Aircraft Engine Testing Gone Wrong.

Ditto…
Had the HSE come round, was no guards on drill bench, but signage and goggles because the stuff we often drill won’t fit with a guard in place, was surprised she understood and was happy with it

This is an issue that I have a long-term vested interest in. Why? Well, a long time ago, the RAF spent a lot of Her Majesty’s finance in professionally training me to maintain and operate aircraft engines. For 18 years I did this to the best of my ability. My most pleasing and satisfying thought when I left was, nobody around me ever got hurt while under my supervision. Since that time, I have run my own aviation business. It gives me great satisfaction to say that still, no-one has been hurt on my watch (touching large blocks of wood).

Don’t be fooled into thinking we only did everything by the book in accordance with PC and HSE requirements. Often far from it. But we did make sure we did everything as safely as practicable.

Having viewed the various video clips, I managed to frown, laugh, curse, cry, smile and swear in fairly equal amounts.

Without reservation, I endorse baloffski’s post completely. He has put my thoughts into words better than I could manage.

Keep it up out there guys. Don’t stop, keep trying, and use that initiative. But please, please be safe.

camlobe

this could really wreck your day!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4bn1WG5LS0

And some lol

One of the Tesla books give the frequency for liquifying people…

Shame you couldn’t produce a range of subwoofers in the range for the noisy git that parks outside my house and leaves the damn thing playing while he visits the shop.

I think that the pictures refered to should be shown to EVERYONE who works on or around aircraft regardless of how squemish they are. I don’t care if they faint,throw up or have nightmares if it saves just one persons life then it would have been worth it. I see the ground staff at my airport regularly risk themselves around running or spooling down engines. It makes me go cold every time. Yes, I do tell them and yes I have reported this!

I am now and always have been undecided on this. It is well known that different people learn in different ways, some people only need read about something, others just need to be told; some people need to see it and some people need to get hands on. There have been many many studies into how to target everybody’s learning style but at best it becomes a happy medium.

F’rinstance you could have put a thousand pictures of dead people and told me a million times not to get too cocky about nitrogen charging, but until I heard the screams from inside another HAS of a bloke who had cocked his PSI v BAR up and blown his hand off, I was always a bit lax.

Some people will have that Road to Damascus moment after viewing the pictures and never be anything except ultra careful around intakes for the rest of their lives, others will gradually slip back into their old ways.

The only thing that will prevent this sort of thing is proper supervision. Supervision of the sort that talks about the plan, makes the plan and executes that plan. And somebody to watch over the whole event with a cool calm collected eye.

Perhaps with the Viper it would have been better to power the forklift tines down onto the pallet. (With the RB211 a proper psychometric test is in order, that could really be a Darwin Aw3ard winner). I wasn’t there for either event so it would be wrong to condemn.

People take risks in engineering both professional and amateur, every day. Ground Runners do it and vintage car restorers do it, anyone who wields a spanner on anything bigger than a dinky car will have done it. Thankfully we have all managed to get away with it.

(Perhaps I should change my signature bar when answering this thread!)

this could really wreck your day!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4bn1WG5LS0

Ialso at about 80% we were told the frequency the engine resonated at would break down the tissues in the chest….. .

One of the Tesla books give the frequency for liquifying people…

Some bold, possibly foolhardy, people about. BUT we have all done stupid things.
This thread has reminded me of two incidents
First, my over eager pilot started both Derwents together on a night scramble. The resultant “wet start” was something else, we were parked on sand off the runway and the twin 40 foot jet of flame and sand was quite a sight, not to mention the roar.
Second and not funny, when we had just changed from the Mosquito, our armourer sergeant walked round the back of an engine. This of course had been the right thing to do with the Mossie, but the poor bloke was bowled over and blown up against the barbed wire fence. He was not seriously hurt, some bad scratches and a very serious case of sunburn.

I linked them to my mate at BMI and they went round the company, totally agree with you about distribution, they speak volumes..where as a bog standard poster warning people does squat as you get complacent, I do too sometimes around props, though I always rotate them backwards and make sure the keys are in view.

