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Up close and personal!

Streakn1

Streakn1

Veteran Expediter
From my days with FECC I know that many of you van and straight truck drivers have had the pleasure of picking up or delivering to an awaiting aircraft at an airport. But how often do you see a T/T, especially one almost 80' long like ours doing the same?

We do so on almost a daily basis with our new carrier. Many times our airport escort will weave us amongst the many parked jets between us and our off-load position. Sometimes we don't have the option to go around the other jets to get there, so we have to practically drive under the tip of their wings VERY CAUTIOUSLY!!! Well, if we hit it, we pay for it, so whatever you do, just DON'T hit it.

Our off-loading position is usually us parked alongside of the jet thats picking up our load since they don't like to carry these expensive engines any farther that needed with the forklift. Many times the tip of the wing will just be clear of our truck to get us as close as possible. Once loaded onto the jet the engine will be flown overseas to most likely a downed jet waiting on the engine to be installed.

In the photo below the engine in the white shipping bag is about to be unloaded by the forklift between us and the awaiting jet behind our truck.

God I love this job!!!
 

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dhalltoyo

dhalltoyo

Veteran Expediter
Cool

I love going out on the tarmac.

It brings back pleasant memories.

My dad was a flight line chief.

Before the days of Achmed the Terrorist and today's ever present heightened security, I used to get up into the ****pit of a B-52 while they performed an engine test.

They anchored down the plane and cracked the throttles.

8 engines....Wow! What a rush! All those neat instruments (8 engines---8 gauges for each level of monitoring).

Dad's office had a small metal box up in one corner. I asked him what that was for. He walked me out into the hanger. The nose of a wing-mounted missle had to have a place to go when they pulled the B-52 into the hanger. Neat!

Thanks for the pics and helping me to remember some great moments of days past.
 
Streakn1

Streakn1

Veteran Expediter
No Steve, still running with the ten side boxes the trailer came with. We are planning to install two more in the future. We will need more storage since we want to buy more fitted engine tarps for the CF-56s like the engines in my signature photo. The three engines in the photo are brand new that we picked up at the manufacturer. We had just finished chaining them to the deck and I snapped the photo before we tarped them. The engines are not allowed to be transported overland with only the (blue) shipping bags protecting them.

Great to hear that your eye surgery went well.
 
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Streakn1

Streakn1

Veteran Expediter
Yea , its quite a rush when they fire up a jet parked next to you and after the tote pushes it out of its slot you can feel the thrust from the engines as it taxis away. Not to many civilians get to experiance that. When they are ready to leave they don't wait for you to finish loading or un-loading. I see the need for earplugs on this job cause it gets really loud sometimes.

Another neat thing is when preping a JT-9 engine ( the reeeally big one) is standing directly in the front of the engine where the fan (turbine) is. These fans are just shy of 10' in diameter! If you ever got sucked into one of these while it was running, it would chew you up like a blender!
 
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Moot

Moot

Veteran Expediter
Owner/Operator
Streak, are the cradles that hold the engine equipped with any type of shock absorbers? What does one JT-9 engine and cradle weigh?

Streakn1 said:
If you ever got sucked into one of these while it was running, it would chew you up like a blender!
Click to expand...

Add some ice and you would have a Red Streak ****tail. (silly censor). I wonder if I can type penistail and get away with it?
 
Streakn1

Streakn1

Veteran Expediter
Yes Moot, the cradles have quite a shock absorbtion system in them. Plus the truck and trailer both have to be air-ride or the shipper wont load you. In fact shock protection is such an issue when it comes to hauling these engines, if you are transporting during the winter months and the chain laws require that you chain up, you are to stop and go no further until chains are no longer required to proceed. They absolutely do not allow the vibration that is caused while running on chains. These engine cost in the millions, running as high as 24-25 mil each.

A fully dressed JT-9 in a stand weighs approximately 18,000lbs.

I wonder how many birds get sucked into these engines while in flight. Don't get a window seat behind the wing! LOL
 
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arrbsthw

arrbsthw

Expert Expediter
I talked with a couple in Wa that was waiting on a truck
to get there from Miami. They were going to transfer
with them and take load to the Yukon in Canada.
They have been hauling aircraft motors for 2 yrs now and seemed to enjoy their work. Sounds interesting. Glad it's
working out for you.
 
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