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Old March 17th, 2008, 14:24   #1
compilot65
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Default What stupid stuff have you done?

Tell everyone your stories, if you got some like these I've heard about over the years....

Ever seen a hangar door resting on a spinner? (Think Concorde look-alike.)

How about punching a hole in a new windshield of a JetRanger with a wingtip? (Need more ventilation?)

Reeling in a fuel hose still connected to a Citation X? (BOING!)

Hot fueling an R-22? (Buzz cut!)

De-icing a regional pilot who walked into the "line of fire"? (Got dry socks?)

What you got?
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Old March 17th, 2008, 17:15   #2
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Default Re: What stupid stuff have you done?

Well I can't say I have done anything horrible. But I have seen the aftermath of a few accidents at work. We had a plane that got loose from the tow bar and instead of the guys driving away from it they hit the brakes and whamo, nice new nose job. We also had a guy who topped off the inboard of a king air with av-gas instead of jet-a.
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Old March 17th, 2008, 22:47   #3
compilot65
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Default Re: What stupid stuff have you done?

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Originally Posted by scflyin View Post
Well I can't say I have done anything horrible. But I have seen the aftermath of a few accidents at work. We had a plane that got loose from the tow bar and instead of the guys driving away from it they hit the brakes and whamo, nice new nose job. We also had a guy who topped off the inboard of a king air with av-gas instead of jet-a.

That's not good.It's been done at my place too.
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Old March 17th, 2008, 22:50   #4
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Default Re: What stupid stuff have you done?

happened to a buddy of mine before i started workin the line...but some guys parked a CJ2 into a corporate hanger with a bifold door...well they story goes they didnt push the plane far enough into the hanger for the nose to clear the door. so the line guy pushes the close button, and walks out as the door is closing and doesnt know that the door closes on the nose of the airplane. next guy comes some days later to pull out the plane, doesnt think anything of it, cause if the door closed, most people i know assume there should be enough room to open it...and goes to open the door and pulls the nose back up the other direction...good stuff
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Old March 17th, 2008, 23:03   #5
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Default Re: What stupid stuff have you done?

Things go wrong but it only makes you better at your job. Some stuff just makes you go whattttttttttttttt the @#$%.
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Old March 18th, 2008, 12:27   #6
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Default Re: What stupid stuff have you done?

some kid we hired to clean planes used scotch-bright on the windows and wings of a cirrus to get the bugs off. it looked like the kid sandblasted the plane. I sat in it and the glare from all of the scratches made my eyes burn...

he worked with us for about 2 hours and caused about 8 grand in damage.
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Old March 18th, 2008, 12:35   #7
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Default Re: What stupid stuff have you done?

Quote:
Originally Posted by compilot65 View Post
Tell everyone your stories, if you got some like these I've heard about over the years....

Ever seen a hangar door resting on a spinner? (Think Concorde look-alike.)

How about punching a hole in a new windshield of a JetRanger with a wingtip? (Need more ventilation?)

Reeling in a fuel hose still connected to a Citation X? (BOING!)

Hot fueling an R-22? (Buzz cut!)

De-icing a regional pilot who walked into the "line of fire"? (Got dry socks?)

What you got?

Yep.......wonder who did that one....................
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Old March 18th, 2008, 22:46   #8
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Default Re: What stupid stuff have you done?

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Yep.......wonder who did that one....................

Good shot
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Old March 18th, 2008, 22:54   #9
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Default Re: What stupid stuff have you done?

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Yep.......wonder who did that one....................
Call me at work or I'll see you saturday, about CFI stuff. No sign off per the doctorPM.
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Old March 19th, 2008, 11:33   #10
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Default Re: What stupid stuff have you done?

Some line guy at one of our other facilities got a prop strike in the head from an MU-2. Still alive which is a miracle Now we all have to look at his mug shot by the door to go out to the line...

The only destruction I've caused, was that I forgot to push the orange tab on the Citation Bravo upper door to close it. I pulled down and out popped the hinge. It was still flyable, because the door was able to close and latch shut normally. It's just that when it had to remain open, someone would have to hold it up to keep it from falling down. In all, it was an easy fix, and the crew wasn't too mad, and admired the fact that I walked into their office and explained what I did.
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Old March 19th, 2008, 17:16   #11
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Default Re: What stupid stuff have you done?

You 3rd shifters are always tearing stuff up at WAC
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Old March 20th, 2008, 09:43   #12
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Default Re: What stupid stuff have you done?

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You 3rd shifters are always tearing stuff up at WAC

ssshhhhhhhhhhhhhh....I don't want to have to go to pro-med again....
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Old March 20th, 2008, 11:22   #13
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Default Re: What stupid stuff have you done?

Good old pro-med. It's like getting a two hour lunch break. Good times
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Old March 21st, 2008, 01:25   #14
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Default Re: What stupid stuff have you done?

Haven't really done anything yet but we had a guy pump 200 gallons of Avgas into an MU-2 last week.
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Old March 21st, 2008, 06:28   #15
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Default Re: What stupid stuff have you done?

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Haven't really done anything yet but we had a guy pump 200 gallons of Avgas into an MU-2 last week.
OUCH! That must have been fun having to drain the tanks.
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Old March 21st, 2008, 22:13   #16
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Default Re: What stupid stuff have you done?