I always go a bit cold when I see stuff like that, if a Gas Turbine goes wrong it doesn’t do it slowly and with any finesse. I would never stop anyone running jets as a hobby but I would take a lot of persuading to be anywhere nearby when they are.

I would agree with you 100% on that! I’m also suprised that there were very few ear defenders in the videos. All jets are loud close up!

The recent incident with a mechanic and a 737 at El Paso should serve as a salutory warning to all – if a bloke with 40 years experience can get caught out anyone can.

(A word of warning. If you don’t know about the El Paso incident I must warn you there are some absolutely horrific pictures of the incident out there so please have a careful think before you Google. They really are graphic and certainly not to be viewed unless you are prepared to be very shocked)

I think that the pictures refered to should be shown to EVERYONE who works on or around aircraft regardless of how squemish they are. I don’t care if they faint,throw up or have nightmares if it saves just one persons life then it would have been worth it. I see the ground staff at my airport regularly risk themselves around running or spooling down engines. It makes me go cold every time. Yes, I do tell them and yes I have reported this!

Rgds Cking

This is neat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEHw9lInIfg

& an operational version

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=5U-grFuXZ9U

Long live the Garden Shed engineer 😎

The two engine escapades in this clip look like fun!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UULJiM0Wefo&feature=related

I am amazed!! someone not only has an RB211-22B bolted down in his back yard, but he is having a go at starting it!! wow.

In 4 years of flying Tristars, back in the 90`s, I had 3 failures and 4 shutdowns on the 22B, (never the tail engine of course) as far as I am concerned his backyard is a GREAT place for that 3 spool, overly complex, vibration intolerent, reverser failing engine,

that said, starting them was always a magical experience, the “rumble” as they accelerate is fantastic, and starting 3 would always turn LGW IFR with the smoke, (weeping seals they would tell me) still…loved it!

I am not sure he would be wise to get it up to full chat, but the start sequence alone is most of the fun.

Well done!!

These should remind you a bit then:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvi0BqsC5gU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=8DfTX-IAkdg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djTeW9mV8sw&feature=related

DAI

Ok I have cleaned the thread up and removed some posts and quotes etc as well as changed the title. Can we move on now and continue with videos being posted of engine runs that dont pan out like they should?

I am amazed!! someone not only has an RB211-22B bolted down in his back yard, but he is having a go at starting it!! wow.

In 4 years of flying Tristars, back in the 90`s, I had 3 failures and 4 shutdowns on the 22B, (never the tail engine of course) as far as I am concerned his backyard is a GREAT place for that 3 spool, overly complex, vibration intolerent, reverser failing engine,

that said, starting them was always a magical experience, the “rumble” as they accelerate is fantastic, and starting 3 would always turn LGW IFR with the smoke, (weeping seals they would tell me) still…loved it!

I am not sure he would be wise to get it up to full chat, but the start sequence alone is most of the fun.

Well done!!

I think I will stick to piston engines those jet engines look like they are going to explode into a thousand pieces like a bomb, when I was a very small child we used to have a black and white telly that used to make a noise like that as its tubes warmed up I used to hide behind the sofa. 😮
Then first time in started my Meteor was in my garage although it was firmly attached to the my Spitfire, it frightened the life out of me not to mentioned nearly gassing me to death with carbon monoxide within seconds !!!!!!!!!!

I personally think that a quick apology from TT would be in order here, and possibly a change in the thread title is needed as well.

Some of you need glasses, read the posts.

TonyT –
Merlinpete is a hero of the highest order and the world would be a boring place without him. He’s also helped me a lot over the years – often at a cost to himself and he’s an excellent engineer and a nice guy to boot.

Please drop it!

Not even Ear Muffs in some cases……

A guy was killed here last year by a turbine engine from a C130 ( but without the prop fitted ) . He was a trained tech , working for a well known company , with the engine mounted in a proper teast rig . Most people were in disbelief that such a small engine could ” bite ” , but it did !
What some of the videos posted here portray is little short of Russian Roulette ( with nothing but ear muffs for protection ) ! Still , I had a good chuckle at a few of them . Thanks .