on video. As well as a 1994 crash of a sister C-130A from Hemet Valley flying service in Pearblossom, CA that also had a wing separate in cruise flight. Both of these planes had been A models acquired from this Museum trade program.

C-130Aa still fly firefighting operations, but at a reduced load and outside the USA, namely in France and Australia, but US contractor firefighting companies. And are flying with 4 blade props.


 
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