You caught me ! You can't believe how hard it was to paint that little bitty orange cone and get it juuuust right !
For those of you who don't know, I'll give you a little background.
3 years ago the Collings Foundation experienced FOD damage to its #2 engine. While a big deal it shouldn't have been a traumatic issue. You see we have 5 engines in storage at AMARC that the Foundation was allocated at the same time the aircraft was released by Congressional action. In our contract with the USAF they are listed as designated spares for the Collings Foundation F-4.
When a spare was requested the USAF balked, saying that they couldn't release an engine without first demilling it, which would render it useless. A signed copy of the agreement signed by the Collings Foundation and USAF representatives was produced and the 2 star in charge of Air Force Material Command determined through his lawyers that the contract signed in 1999 wasn't any good because the AF personnel who signed it
were not authorized. The engines are still at AMARC.
With a WIXers help the two engines pictured on the truck were located, found to have good records and a clear ownership record.A deal was struck to acquire them. They went directly to Aero Turbine in California for assessment, repairs, and test cell runs. Because of the AF delay and Aero Turbine's workload, we were now into our second down year.
We recd the engine in Houston and reeinstalled it. As we ran it the engine began to develop an oil leak that was internal. This was most probably due to the engine's many years of inactivity and the more we ground ran it, the more it leaked. Not excessive, but GE says no oil leaks allowed from this area. The problem turned out to be a bad carbon seal.
The engine was sent back to Aero Turbine who worked the engine back into their schedule and changed the seal out. They sent it back to Houston last year just before Thanksgiving and we reinstalled it. We ran the engine and detected an oil vapor coming from the same area on the rear turbine frame. As you can imagine we were all pretty distressed at this point. Including Aero Turbine. We pulled it immediately and sent it back to them. Eventually they were able to get back to it about Jan 1st. The new carbon seal had a small crack. The crack was allowing a small amount of oil and compressed air to exit from the number 4 strut on the rear turbine frame.
We went out last week to watch the test cell run and the engine passed with flying colors. We recd the engine on Friday and installed it yesterday.
Our biggest fear right now is the 2000 miles of highway between Stockton, CA and Houston. We've shipped the engine per the USAF TO every time and no one can give a better idea of how to safely ship it.
It has now been three years since the original engine was damaged, it's past time to get her back in the air. We'll let you know when it happens.
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I dread to think of the challenge of keeping a beastie like this going!
