after watching preflights on various aircraft i've reached the conclusion that they're really just touching everything to see if it falls apart or not.
They are supposed to check that all safeties are in place and tight, rod end bearings for popping and tolerance, bolts for condition, lines for tightness and condition free of chafing or wear, electrical connectors and wires for breaks and chafing, cannon plus for security, hardware for correct install, blades for cracks and condition, airframe for cracks, engines and transmissions for correct oil level, accumulators for correct precharge, driveshafts for scoring/correct float, and hardware stackups, fuel likes for any leaks, landing gear for cuts in tires/correct height, etc. This guy cruised through without properly checking shit. Normal new pilot bullshit about wanting to make a video, but not doing anything right. Probably why he's still the dude in the copilot's seat.
I'm a retired fixed wing avionics weenie (Bronco, Phantom) later F-16 motor toad/crew chief(cross-training is fun and makes a better technician in general) and actually handling those systems can tell you quite a bit. It's how you detect excessive play in linkages, rod ends etc. You can't see most wear but you can feel a shitload of it! Inspection and maintenance require tactile understanding of systems, not just reading a job guide and eyeballing them. Of course that doesn't mean junior aircrew remember all the details outside their normal tasking (flying is more than enough task saturation) but they know who to ask if they find something questionable.
I once heard that the leaks are from the type of o ring seal used in the connectors that are needed to rapidly remove and replace the engine etc., but that was probably bullshit... so why do they leak so much?
Lol thats what i remember most of all from the military. That an hydrate. You feeling dizzy..Hydrate. You drowning...Hydrate. An ibuprofen for everything.
I had a Chinook CH-47 crewman tell me that one before. "If the helicopter wasn't leaking operating fluids in the cargo area then it was probably out of fluids to begin with." There's a reason people call them Shit Hooks, lol.
Lauren Johnson Yeah, lol. What led you to believe that? The 500 switches and knobs in the cockpit? Or the multitude of systems "under the hood"? Or maybe it was the rotor?
@@cod6guy12 Exactly these are a million times more complex than a car...if you worked on them, then you'd know. The amoint of in depth maintenance required is staggering. I do believe though that the Navy/Marines go a little more in more in depth than the Army...and who gaf about the Air Farce LOL
@@sir.rivers54 Blackhawks have adel clamps everywhere and most of them are in hard places to get your hands, also several other parts are in the most cramped spots, getting to those spots with normal tools can be an exercise in utter frustration.
I LITERALLY just told my wife " Im watching this blackhawk preflight and it reminds me of that 71 chevy I had everyday before going 2 miles to work lolol "
@Ambrose Burnside I am 99% sure he (the OP of this thread) is NOT a pilot, or else he would have used the correct names for the parts of a helicopter. As for me, I AM a pilot (fixed wing), and I hang out with rotary-wing pilots too. The consistent and accurate use of standard terminology can be critical when communicating in aviation, where even simple mistakes can be deadly (not so much in the RU-vid comment section, of course). So, there is indeed some external motivation for my pedantic nature :-)
*The Blackhawk is on helipad and spools up* Why aren't we getting any lift? I'm lifting on the collective and nothing happens. *Looks up and sees that the rotor blades are missing.* Huh.
I watched this video a few years ago and didn't think much of it other than it was pretty interesting. Watching it now, being a mechanic on the CH-146 (militarized bell 412), I've gained a lot of appreciation for the work the Sikorsky engineers put into making it easy to move around on top. Having engine cowls you can stand on is awesome, it makes me a little jealous.
We even have two ways per side to get up top, 1st is by the crew chief's window and the 2nd is aft by the engine exhausts but that one's a pain if YOUR the one opening the cover.
In the Aviation community, especially in the Military, PC is short for Plane Captain, which of course is not an actual Captain rank or an officer. PCs are actually Enlisted personnel. Basically, a PC is in responsible for Daily Aircraft Inspections, Aircraft Maintaining such as the servicing of oil and or fuel, and just basically Aircraft related matters overall. Then after that, the Pilot inspects it again, which is a Pre-flight, much as what the guy is doing in this video.
@@gonzalinator8764 I was talking about programming. I dont think theres enything with... Lets say for example "C++ how to make a TTS" related to aviation &/ military
@RomeoPapaCharlie Ehh i think the bot is doing sudo "supervised learning" (Giving the awnser the bot got and testing if the awnser was correct via us looking at the video) by seeing if the things it recommends you are the correct things. Aka if you click and watch most of the video
Wow, as a person who never worked in aerospace or been in the military, it's astonishing how complex those machines are, we take for granted that it's a helicopter and it just flies around this and that, you'll never appreciate the complexity of it until you see a video like this. Thx for sharing.
You should try working on them. I thought it was complex just learning about them back in school, when I hit the fleet and started wrenching, it is so much stuff packed into so little space. This video is just the tip of the iceberg, a simple preflight check. Difficult at times, for sure. But I wouldn't trade it for the world. Hooyah, Airframes!
