Forum: F-16 Procedures

Hi guys,

You know you are in a hurry to launch a jet and the comms cable gets stuck behind the main wheel and the chocks.

You give a good tuck and guess what you lost comms with the pilot because of a crack in the cord somewhere.

So there you are, now you need to finish the checks with hand signals to inform the pilot his checks are ok.

I know that my old unit had these hand signals in the books with the pre,thru, and post flight checkpoints, but where can I find them here on the net or does somebody have them on PDF.

Thanks

Henk

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Look at AFI 11-218 'AIRCRAFT OPERATIONS AND MOVEMENT ON THE GROUND'

also all the handsignals you do are universal (dont see many cargo planes "arming up") so maybe something on a FAA page

During a FCF launch the tail hook is dropped. One time the pilot asked me if it was clear and I said yes.....I didn't notice my comm cord over the chock, BAM cut in half....pilot didn't know why he lost me until I came running out front with what was left. He was laughing his a$$ off. Had to get another cord as you can't do a FCF with hand signals.

Purple

Just found everything you're looking for on the AF Portal/ e-Publishing link/ Product Index/ then up top in short title search...11-218. It's all on PDF and has every known marshalling hand signal be it military, FAA, or international.

Purplehaze wrote:

During a FCF launch the tail hook is dropped. One time the pilot asked me if it was clear and I said yes.....I didn't notice my comm cord over the chock, BAM cut in half....pilot didn't know why he lost me until I came running out front with what was left. He was laughing his a$$ off. Had to get another cord as you can't do a FCF with hand signals.

Purple

Thanks for making me laugh today.. He probably though he killed ya...

Hi guys,

I never had it happen to me Wink

But you never know, I really got a good laugh out of your posting purplehaze.
I know it's kindda hard to do a FCF without comms.
I did see a Aviano CC launch a F-16 during a airshow in the UK these guys where not prepaird for anything.All hand signals He sure knew what he was doing Applause

NO ladder, No headsets, NO nothing but Mr pilot wanted to get the hell out of dodge so they barrowed our ladder and I still don't know why the CC didn't ask for a headset and cable anyway they got it done.

Thanks for all the replies and let more stories come guys I always get a laugh out of these things.

Personally,I had the cable getting sucked up but it didn't break,
it was just like fishing,you know EPU check and forgot to get the rest of the cable in my hand and there it went in to the intake.
I would say I got lucky.

Thanks

Henk

As was said, the AF TO covers the 'official' hand signals, although there are quite a few more that are used from aircraft to aircraft, some of which are pretty much agreed upon, and some that are made up at the moment...

...over Columbus Day weekend 1987 we Hurri'vaced out of MacDill to Dobbins. I was only a couple of weeks out of FTD and was just getting normal launches down, so I was a little shocked when we were launching the birds for home and they told me that there were no com cords...

"Just use your hand signals"

It was going pretty well during my first launch (we had a dozen Crew Chiefs for eighty-four aircraft and I'd already told the IP that I'd probably be making at least parts of it up as I went) when I got up to the brake check. I drew a complete blank... So, doing my best improvisation I stood on one foot, pointed the other at the jet and pushed the toe of my boot in and out, I thought the pilot was going to fall out of his ejection seat laughing. When we stepped off the C-141, back on the MacDill ramp, a couple of hours later the rest of the AMU was standing there waving their toes at me...

Oh well...

Here's another example from http://www.lucky-devils.net from the Gulf (yes, me again...)

Quote:

“Boom, boom, boom, boom-boom, boom” Deep, heavy concussions roll across the flightline that I can easily hear over the jet’s inlet scream. I look around quickly and back to the aircraft. A second glance shows everyone else looking, and then running for the sandbag bunkers that surround the flightline and that the security police had raised their Mk 19 automatic grenade launcher to the firing position. I wave away the guys that had come out from under the jet and give PJ, who can see little of what is going on, the ‘fingers across the throat’ sign to shut down. Knowing that something was up, PJ camly hunches his shoulders and raises his hand and asks, “What’s up?”

