Another non-political B-52 tale: THE POOH CHECK By Wilton Strickland
When Lt. Russell joined our B-52G wing at Robins AFB, GA, in 1965, as a new and naive co-pilot, he did not appear to be old enough to shave. He was lucky (or unlucky) enough, though, to join a crew of pranksters who quickly taught him the "ropes." One "training session" involved checking the tail pipes of the B-52 engines for possible cracks by performing a POOH CHECK. On his first day on alert, his fellow crewmen learned that Lt. Russell had never been qualified in performing this critical and very important engine examination. His crew commander was quick to teach him the details of such a task normally performed by much more experienced pilots and engine mechanics. To do a proper POOH CHECK, one must stick his head far up into the engine's tail pipe and say in a clear but not terribly loud voice, "Pooh!" letting the "ooh" part of it sort of ring at a higher pitch than the beginning "P". Then the checker must listen for the resounding echo. If the echo does not come at the right pitch, the tail pipe has a significant crack and must be checked by an appropriately qualified engine technician. The checker can repeat the check by saying, "Pooh," into the tail pipe and listening for the proper echo 'til he's satisfied with the results. Sure enough, when the crew was performing the preflight inspection in preparation for their next training mission, another member of the crew observed the co-pilot with his head sticking way up into an engine's tail pipe and saying, "Pooh!" They let him check all eight engines before anybody let him know they were "pulling his leg." The young lieutenant obviously learned well, though. About 10 years later, he was one of the most experienced and knowledgeable instructor pilots in our B-52H wing at Kincheloe AFB, MI.
_______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com All posts are the result of individual contributors and as such, those individuals are responsible for the content of the post. The list owner has no control over the content of the messages of each contributor.