I’m glad that aviation hasn’t faded for you. I’m thinking of going into the coast guard or air force and fly these beasts. They‘re incredible. Finishing up my private pilots license but I’m sure I have a long way to go after that. Want to keep the generation of military flight up since it has ran through my family since my great grandfather.
This isn’t even a full preflight, not even close actually. He did not check the nose, landing gear, tail rotor, cabin, tail rotor driveshafts, the other side of the cockpit, etc. there’s a lot more that goes into it than just his side of the cockpit and up top.
Zeze Andjr when I joined the Airforce to be a aerospace propulsion mechanic I thought they were simple till I actually got to look at the engine of a c130 and saw how much goes into it
Let's get one thing straight for the gentleman... Helicopters don't really "fly" per se as they just beat the air with their rotors until the air finally yields.
That crash was caused by bad situational awareness caused by weather and by Luke not being instrument rated. You can only fly by the seat of your pants for so long. But in his defense, I believe the CFR recorded him saying something like, "All the scopes are dead," which would make one believe he had a clogged pitot or other such malfunction, maybe icing in the upper atmosphere.
I love that there's like five fasteners to keep the lid of the footstep on the side of the door shut, but only two fasteners for the hatch on top leading to all of the crucial components of the helicopter.
I noticed that the spurving bearings on the turbo encabulator looked dry. I would have one of the flight mechanics lube those ASAP so that the lunar wayne shaft doesn't develop side fumbling and lose a differential girdle spring causing damage to the panometric fan. Serious issues could result.
On a side note I worked on big rigs for a couple years and the first thing I noticed about this video was how CLEAN the engine is. At the end of each work day a truck mechanic looks more like a special ops soldier hiding out in a cave.
I really wish there were more videos like this. Seems like the only videos that aren't high level propaganda are declassified training videos.... Very cool! Thanks
I agree, also I think just random videos like this of people doing other trade work would be hella interesting too. idk why but these vids really are relaxing to watch especially with the limited talking.
because now you know how to check a couple of dipsticks on a black hawk? you can crawl all over them at some local airshows... get out of the house once in a while...
They may have already been checked. At a time of war, they may get up in the a.m. and check them, so they can go at any time of the day. There are also different checks with varying degrees of thoroughness.
I’d like to thank you on behalf of all of my taliban colleagues! You have no idea how immensely you have helped us figure out how to handle these things.
As a Huey mechanic from Nam days I was "excited " to have crossed paths with this video . My word there's a whole lota going on with the Blackhawk . Highly likely I'll be replaying this video over-an-over in slooooow moootion to absorb it all . Gads , maintaining the Huey is cake walk compared to what it must be like to maintain this . thanku thanku thanku
probably. it is dual turbine after all. The whole thing is probably excessive. If you guys thought that was complex, you should wish you could find out about the computer. The onboard computer can probably detect and warn about any kind of failures or mechanical issues. It's probably more complex than the heli itself. So it would probably let you know if there was a problem and you probably don't have to look like that. I think the only reason they do look like that is just to make sure nothing came loose, and nothing started leaking. You probably don't even have to look at that every flight as it's so unlikely to to happen. You can probably get away maybe checking every 5 or 10 flights. Any kind of issue usually has long term effects so spotting it isnt really an emergency, and the computer would let you know if something bad is slowly happening. But at the same time, this is a helicopter, a very low flying machine. It's not a plane where you can just bail with a parachute. If it catastrophically fails you probably have less than a minute before you die. They probably constantly and thoroughly check the aircraft strictly out of fear and the risk of losing the asset. There isn't any kind of a safety net, a parachute, a back up motor. If the thing breaks down, everyone dies.
You know that getting a catastrophic failure in a helicopter is safer than on a plane? If anything happens the heli can just autorotate and land safely most of the times And no, if I were a pilot I would not depend on a computer to tell me if something wrong or not, if safety regulations says I must check the aircraft every time before take off I will, there's a reason why it's written like that and I don't want to find out why the hard way
@@francisconov5664 lol most of times. Also, the planes fly way higher, if parachuting its defiantly safer via plane. Also, you got like a minute to hit the ground. The turbine and rotor has to slow down before you can glide down. idk how auto rotating would work at a height of a 1000 feet.
One of the best aviation maintenance videos I've seen, well done. And that's a very useful device at 2:00 , I usually suffer a number of bruises in order to crawl up on a Mi-8. Well, I guess that's what 'user-friendly' means.
Oh man, 2:00 is where I immediately went, "welp, stayin' for all ten minutes now; I don't know what I'm looking at, but I'm pretty sure I'm in love with it."
