The Rain Removal Is On
After my Vietnam tours and a short school I joined a unit at Fort Knox, Kentucky, that was forming to go to Germany. It was a high-powered unit with lots of Vietnam veterans and was to be the first Attack Helicopter unit deployed to Germany. We were gathering together equipment and men for the unit.
Part of that new equipment we were picking up was new Cobra helicopters. Many of us were sent from Kentucky to Texas to pickup new Cobras from the plant. They were fun trips; it was nice to pick up and fly brand new aircraft. Probably the best steak dinner I have ever had in my life I ate one evening at the Will Rogers Airport in Oklahoma City when we stopped for the night.
On that trip I was flying with a captain who had joined the unit. When pilots came into the unit they were given an evaluation guide and the instructor pilots evaluated their abilities. When they did the evaluation of this captain they were not impressed. The unit had lots of instructor pilots and after just finishing the armament course I had been assigned to be the ammunition control officer. But on this trip they had assigned me to fly with this captain because of the doubts they had about his ability. He was the ranking officer and was told that he was in charge of the flight. I was his baby sitter.
The first day out of the plant we had flown the aircraft only a few hours and decided to stop and spend the night. That way we would have a chance to look the aircraft over and get some rest. The next day we could put in a good long flight.
The next morning the captain wanted to fly in the back seat of the Cobra. The pilot station in the back seat has most all of the controls and switches, making it difficult to assure that everything is okay when you are in the front seat. The captain was back there and I would do my best to watch him.
When we got in the aircraft the next morning I read the checklist and the captain responded by saying that everything was as it should be. When the aircraft was started there was a whining sound. The Cobra had a system called rain removal that blew extremely hot air from the engine up the front canopy to keep rain from obscuring the pilot’s vision. It really was only partly effective but it did help a little in certain conditions. Because the windshield was plastic the system also had some limitations. One of the limitations was: if it was turned on when it was not raining or when it was hot outside the windshield would melt.
I told the captain that the rain removal must be on because I could hear the whining sound it made. He said it was not. I told him to check the switch again. Again he told me that the switch was off. I told him to turn the switch on and off. He said that he did but I couldn’t hear any difference in the sound. I reviewed with him which switch I was talking about and the different positions it could be in. Again he said that that it was in the right position.
There wasn’t much else we could do so we picked the aircraft up to a hover and started hovering out for takeoff. The other four aircraft were following us as we led the flight out to get ready to take off. As we approached the runway a large hole suddenly appeared in the windshield in front of me. The windshield was melting in front of me and dripping down on the sunscreen below. The good news was that the melting plastic was not falling on my knees.
I called the aircraft that were following us and told them that I had a problem and needed to go off to the side and set the aircraft down. The flight followed us off the runway as we sat down. Once on the ground I got out of the front seat and went around to the other side of the aircraft and opened the pilot’s canopy door. There it was – the rain removal switch was turned ON! I reached in, turned the switch off and said, “That is the rain removal switch.”
This captain had supposedly been flying Cobras for a year in Vietnam and knew nothing. If he didn’t know which switch was the rain removal switch then he had a responsibility to say so, and I would have gotten out of the aircraft and showed him then. I had told him a couple of times that the rain removal switch was the large round switch on the dash just above his right knee. Showing him where the switch was would have been easy to do. Now the aircraft had damage and it was going to be expensive to fix. Technically the aircraft probably was not supposed to be flown with a hole in the windscreen but it needed to be repaired and that wasn’t going to happen there. After getting back in the aircraft, I called the flight and told them that we would be longer getting home than we had planned. I told them my aircraft had a hole in the windshield and I would only be able to fly about eighty knots.
Most problems are easy to solve when they first come to us. If we hide our heads in the sand and let the problems grow they become bigger and harder to solve. Sometimes there is damage and then the problem becomes impossible or, almost impossible to fix. When problems come up between people and we let them build they can get so big that they can’t be fixed. The worse thing we can do is lie about something. And if we don’t know - say so! When problems come up face them and fix them!
