ADRC Ev Littlefield. A friend gone too soon…
We gotta get rid of those turbines, they’re ruining aviation and our hearing…
A turbine is too simple minded, it has no mystery. The air travels through it in a straight line and doesn’t pick up any of the pungent fragrance of engine oil or pilot sweat.
Anybody can start a turbine. You just need to move a switch from “OFF” to “START” and then remember to move it back to “ON” after a while. My PC is harder to start.
Cranking a round engine requires skill, finesse and style. You have to seduce it into starting. It’s like waking up a horny mistress. On some planes, the pilots aren’t even allowed to do it…
Turbines start by whining for a while, then give a lady-like poof and start whining a little louder.
Round engines give a satisfying rattle-rattle, click-click, BANG, more rattles, another BANG, a big macho FART or two, more clicks, a lot more smoke and finally a serious low pitched roar. We like that. It’s a thing…
When you start a round engine, your mind is engaged and you can concentrate on the flight ahead. Starting a turbine is like flicking on a ceiling fan: Useful, but, hardly exciting.
When you have started his round engine successfully your Mechanic looks up at you like he’d let you kiss his girl, too!
Turbines don’t break or catch fire often enough, which leads to aircrew boredom, complacency and inattention. A round engine at speed looks and sounds like it’s going to blow any minute. This helps concentrate the mind!
Turbines don’t have enough control levers or gauges to keep a pilot’s attention. There’s nothing to fiddle with during long flights.
Turbines smell like a Boy Scout camp full of Coleman Lamps. Round engines smell like God intended machines to smell.
Pass this on to an old guy (or his son, or anyone who flew them, ever) in remembrance of ALL those who know the meaning of BMEP.
Yes, the Connies had the ‘short’ stacks, so this was normal to see ‘fire’ out of every engine…
I was stationed at Otis AFB, MAss from July 66 to Dec 67. Where the EC-121 Connies flew recon flights as part of the Air Defense Command. Problems were a constant with those planes where there were many that were lost over mechanical problems. As far as I know only one crew member survived over at least 3 or 4 crashes that occured while I was there. A lot of paper work and a very sad moral took over when another plane went down.
Well, perhaps true, John — and I distinctly recall referring to the power recovery turbines as parts recovery turbines — but c’mon. There’s nothing like a bog round engine firing up… (unless it is a big American V8 just sitting there, idling?).
And the Super Connie, in all its variations, is still to my mind the most beautiful aircraft ever built (you early Spitfire fans, hush up).
Now and again, the B-29 “Fifi” will cruise by where we live. When you first hear the base note of those R-3350’s, you know who’s coming. If that song doesn’t call to you, we can’t be friends.
I still remember the checklist. Pull Three blades, cuss her for 15 seconds. Pull three more blades.
…It didn’t work if you stood there and timed it. The A&P was right; you had to cuss her!
I had a chance to fly on a couple of B-17’s. First thing I noticed were the pans under each radial to catch the dipping fluids. Start up and warming up the engines seem almost as long as the flight. Aircraft seemed to shimmy the whole way to the runway. Full power with the brakes on was like being on a thoroughbred waiting for the race gate to open.
Loved every second of it.
I was near San Jose airport when one of the B-17s was in town. A most wonderful sound. Flyover Falls is host to an F-15C training wing; lovely planes, but I’m glad we don’t live near the airport. OTOH, they’ll fly overhead when the pilots go out to play air-to-air, but 25 miles from the base, they’re not that low or loud. Usually.
Re B-29: I’ve read that the aircrew would do the magneto drop tests during the takeoff run on the island airstrips. Apparently fire was a major issue until it got sufficient airflow.
The sound of a radial engine is like the sound of a Harley. There’s nothing that can reproduce that sound. I’ve never been close to one at start, but know it would make me smile.
John- Yep, the Air Force seemed to have more problems with them than the Navy did.
Ian- Concur, she was a sweet, soft ride too!
RHT- Yep!
Dot- LOL, true!!!
Gerry- If they’re NOT leaking, something is wrong!!!
Jess- Yes!
I flew on a commercial Connie from San Diego to New Mexico in about 1962, I still remember it. I was glued to the window the whole time! I don’t remember any of my jet airliner flights.
I got a couple flights in a 1947 Piper Cup, those were memorable! Tandem 2 seater, the pilot in the aft seat, exposed frame with the outer skin RIGHT THERE. Loud, vibrated, bounced around in the air, it was real flying!
Got out of the Air Force in ’73, Joined the Cal Army Guard in ’84. Flew to MinneSOTA on a C-130 for winter survival school.
RC- Yep, 29s were ‘touchy’ to put it mildly…
Tree- That must have been fun!
I remember that ADs were aircraft engine mechs, Old NFO. I presume the “R” was for radial?
TB- You are correct… ADR (radial) ADJ (jet)
Never started a round engines but have hand propped many flat engines. Once observed a Jacob in a C-190 being started. Seemed to need three people. One in the cockpit, one standing by the engine, and one standing by with a fire extinguisher. All three were sailor fluent.
My earliest memory is of the blue flame of exhaust stack on a Flying Tiger Line 1049 G going from Burbank to Newark. We were family and could ride on some flights. Thank you for the memories.The only round engine I ever got to start was a 985. No Brake Mean Effective Pressure on that one. Just Manifold pressure and rpm. Not like a R3350 or R2800
I sent J.L. an email last week. I had the wonderful experience of taking a ride on Doc B29 on the 21st of April. She was in Abilene for the airshow. They had one last ride available for Monday morning before flying to Arizona. One item off a short bucket list. It was great. Awesome experience of listening to the pre flight check off and engine start up. Those 18 cylinder radials are great engineering achievements. They are still in use around the world despite the jet age. At the air show I got to see “That’s all, Brother” close up. I am going to monitor where she goes because that is the next ride I want to take. They also had a Grumman F6F Hellcat at the show. I used to think the P51 or the Corsair were my favorites but that Hellcat really got me pumped. I just wish they had a Hellcat two seater that gave rides. I might have to find a TBF Avenger to catch a ride on. They had one there also and the flight crew for it were awesome and really liked to talk about the WW2 warbirds.
WSF- LOL, yep, ‘fluent’ in sailor is ‘almost’ a requirement!
Jay- Neat!
Houston- So glad you got to do that! My favorite is still the Corsair!
Some engines don’t understand plain English anymore. You have to use Sailor or Marine at them. (Not that I’ve ever worked on one of those, or flown behind one. I just heard about it from someone who did. Really.)
VR-7 Det A was my first Navy squadron in ’64, flying tke last 4 C model Connies in the AF inventory. Loved flying in that airplane. Went on from there to VP-1 flying the SP-2H with the R3350’s. Our “Plane Captain” (What we would call the Flight Engineer today) let me do the engine start on a maintenance turn once, with the caveat that if I “Backfired” it I would owe him a case of beer. This Tweet got it right the first time so he bought me a beer. Good times…