Ventucky Red
Pattern Altitude
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Jon
Mid Day Work Break
- Thread starter Ventucky Red
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MultiMediaWill
Pre-takeoff checklist
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Will
Wow... I bet the engineer didn't know what half the instruments meant.
Threefingeredjack
En-Route
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Threefingeredjack
Why would you say that?? That was his world, and I will wager that a qualified FE could work that station blindfolded. The B-36 was the point of the spear, and second rates never got a chair in one.
Sac Arrow
Touchdown! Greaser!
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Snorting his way across the USA
Wow, where is the commo equipment and the autopilot? Forward of the pilot's throttle quadrant?
Interesting there is six throttle and mixture levers, but only one RPM lever.
Interesting there is six throttle and mixture levers, but only one RPM lever.
Bailey
Filing Flight Plan
I think the prop control on those was electric so no mechanical linkage equivalent to throttle or mixture. Probably a rheostat or something to dial in RPM's.
On another note, I wonder if balancing fuel burn on that thing kept that poor guy up nights?
On another note, I wonder if balancing fuel burn on that thing kept that poor guy up nights?
rottydaddy
En-Route
There's a lot there, but mostly because that bird has so many engines. It's mostly duplication of the same small set of instruments, and it's pretty neatly divided up into sections.
The whole center panel is basically 6 gauges, times 6. Right hand panel is ignition, boost, etc... but again, times 6. Once you identify the section and see how each is divided by engine, it's actually pretty intuitive. There are a few odd things, like fuel gauges on the bottom and flow meters on the top, but that's not too bad.
Took me less than two minutes to suss out the basic groups, from left to right: environment/deice, fire suppression/deice,AC power, engine instruments, ignition/fuel selectors/boost.
I love these old-school panels... so many gauges, switches, knobs, and blinky lights! Doesn't intimidate me, because I am an audio engineer who learned on the old analog consoles. The uninitiated are shocked by, say, a 48-channel audio desk... until I point out that it's really just one fairly simple channel strip, with signal flow from top to bottom, duplicated 48 times. Add submaster, aux and matrix busses, and it looks even scarier... but again, it's just the same thing over and over. The only hard part is making sure you are manipulating the correct channel or buss.
The only people who should have feared these old bomber panels were the people who serviced them.
The whole center panel is basically 6 gauges, times 6. Right hand panel is ignition, boost, etc... but again, times 6. Once you identify the section and see how each is divided by engine, it's actually pretty intuitive. There are a few odd things, like fuel gauges on the bottom and flow meters on the top, but that's not too bad.
Took me less than two minutes to suss out the basic groups, from left to right: environment/deice, fire suppression/deice,AC power, engine instruments, ignition/fuel selectors/boost.
I love these old-school panels... so many gauges, switches, knobs, and blinky lights! Doesn't intimidate me, because I am an audio engineer who learned on the old analog consoles. The uninitiated are shocked by, say, a 48-channel audio desk... until I point out that it's really just one fairly simple channel strip, with signal flow from top to bottom, duplicated 48 times. Add submaster, aux and matrix busses, and it looks even scarier... but again, it's just the same thing over and over. The only hard part is making sure you are manipulating the correct channel or buss.
The only people who should have feared these old bomber panels were the people who serviced them.
MultiMediaWill
Pre-takeoff checklist
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Will
You will enjoy this:
Sac Arrow
Touchdown! Greaser!
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Snorting his way across the USA
Where's the FADEC button when you need it.
It's all about job security!
Shepherd
Final Approach
OUTSTANDING!
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing.
Shepherd
Final Approach
I had an uncle who was a B-29 FE during the Korean War. Survivablility against the Migs was essentially ZERO.
He came back to become a B-36 FE and was more afraid of the B-36 than he was of the Migs. He hated the airplane because of it's tendency to leak 140 octane and spontaneously ignite.