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Cockpit Delivery - Hell on Earth
by Gene BuckleI *finally* get home after breaking every moving vehicle law known to humanity on the trip home, (time TO HD, 10 minutes, time FROM HD, 5 minutes - you get the idea) I arrive to find L whining that he needs the trailer tomorrow to pick up a Huey and that I may have to come pick it up from his place. "Bet me", I'm thinking. I've got a 3" diameter, four foot long steel pipe in my hands and all I need is an excuse. He's leaving over my dead body, which considering *I'm* the one with the steel pipe, is highly unlikely.
After much cursing and cajoling, we *finally* get the fuselage rolled off this ancient trailer and on to the new cradles. L couldn't leave fast enough. Twit.
It's discovered by complete accident that someone has already had the windscreen off, saving me from destroying (and thus having to drill out) 50 little screws. Four bolts and the whole thing came off. My friend Dave was working on getting the left hand ejection seat rail off when I started looking between the seat rails and the top of the shop door. I'm thinking - "man, that looks like it could fit." I told Dave to hunker down in the cockpit while Rob & I tried rolling it in. This is quite a feat for Dave since he's 6'8" tall. It cleared the door frame by *less* than one eighth of an inch! :) Dave also has the distinction of being able to tell his friends that he's had a ride in an F-15 with a straight face. As long as he *doesn't* mention that the F-15 in question was missing the back 20 feet and was only moving at a bit less than a crawl, he'll be just fine. :)
After opening up the right-side forward avionics bay, I found that I didn't have an F-15A after all, I had an F-15C. This was later confirmed when we spotted a mostly covered sign on the side of the fuselage that talked about TO 1F-15C-????. This was very cool. The other neat thing that was discovered is that the forward nosegear door was still in place. I pulled the disengage in the landing gear well and it dropped down just like it was supposed to.
The F-15 about to enter her new home!
Dave works on removing the left ejection seat rail.
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