With visions of F-4 Phantoms mortared in their revetments in Vietnam, and feeling very exposed - and by this time – alone, on the flightline, I was at a complete loss for what hand signal might express our current situation…

I made a gun with my fingers, pointed it at the cockpit, and ‘pulled the trigger’ a couple of times. That obviously did the trick because PJ now looked as anxious as I felt, the throttle pulled straight to cutoff and the canopy was coming up. We hadn’t brought an entry ladder with us and PJ wasn’t waiting.

Mike

I work at an Alert site. Not only do we have training procedures for "Comm Out" launch, we practice then from time to time so that each of us are comfortable with this. As much as we'd like to have perfect equipment, sometimes things happen and comm cords or headsets break, sometimes at the worst possible time. When the Klaxon goes off and you have no comm, you've got to press on. We recently had this very thing happen during a MAJCOM inspection with inspectors over our shoulders. The two crew chiefs immediately figured out that they had a comm out situation (broken wire in a comm cord) and rolled right into our comm out procedures. They started the jet, did all the required checks, armed the missiles and launched the jet in the same amount of time as we normally do with good comm working. We received major kudos’ for our actions in the after action inspection report.

It can be done, and done safely.

I think its easier and quicker to launch comm out than to do with listening to the pilot grunt and groan when sh*t isn't working like usual Smile

Comm out launches are great until he has a redball and needs to actually talk to a grinner. You can use standard hand signals for pretty much everything until you do the brake check. Then I would just get my B man to go out and relay pumping fist motions for brake/no brake. Flight controls the pilot can pretty much do by himself anyway.

Weasel_Keeper wrote:

Just found everything you're looking for on the AF Portal/ e-Publishing link/ Product Index/ then up top in short title search...11-218. It's all on PDF and has every known marshaling hand signal be it military, FAA, or international.

Nope. These are what we called the NATO hand signals for the AIR FORCE. Nothing in there on what the heck the Sailors and Marines are doing. No signals for:

Weapons Safe
Extend/retract slats
Ready for Push Back
Catapult engaged
and all the maintenance ones used for redballs
Radar
Comm
LOX
switch inop
Weapons
INS
Laser

and last but not least
The Pilots have a completely different set of hand signals that they use with one hand. Can you count to ten on one hand? I can.

maddog2840 wrote:

Can you count to ten on one hand? I can.

You have ten fingers on one hand? Hmmm... standing in front of the radar too long? Or just from... (I was going to say 'West Virginia' but I won't...) No seriously, I know what you're saying.

There are also a lot of aircraft specific, and even base specific hand signals out there, and a lot that are 'informally recognized' rather than listed in the TO.

Mike
...don't hassle me, it's my birthday...

maddog2840 wrote:

Weasel_Keeper wrote:

Just found everything you're looking for on the AF Portal/ e-Publishing link/ Product Index/ then up top in short title search...11-218. It's all on PDF and has every known marshaling hand signal be it military, FAA, or international.

Nope. These are what we called the NATO hand signals for the AIR FORCE. Nothing in there on what the heck the Sailors and Marines are doing. No signals for:

Weapons Safe
Extend/retract slats
Ready for Push Back
Catapult engaged
and all the maintenance ones used for redballs
Radar
Comm
LOX
switch inop
Weapons
INS
Laser

and last but not least
The Pilots have a completely different set of hand signals that they use with one hand. Can you count to ten on one hand? I can.

Damm near everyone I know can count to ten on one hand... your not special! 5 high =5 / 5 low =10 easy as pie

And there are hand signals form most of the items you have listed. I know them do you? ...nope

maddog2840 wrote:

Nothing in there on what the heck the Sailors and Marines are doing.

I have never understood Navy hand signals, nor will I ever. Standard hand signals make a lot of sense to me. I can't figure out what the Swabbies are doing.

Forum: F-16 Procedures

Launching an F-16 with handsignals ONLY