I had a unique issue come up on a job type that I have done numerous of. As a customer of mine is digging a trench line the pump coupler (Case 590SM) strips out leaving the machine dead in the water. Hoe boom is in the ditch, outriggers down of course, and the front bucket on the ground. The problem is the machine is going to have to be moved off the ditch line. There is a tree 3 feet in front of the front bucket and back fill dirt on both side of the machine.............so I cant get my truck within 30 feet of the machine. Well, using my crane is out of the question.....and with the machine straddling the ditch line, I cant really get to where I need to even start a teardown. SO, I started brainstorming......thinking the only way this machine is getting moved without screwing up more stuff is its going to have to come out of there under its own power.......hydraulics working and all. The ONLY way is to attempt to tack weld the stripped coupler good enough to work the hydraulics so I can get everything stowed and drive it out. I back the truck up to the machine as close as I can (30 feet or so) , stretch out my welding leads, raise the hood back up, and try to figure out how to get in this compartment well enough to see an arc where I need it. I stand on top of the left front tire, lean over the boom with my head between the fan and the engine. I take the rod and put it straight out the top of my stinger and hold my welding hood with my left hand because there isnt room for it on my head. I get a decent tack on it..........so I start the engine and it immediately breaks my tack weld. So I ponder for a minute, thinking this isn't going to work. Decided to try again, but THIS time I will tack, roll the engine over 180, and put another tack. Started the machine, all good so far............start folding the machine up........then see smoke coming from under the machine. Yeah, started a small fire from the slag (LOL), jumped off the machine and injured my back while I stomped out the fire. Got back on, finished getting everything folded up so I could drive out...........go in reverse about 3 feet and the right rear tire slides in the mud and falls 3 feet deep into the ditch line. I try to pull forward and it just gets worse.....it slides even more and the front right tire slides into the ditch line also. Well, as I sit there almost losing my $%^T...........The only way this is coming out of the ditch is to be pulled out (no other equipment on site of course) or Im going to have to use the backhoe boom with a tacked drive coupler and pray that it holds long enough for me to get out of that dam ditch! I spend 20 minutes raising the back end up and pushing with the backhoe boom and crowd. I remember thinking, "Its going to be a MIRACLE if I get out of this mess". I managed to get the machine pushed out of the ditch, folded back up, and traveled the long way around the job to put the machine in a location where I could get to it for repair. Now here is the comical part of this story. My intent was to weld this coupler well enough to fold the machine up, but be able to break the weld by bottoming out a cylinder at relief pressure. I tried everything I could think of and could not get the tack to break again. I just went ahead and pulled the pump hoping the coupler would come through the pump mount hole, which it did. Hell, I was so proud of that tack weld, I even took a pic of it for you!!! HOW EXCITING IS THAT! I finish the removal of the pump and coupler and now Im concerned that I may have damaged the pipe in the ditch line with the weight and movement of the machine. I call the customer and explain what happened. The more I explain, the more hysterical his laughing gets..........he even asked me if I enjoyed myself! After a few jokes he said he would have his guys check the line this morning. He called to report no damage. 2 things I know as fact. Miracles DO happen, and praying works! The Lord works in mysterious ways! Time for BEER!!!
Even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and then!
No equipment miracles, but one of those blind tack weld jobs that saved a ton of work. The Continental IO-470's in the C310 are laying in beds of structural aluminum, rather than a dynafocal steel tubular mount. Getting the exhaust off requires a ton of patience and a mix of sockets, extensions, and experience and patience. I was pulling it for a repair, and one of the 1/4" studs broke off where it had been corroded. The standard answer is then to pull that cylinder. I had a couple of those half height castle nuts. I tapped one onto the nub, stuck the wirefeed in there, lined it up, closed my eyes and got a great weld on the first go. The heat loosened it up as a bonus! Edited to add a picture. Each stack had 4 studs, and of course the innermost ones are always the problem. Those doors do not come off and the beds they are attached to are structural, and there are no access panels.
There are folks so talented with a gift of gab on here, they should not be mechanician except on the side! Their story telling abilities are top notch. These posts are great entertainment for someone not so talented in either profession....and some are even informative. You can’t find that at the five & dime!
Here in the great white north, you can't touch a bolt on a plane unless you are a certified airframe tech. If you build and have a kit plane certified, you can do your own work I believe on said aircraft. Are the laws the same in Washington state?
I had one that sounds similar to the stuckness of @Vetech63 , though there were no mechanical problems, and really no miracle, just some lucky operating. I was at my buddies digging a trench that I've shown pictures of on other threads. While I was there he asked if I could move a pile of horse manure about 15-20, also stirring it up a bit to help it compost. At the back of his barn is a concrete pad and a few fence posts. The pile was on the end of the concrete pad and while I didn't realize the concrete pad ended it probably wouldn't have mattered and I'd done the same thing. I start shoving this 8-10 foot tall pile as much as possible with the loader bucket, but it amounted to me getting scoops as I drove up the pile, then driving a bit further up the pile to dump it just on the other side. This went fine until I had the pile down to about 4-5 feet high, when my big tires went off the end of the concrete pad. So, on one side I had big pile of horse crap, with my loader side angled up pretty good, front wheels more or less buried in it, to the point they wouldn't turn at all (problem #1). The big tires, as I came off the concrete, ended up dropping about 6-8 inches into the edge of the poop. I was angled a bit into the compost with my front end, maybe 2 or 3 feet from the hoe side and there was a big fence post about 3 inches from my drivers side big tire. So there I sit, unable to drive further in, sliding and digging holes if I try to drive further out, and very little room, due to the post, to use the hoe to drag myself out, not to mention dragging yourself out on concrete isn't very easy anyway. And there are several weird angles happening, the front tires not turning so I couldn't really point them in a beneficial way to assist the movement of dragging myself out. As my big wheels spun I got closer to the post... Stuck in horse poop. After spending about an hour and a half of white knuckle wiggling I eventually got the machine to slide quarter inch by quarter inch, away from the barn, getting my big tires to slowly slide out of the poop but also just missing the pole that was really the biggest culprit of me being stuck. Each quarter inch move I tried turning the front tires just a hair, so I didn't break any axles or rip anything apart. It ended up being extremely stressful but ultimately rewarding as can be to unstick. Beer time indeed! I've gotten stuck several times and it's always very scary for me but man is it great when you feel the machine free up!
They are similar but you can work under the supervision of an a&p.
I live a few miles away from the old CFB Chatham. There are no military planes there anymore, except an old CF-101 on display. The odd C-130 will practice cargo drops, and paratrooper exercises. Mostly civilian aircraft, and every now and again something commercial. At one time the place was a buzz with aircraft. Cutbacks.....