"Can you teach me how to preflight my Blackhawk" "Yea, sure" *4 hours later* "How many hatches left" "Uhm, about 4 but theres alot more to check" *"I regret buying this"*
It's amazing btw that the little doors for all the engine parts etc..are held together with small ikea door locks..how it stays locked while in flight... 🤷♂️
When i was a child i dreamed of one day having the honor to repair and maintain these machines...Due to my poor health it will forever be just a dream...
Yeah, have you tried the Civilian route? I mean sure it's not the same thing but just think the Blackhawk was designed, built, and tested by many Civilians.
@@ThunderAppeal Oh that sucks man, I hope someone with the necessary knowledge would pass by and help you. Hold on just a few more months, you're almost there.
Former Navy Seahawk mech here. I envy your blackhawk. You'd have a stroke trying to do ours. The ECS is located in the right compartment of the APU, we have 300lbs worth of blade fold equiptment built into the rotorhead, a 3rd hydraulic pump in the oil cooler bay, the transition section full of comms crap that may be easier to chexk vs yours...... Also, your bifalar weights looked so clean. Grab any seahawk and you'll see we grease the piss out of them. lol Oh yeah, our ECS motor looks a hell of a lot bigger with a sight gauge that you can never see. I forgot to mention, we dont have keys hahahaha
Alfredo Pacheco Jr did you mention there is no damper accumulator God this is awesome!!! What about the luck of swivel fittings, flotation bags, main rotor brake, 4th utility hydraulic pump??? Flotation pressure gage, tail landing gear and lot of other!!! They said that the metals of the gas turbine in sea hawk is totally different that's why the engine t 700 in black hawk and sea hawk are not inderchangable and cost 3 times more couse work in salty environments. Regards from Greece
I'm impressed how well thought blackhawk is. All inspection without additional platforms/stairs. Especially engine covers and movable platform under the hood
I'm in Aviation Maintenance School right now and it amazes me how many of the guy's there don't like helicopters.. But I absolutely love them!! Keep up the great work and thank you for your service. Will you be uploading more video's?
I like the helicopters. My tech school was heavy aircraft.. we had the same length of time. In fact when everyone was gone, I had a whole hall to myself. the chopper guy was my last friend to leave. A lot to learn.
ryan moeller lol yeah, my MOS was electronics and avionics on rotary wing aircraft, and I've worked on both rotary and fixed in the civilian world. I like rotary more :-) they're a feat of engineering and they're awesome. :-)
Pop the hood on that bad boy!!! The crew has done a great job with maintenance,I can see that right quick. All the hydraulics are super dry/clean,crystal clear on the dipstick. This fella doing preflight is thorough. Exactly what ya want in a pilot team. Ouuhraaa!
I find it really funny that the little door covering the already flush step, has 5 keyway latches, while all the other much larger and more critical panels just have 2 or 3 lunchbox latches
Thanks man I got my 2013 from Copart Auction and it just got back from the shop I've been spending my whole Sunday in the garage to get this bad boy started as a gift to my son's Highschool graduation.
I'm so jealous. I had originally been slated for a blackhawk repairer contract when I found out I had slight color deficiencies. It was my plan ultimately to become a pilot for our state's aviation wing. I ended up going 88M instead. Though to be honest, this reminds me a lot of the PMCS we do in our motorpool!
This is MOS 15T right? I am about to go to recruiter and ask about that job. Because if it's like this I would be so happy. I may also cross train to Pilot as well, think that would be amazing.
As a plane captain on MH-60R’s in the navy I’m still blown away at just how similar everything is. I’ve done hundreds of inspections on our aircraft and hope for the day I preflight my own bird for flight (That’s another story).
There are times I wish I had gone into aviation instead of automotive and Agriculture. Then there are the days where I wonder if I could take having all that responsibility working on something that is flying in the air and may have a loose bolt, lol.
I promise you, if you had there's always a Sargent nearby to remind you of that responsibility. And if you're real lucky he will remind you of it while chewing your ass and never raising his voice. Will make you feel like a small child.
Pretty much. But OTOH, never blindly trust your life to someone else. There can always be obvious faults like a misplaced tool, loose connector or missing cover that are overlooked. In general aviation, you sometimes fly a parabola to listen if any loose objects are still somewhere inside the fuselage, and there aren't many aircraft where this didn't happen at least once. Despite preflights, and (maybe a bit less careful than in the military) mechanics double-checking their work.
@@MarianKeller Yes and no. There are some pilots that are genuinely knowledgeable and really know what they're looking at, the others are just following a checklist. Unless they're a prior maintainer of have been an MTP for a long time, they're really just looking for obviously broken things or FOD. Their expertise is in mission planning and flying the aircraft.
Awesome video guys. I love how this is just another day in the office for the pilots. Just casually doing pre flight checks on their Black Hawk!! Fly safe!
It's a first gen Apple watch and it's still kicking to this day. I've had a few minor glitches here and there, but few and far between. Nothing that can't be cleared with a reboot. It held up impressively well.
