Forum: F-16 Design & Construction

Sounds like more reasons a private citizen in his right mind wouldn't want to own a Viper!

I want to make sure I got this right. The pilot at the airshow told me that this is the exhaust for the EPU. I want to make sure before I upload these pics to the photo album with a possibly wrong caption. Thanks again guys!

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Correct, EPU exhaust. The little door behind it is the access to the EPU nit., pressure guage and oil sight glass. On the D model the oil level is correct when it shows a bit above the go markings. The drain you see marked there leads up to the EPU and under the tank. If H70 where to leak it most likely would come from there. I see a touch of Hyd fluid which within reason is normal. More so if the jet was in the rain or fresh from the wash rack. Notice the little H70 detector puck is orange/pink colored, you want that not black or dark like an ink pen. That is a bad day. The vent forward, right, is the gun rounds limit access. We open that little hinged vent for quick access to rnds limiter, that keeps pilots from shooting to much during training. For combat we turn the switch off. To left is the EPU compartment vent.

EriktheF-16462, thanks! You are a gentleman and a scholar Very Happy

. I didn't know that was the H70 detector, but I'm glad it was the right color! There was another indicator that the pilot pointed out to me on the starboard side of the intake that he said also has to do with the EPU and H-70. It was a very dark color when we looked at it which he said was normal. This is the best pic I have and I'm pretty sure this is what he was talking about. Could you please confirm this for me?

I wasn't aware that you could limit the gun. Sounds like a good idea - we wouldn't want those pilots getting too trigger happy, now would we Wink

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That is the EPU fired indicator it will display bright silver triangles if teh EPU has been fired. You reset it by removing the panel and turning it . They used too trip if the jet touched down too hard, that was fixed by the edition of rubber grommets under the mount.

Rigo

Thanks Rigo Very Happy

! It's nice to know someone's here to save me when I can't remember something.

The rounds limiter makes scoring a little easier, too, as you know how many you've expended. I'd love to open up with all 510 rounds, but that would be about fifteen trips around the strafe pattern and we like to have the gas for dropping bombs at the range, too. It's also used as another backup to the gun safety mechanism; when the gun is 'cold' the rounds counter is set to 990, so that the jet 'sees' no available rounds. Of note, roughly 8 rounds get skipped between trigger pulls due to the gun still rotating but not firing. As far as gun maintenance goes, yes it's pretty easy to access but I understand it involves a lot of maintenance to pull the gun.

Just thought I'd throw out that strafing at night under NVG's is quite the lightshow, more when you are watching your wingman strafe. Watching the bullets hit the dirt is pretty neat.

I hadn't thought about the rounds limiter making scoring easier. I'm just curious, why not just load however many rounds will be used? Is it to make it easier on the next guy who has to load the ammo drum? Also, do those skipped rounds get counted by the rounds limiter? I've seen the pics of the panels off the gun area and pulling the gun looks like it's a chore.

I'd imagine night strafing with NVGs would be quite a light show!

Loading ammo, while not too difficult, is time consuming. Also, the base may not want pilots using up 500 rounds of expensive ammo on one sortie. I'm pretty sure that the gun and the SMS count the rounds that aren't fired as expended. It's all a rough guess anyway, at least as far as the SMS is concerned.

STBYGAIN, thanks for the clarification Very Happy

! I guess it's tough to keep count at that rate of fire, even for a computer. Just curious, does anyone know how much each round of ammo costs for the gun? I'd imagine it's pretty expensive as .50 cal ammo goes for about $3.50 per round on the civilian market. I know the US military gets a bulk discount, but 20MM has to be expensive!

Here's another item that's been bugging me. It's the red box in the starboard wheel well and I've been wondering what it's job is? I guess I'll have to remember to read the labels closer next time, but could someone please help me out on this one? Thanks again Smile

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The battery, not unlike your car. Used for starting and pre-start functions. Can power the FLCS relays for a few minutes, if it has to.

So that's why it says "Warranted Item" on the side and has the dates of entry to and exit from on the side Very Happy

! Now is that a full warranty, or do they pro-rate it like my car battery (just kidding Wink

)? STBYGAIN, thanks again bro!

Acually the arrow is pointing at the gear uplock hook. Wink

As the door closes it grabs the roller on the main and locks the gear up. Kinda neat design but has to be rigged just right. The rollers crack on occasion and the pilot gets a gear unsafe under Gs. We change them often because the are a high wear area.

The batteries also come in blue, but the are in same place on all the blocks I have worked. That is an old block 25 from what I can see.

Also I used to polish my EPU exhaust, it shines up really well. That one looks crappy. I luved my jet when I crewed.

Details, details Laughing

! Thanks for the info, Erik Very Happy

! According to the serials database, 85-404 is a block 25C.

IDCrewDawg wrote:

no problem. I enjoy playing name that part with newer crew chiefs. I once identified a part to a lube gun we use. It was found during one of our FOD walks, when asked what it was I let them know and they didn't believe me untill they went to look at the equipment.

I don't believe it. You probably looked it up on lubegunspotters.net or something. Twisted Evil

, BTW, I am learning lottttts of interesting trivia on this thread. Great job all.

This is fun, like showing you around our jet. I love it. Cool

Forum: F-16 Design & Construction

Please help me identify this F-16 part