I have broken plenty of stuff while working on planes. Dropped like 3 or 4 wheel halves. Took a governor off a c-182 when i wasn't suppose to. Many other things.
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Old March 27th, 2008, 21:36   #17
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Default Re: What stupid stuff have you done?

good to read these posts.. i start on sat.. line service at an FBO/charter company. Im goin to be a pain in the ass and bug the lead line service guy, like they say.. whn in doubt.. "ASK for help"...
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Old March 27th, 2008, 23:18   #18
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Default Re: What stupid stuff have you done?

We had a guy back a 6,000 gallon fuel truck into a 172. He didn't realize he had hit something and kept going. Tore off the entire right wing.
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Old March 30th, 2008, 09:38   #19
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Default Re: What stupid stuff have you done?

The Jet A thread in the lav reminded me of how from time to time I'll be doing an over-wing fueling at a fast rate and not slow down fast enough before the top is reached. I've taken many AvGas/Jet A showers as a result.

And don't tell me it hasn't happened to all of you at least once.
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Old March 31st, 2008, 12:00   #20
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Default Re: What stupid stuff have you done?

While working line here at Virginia Tech's airport, we were trying to fuel up a G-IV with our no-so-incredibly-large Jet-A truck and it just wouldn't pump. Our not-so-powerful tug wouldn't be able to drag the G-IV across the airport over to the tank pump, and we didn't want to force the pilot to fire her up, only to waste more fuel, just to go get more. Our on field mechanic (genius at fixing just about anything from the field mower to whatever aircraft was having problems) came over to look at the truck and started pulling the pump system apart when I looked up and said "wait...what if the truck itself is just low on fuel?"

Sure enough, it was darn close to being out of fuel, so the pump wouldn't turn on because the safety wouldn't let it.

It wasn't really something dumb I did, but I could've spoken up sooner. In the end, the G-IV got out on time and we all laughed about it, so it was all good.


Later, when I was working for IDE at IAD, I got completely owned by the lav cart. I got smurfed. Massively...
Basically, I was trying to put the juice back into a CRJ and the valve at the end of the hose got stuck, but I didn't know because I moved the lever to the open position. Sure enough, the pressure built up, burst the pipe, and turned me blue.

Let me tell you, it was gross. It was a hot day, so I was already sweaty. The blue juice had been sitting in a hot lav cart all day, so it was hot when it hit me. I was then blue, covered in hot liquid, and smelled like a lav, albeit a clean one.

I got several worried looks when I walked through the terminal to go to the bathroom to rinse off.
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Old March 31st, 2008, 12:37   #21
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Default Re: What stupid stuff have you done?

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Haven't really done anything yet but we had a guy pump 200 gallons of Avgas into an MU-2 last week.
Forgot one:
When I was filling up the tip tanks of a Mu-2, I had forgotten to do a half-fill on one side, then move to the other, then come back and fill the first one to the top. Almost tipped the ugly thing over...

Lovely aircraft, the Mu-2...
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Old March 31st, 2008, 12:56   #22
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Default Re: What stupid stuff have you done?

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Later, when I was working for IDE at IAD, I got completely owned by the lav cart. I got smurfed. Massively...
Basically, I was trying to put the juice back into a CRJ and the valve at the end of the hose got stuck, but I didn't know because I moved the lever to the open position. Sure enough, the pressure built up, burst the pipe, and turned me blue.

Let me tell you, it was gross. It was a hot day, so I was already sweaty. The blue juice had been sitting in a hot lav cart all day, so it was hot when it hit me. I was then blue, covered in hot liquid, and smelled like a lav, albeit a clean one.

I got several worried looks when I walked through the terminal to go to the bathroom to rinse off.
Damn. Sort of the same thing happened to me as well when I was pumping blue juice into a Falcon. The hose had a small hole I didn't see and eventually the pressure go to it and a it turned into a huge hole. Didn't get to me but the right side of the Falcon was all blue.
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Old April 1st, 2008, 00:46   #23
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Default Re: What stupid stuff have you done?

Worst I've done is drop a small flashlight into a fuel tank while refueling. NBD, but it was a pain to get back out.
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Old April 1st, 2008, 08:04   #24
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Default Re: What stupid stuff have you done?

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We had a guy back a 6,000 gallon fuel truck into a 172. He didn't realize he had hit something and kept going. Tore off the entire right wing.
Niiiiiiiiiiice. This is entertaining, do you guys have any more?

This one's from a while back but a guy I used to work with opened up both Hangar doors on opposite ends of the MX hangar in order to quickly pull out a buried twin. Well, it was a windy day and the inside of the hangar became a venturi. Knocked a Mooney down off some hoists. You can only imagine the p*ssed off look of the floor mechanics.
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Old April 1st, 2008, 20:58   #25
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Default Re: What stupid stuff have you done?

Working at a smaller GA airport, theres not a whole lot to mess up, but the most stupid thing I have done was not being able to get a fuel cap off an airplane, not because it was sticking (it was a bit though), but I was turning the freaking thing the wrong way.

And trying to start the flight school airplanes with a leaned mixture doesn't work to well either. Damn thing wont turn ov......wtf?.......o...oooooooh
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