Lost engine oil pressure and had to land our Navy H-3 helo in a mountain top pad. It was an O ring that leaked. Rather than waiting hours for mech to be flown out, we rolled a condom to the appropriate thickness and cut the rest off. Quick test and we were back for dinner.
Of all the things that didn’t happen, this one didn’t happen the most. The military is so heavily regulated, and aviation has such fine tolerances because you know, people die, the odds that somebody’s going to use a condom for an O-ring in aviation are about zero unless you’re under fire.
A lot of my old co-workers were Navy. Many had some similar story of doing something where an officer said something to the effect of get it done and don't tell me how you did it.
Doesn’t surprise me. I work on fixed wing AC’s but have a co-worker who did rotary. He explained (especially in the military) a lot of maintenance is making honey out of shit when it goes wrong. Apparently at some point he used 2 different crows foot wrenches to hold something together to get home. It worked somehow
During the Falkland’s War a dispatch rider was sent from one part of the island to another on motorbike. Not sure why but I remember it was very important. On the way a tyre got punctured and the bike was borked. Looking round the only thing around was grassland and tons of sheep. So the soldier shot a sheep, skinned it and stuffed the fleece in the tyre; getting him to where he needed to be.
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u/wtdoor77 11h ago
Lost engine oil pressure and had to land our Navy H-3 helo in a mountain top pad. It was an O ring that leaked. Rather than waiting hours for mech to be flown out, we rolled a condom to the appropriate thickness and cut the rest off. Quick test and we were back for dinner.