F-16: The Annoying Side(s)

As most of members of this forum are like me , we tend to mostly think about the advantages the Viper has over other airplanes, but rarely do we discuss the negative sides. It would be interesting to hear from the pilots and ground crew any small thing that is really annoying .

For my self I can mention two things that used to get me going, and that was the changing of the two flight control batteries under the nose, in front of the intake, and to reconnect the accelerometer pack located under the ejection seat after certain tests. These tasks may be different now, but on block 10/15 they were a pain in the a$$.

Morten

For a crewchief the new paint that they are using coming out of CCIP is about as clean friendly as pigpen from peanuts is. Additionally, the way the hydraulic filter bowls are removed is a real PITA!

THE GUN SYSTEM, sure I could do one in my sleep now but it is the dumbest thing, Jeez ya have pull the gun apart just to get it out of the jet, not the system apart the dang gun itself.

Filter bowls as already mentioned.

10 friggen screws on one little panel on the side of the weapons pylons, a panel that can be opened 3 or four times a day, duh!

Wheel speed sensors and the PITA follow on maint, they break all the time.

Nuclear consent switch, try to properly wire and seal that bugger without someone showing you how a couple of times.

Ya ever safety wire the coke bottles in the dark with a little weak flashlight for illumination?

The list can go on and on...

The moronic idea of having two different engine types requiring two different airframe types to match the engine. Big mouth / Small mouth nonsense. Should have been: 1 jet 1 type of hole to fill. I don't care if their are two engine vendors, just as long as there was a spec written that either engine had to go into one airframe seemlessly. A complete waste of taxpayers money. The idea originally as sold to congress ( or as lied to congress ... pick one ) was that the jet would use the same engine as the F-15. So much for supply chain management. Oddball things now like: Recently, Toledo and a few other places ( Oklahoma and somewhere in Arizona... ) got Block 42s for the very reason that more F-15 engines were needed, so there would be less PW engine F-16s using up F-15 resources. Duh! Which leads to: Be nice if we spent.... just a little more money on sustaining what we have.

The Block 70 thread should keep an eye on this thread, as this is where the really valuable lessons on what needs improving, and for very litle money, can be found.

The F-16 Eng bay pnls, including the Ventrals!!! hundreds of tiny apex bits, you WILL have struck screws!! On the 15 they at least made the Fasteners bigger with less of them, much easier to remove. Also the entire Nose of the 16, lots more fasteners to open a CB pnll!!! how fricken lame. You can De-Pnl a 15 nose in less then a minute using a snoopy tool!! I can also vouch for the CCIP paint, it also acts like Glue to hold the fasteners in place, better get the “burp gun” when you try to de-pnl one of those for the first time!!! And as I mentioned earlier, no internal ladder THAT is a pita!!! And the ladder that they do have always seems like it’s on the verge of falling apart when I climb on it!! UN like the Beefy F-4 and F-15 ladders.

Changing a throttle grip with the ambient temperature less than 45 degrees is an adventure in itself.

Oh yea Static dischargers, they are always coming loose and falling off, why is it that EVERY aircraft manufacturer can build aircraft with out them but not GD/Lockheed... you cant tell me its because of the Flight control system as 18's don’t have them, but F-111s did!!! The JFS system is overly complicated too, once again the 15 has it Right..

Oh yeah the integrated Tank/Pylon combo for the wing tanks, another pita. Extra weight to lug around and it makes hanging the tanks more difficult then it has to be. Once again 15’s tanks are a breeze to hang, more like hanging a travel Pod. lift and click!! When empty the tanks can be lugged around by two people. Makes re- configs much easier!! Also all the tanks are the same, yeah I know that would be a tough one for the 16…

a nice thing they could add would be an inverter so you can check LOX & fuel levels with out plugging in a 60 all the time!!

Erik, I couldn't agree more, the gun can be done quickly, but can be a real pain! Don't forget the matrix swaps, leading edge harness replacement

From the pilot side of the house:

• Ladder (as previously mentioned)
• MFD night lighting, and how the settings only apply to one page
• Turning down that obscenely bright cockpit light to a reasonable setting will also turn half the other lights to almost nothing
• The insulation fibers that spray all over the cockpit every time you shoot the gun
• Taxiing when low on fuel and having the nosewheel steering turn off every 50 feet
• All the odd little external gauges and delta-p's that are designed for optimum reading difficulty and require some yoga training
• That after 25 years of having this jet, the engineers can't get the STORES CONFIG caution light criteria to work correctly
• Having to keep track of 69 different cart settings (must be even worse when you have to set the carts)
• Trying to see the left or right console while wearing a poopy-suit and combat-edge
• Trying not to piss all over yourself when wearing a poopy-suit
• Wearing a poopy-suit

I'm sure there's more but I just try to think about the good.

Yep the leading edge all accounts, the JRRIU, Matrices, Harnesses, and for the CC the dang Rotary Acc. and removing the LEF itself. Station 5 matrix, the harness is in upside down, the harness screws are loosened from the bottom, also the dang screws to attach it to the bay bulkhead are blind you can't see them and holy Hannah if you drop one under the PDU!

STBYGAIN cart setting, you mean the orifice settings in the MAU 12? That is a pain for the loaders for sure!

Yep, orifice settings for any jettisonable station (not including the -370's.)

Interesting reading.

Do two seaters have any additional 2 seater specific PITA stuff on them ?