Part of that new equipment we were picking up was new Cobra helicopters. Many of us were sent from Kentucky to Texas to pickup new Cobras from the plant. They were fun trips; it was nice to pick up and fly brand new aircraft. Probably the best steak dinner I have ever had in my life I ate one evening at the Will Rogers Airport in Oklahoma City when we stopped for the night.
On that trip I was flying with a captain who had joined the unit. When pilots came into the unit they were given an evaluation guide and the instructor pilots evaluated their abilities. When they did the evaluation of this captain they were not impressed. The unit had lots of instructor pilots and after just finishing the armament course I had been assigned to be the ammunition control officer. But on this trip they had assigned me to fly with this captain because of the doubts they had about his ability. He was the ranking officer and was told that he was in charge of the flight. I was his baby sitter.
The first day out of the plant we had flown the aircraft only a few hours and decided to stop and spend the night. That way we would have a chance to look the aircraft over and get some rest. The next day we could put in a good long flight.
The next morning the captain wanted to fly in the back seat of the Cobra. The pilot station in the back seat has most all of the controls and switches, making it difficult to assure that everything is okay when you are in the front seat. The captain was back there and I would do my best to watch him.
When we got in the aircraft the next morning I read the checklist and the captain responded by saying that everything was as it should be. When the aircraft was started there was a whining sound. The Cobra had a system called rain removal that blew extremely hot air from the engine up the front canopy to keep rain from obscuring the pilot’s vision. It really was only partly effective but it did help a little in certain conditions. Because the windshield was plastic the system also had some limitations. One of the limitations was: if it was turned on when it was not raining or when it was hot outside the windshield would melt.
I told the captain that the rain removal must be on because I could hear the whining sound it made. He said it was not. I told him to check the switch again. Again he told me that the switch was off. I told him to turn the switch on and off. He said that he did but I couldn’t hear any difference in the sound. I reviewed with him which switch I was talking about and the different positions it could be in. Again he said that that it was in the right position.
There wasn’t much else we could do so we picked the aircraft up to a hover and started hovering out for takeoff. The other four aircraft were following us as we led the flight out to get ready to take off. As we approached the runway a large hole suddenly appeared in the windshield in front of me. The windshield was melting in front of me and dripping down on the sunscreen below. The good news was that the melting plastic was not falling on my knees.
I called the aircraft that were following us and told them that I had a problem and needed to go off to the side and set the aircraft down. The flight followed us off the runway as we sat down. Once on the ground I got out of the front seat and went around to the other side of the aircraft and opened the pilot’s canopy door. There it was – the rain removal switch was turned ON! I reached in, turned the switch off and said, “That is the rain removal switch.”
This captain had supposedly been flying Cobras for a year in Vietnam and knew nothing. If he didn’t know which switch was the rain removal switch then he had a responsibility to say so, and I would have gotten out of the aircraft and showed him then. I had told him a couple of times that the rain removal switch was the large round switch on the dash just above his right knee. Showing him where the switch was would have been easy to do. Now the aircraft had damage and it was going to be expensive to fix. Technically the aircraft probably was not supposed to be flown with a hole in the windscreen but it needed to be repaired and that wasn’t going to happen there. After getting back in the aircraft, I called the flight and told them that we would be longer getting home than we had planned. I told them my aircraft had a hole in the windshield and I would only be able to fly about eighty knots.
Most problems are easy to solve when they first come to us. If we hide our heads in the sand and let the problems grow they become bigger and harder to solve. Sometimes there is damage and then the problem becomes impossible or, almost impossible to fix. When problems come up between people and we let them build they can get so big that they can’t be fixed. The worse thing we can do is lie about something. And if we don’t know - say so! When problems come up face them and fix them!
posted by Bruce | 8:52 PM
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