MithShrike
Yerba mate for life.
Thanks for the advice. I'm in AZ so the summer is what I gotta worry about, not the winter.
Any electricians here?
- Thread starter MithShrike
- Start date
cvm4
BoM - July '05 & Dec. '10
I've mainly worked on big jobs (5+ story buildings) and well, you get the picture. Something is always left behind.
My shocking experience came about from overconfidence and wanting to show off a bit.
I was an Air Force weapons troop, and part of my job was maintaining the gun system on F-16's. One of those jobs was performing a functional check on the gun system on a monthly basis.
The M-61a1 20mm gatling gun fires it's ammunition electrically. A round is fed into one of the chambers of a 6 barrel gatling gun, and then the barrel is moved into the firing position. When that happens, the firing pin slams into the primer of the shell and then 300 volts at .25 amps is fed into it which fires the shell.
Well, when you test the gun, you disconnect the lead from the gun itself and then test it to see if the voltage is there when you pull the trigger on the stick. The tester is called a "beer can", and has a transformer in it that steps down the voltage to something that will just lite up an led to show if voltage is present.
One of the steps in the checklist you use is to put the end of the test cable onto a pad of steel wool in order to check and see if there is a short in the cable. I didn't do that step......
I was stationed in Korea, and was dropped off in front of an Arch to do a functional check on an airplane that had not fired it's gun in over a month. I had a rookie "two man" to help me out.
We hooked up the power and air conditioning and started the check. I was on a ladder underneath the gun compartment, hooking up the tester to the gun firing lead, (this was where I skipped the test of the beer can). The rookie was in the cockpit turning on and setting the computers for the test. I was coaching him on what switches to turn on to program the SMS for a gun firing.
After everything was set up I told him to pull the trigger. At that point, I removed the safety pin which provided an electrical disconnect. The next part of the test was supposed to go like this......."trigger pulled, pin removed, light on. Pin in, light off. Release trigger, pin out, beer can set to stray voltage setting, light off".
Unfortunately, I was going from memory and forgot to test the lead. When he pulled the trigger, I was holding the beer can in my left hand, with my right hand holding the connection INSIDE the jet itself. Since the test lead had a short in it, when he pulled the trigger, all of that electicity was sent through my body into the fuel tank I was leaning on. I could NOT let go.
When he pulled the trigger, he was waiting for me to tell him over the comset that I had a light on the tester. Unfortunately, I was being electrocuted and could not speak a word. He sat there for about 10 seconds holding the trigger, waiting for me to talk to him. He finally turned around to the left to see what I was doing, and when he saw me with my hair standing up, eye's bulging, and back arching.......he started LAUGHING at me. This went on for about 7 seconds, and then he said, "oh shit" and let go of the trigger.
I promptly fell off the ladder and lay on the ground twitching. The rookie ran to the phone in the arch and called the MOC and they radioed my boss who drove out and then called the ambulance.
It was not my best moment ever......................
I was an Air Force weapons troop, and part of my job was maintaining the gun system on F-16's. One of those jobs was performing a functional check on the gun system on a monthly basis.
The M-61a1 20mm gatling gun fires it's ammunition electrically. A round is fed into one of the chambers of a 6 barrel gatling gun, and then the barrel is moved into the firing position. When that happens, the firing pin slams into the primer of the shell and then 300 volts at .25 amps is fed into it which fires the shell.
Well, when you test the gun, you disconnect the lead from the gun itself and then test it to see if the voltage is there when you pull the trigger on the stick. The tester is called a "beer can", and has a transformer in it that steps down the voltage to something that will just lite up an led to show if voltage is present.
One of the steps in the checklist you use is to put the end of the test cable onto a pad of steel wool in order to check and see if there is a short in the cable. I didn't do that step......
I was stationed in Korea, and was dropped off in front of an Arch to do a functional check on an airplane that had not fired it's gun in over a month. I had a rookie "two man" to help me out.
We hooked up the power and air conditioning and started the check. I was on a ladder underneath the gun compartment, hooking up the tester to the gun firing lead, (this was where I skipped the test of the beer can). The rookie was in the cockpit turning on and setting the computers for the test. I was coaching him on what switches to turn on to program the SMS for a gun firing.
After everything was set up I told him to pull the trigger. At that point, I removed the safety pin which provided an electrical disconnect. The next part of the test was supposed to go like this......."trigger pulled, pin removed, light on. Pin in, light off. Release trigger, pin out, beer can set to stray voltage setting, light off".
Unfortunately, I was going from memory and forgot to test the lead. When he pulled the trigger, I was holding the beer can in my left hand, with my right hand holding the connection INSIDE the jet itself. Since the test lead had a short in it, when he pulled the trigger, all of that electicity was sent through my body into the fuel tank I was leaning on. I could NOT let go.
When he pulled the trigger, he was waiting for me to tell him over the comset that I had a light on the tester. Unfortunately, I was being electrocuted and could not speak a word. He sat there for about 10 seconds holding the trigger, waiting for me to talk to him. He finally turned around to the left to see what I was doing, and when he saw me with my hair standing up, eye's bulging, and back arching.......he started LAUGHING at me. This went on for about 7 seconds, and then he said, "oh shit" and let go of the trigger.
I promptly fell off the ladder and lay on the ground twitching. The rookie ran to the phone in the arch and called the MOC and they radioed my boss who drove out and then called the ambulance.
It was not my best moment ever......................