F-22 Raptor grounded by 20000 bees

[~Phoenix~]

Wrecked? Are you insane? Can you read? With this BD air force ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_active_aircraft_of_the_Bangladesh_Air_Force ) I think you are simply jealous.

And you thought that I was serious!

 

[LeGenD]

Admit it folks, bees are the real superpower. :p

 

[jhungary]

The only way bees would have the time to make a 20,000 bee colony is if the F22 is not being flown and maintained enough. Do they put the airplane in a hanger and forget about it?

depends on what kind of checks/maintenance are being perform to the aircraft. Also depending on the ground crew jobs placement.

If the aircraft were in for a overhaul, they will be store for 2 to 3 days so they can be arrange a transport (or in some extreme case, take it apart) to perform the action.

Most airfield have a backlog order of a long list of aircraft waiting to be check, so it's not at all uncommon for an aircraft to sit inside a hanger for 3 to 7 days before somebody have a chance to look at it.

My brother used to be an USAF mechanics.

 

[forsigmar]

depends on what kind of checks/maintenance are being perform to the aircraft. Also depending on the ground crew jobs placement.

If the aircraft were in for a overhaul, they will be store for 2 to 3 days so they can be arrange a transport (or in some extreme case, take it apart) to perform the action.

Most airfield have a backlog order of a long list of aircraft waiting to be check, so it's not at all uncommon for an aircraft to sit inside a hanger for 3 to 7 days before somebody have a chance to look at it.

My brother used to be an USAF mechanics.

Its probably longer that standard 3-7 days. 20,000 bees is bigger than commercial bee starter package.
Could have damaged engines

 

[jhungary]

Its probably longer that standard 3-7 days. 20,000 bees is bigger than commercial bee starter package.
Could have damaged engines

Again, it may still be possible, as I said, depending on the job need to be done and the job queue, USAF is short on mechanic at the moment, so even up to a month is possible IMO

 

[gambit]

The only way bees would have the time to make a 20,000 bee colony is if the F22 is not being flown and maintained enough. Do they put the airplane in a hanger and forget about it?

I take it you speak from extensive personal experience in aviation, particularly aviation maintenance ?

http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/25/europe/bees-car-queen-wales-trnd/

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB115569253608736880

Swarms of bees collecting on things are not uncommon. An airliner may fly daily, but not so with military aircrafts. Sometimes we may fly a jet every day, sometimes it sits for a couple days before it get scheduled on the roster again.

If a jet is in phase maintenance, that means at least a couple weeks of downtime...

https://www.army.mil/article/27690/Phase_maintenance_ensures_aircrafts_remain_battle_ready

It takes two weeks for the aircraft to be stripped, inspected and worked on until it is ready to be moved outside again, Cacdac said.

So unless you actually have experience in aviation maintenance, do not use phrases like 'the only way'. It make you look stupid to those of us who do have real aviation experience.

Looks like you are eager to make fun of US, but since you are new here, take my advice and be careful. In the American contingent on this forum, there are Army, Navy, and Air Force (me) veterans. We will try to be nice, but we have no problems making someone look like an idiot.

 

[Penguin]

And you thought that I was serious!

Sure, you were joking (like you are right now, I suppose?)

 

[forsigmar]

I take it you speak from extensive personal experience in aviation, particularly aviation maintenance ?

Swarms of bees collecting on things are not uncommon. An airliner may fly daily, but not so with military aircrafts. Sometimes we may fly a jet every day, sometimes it sits for a couple days before it get scheduled on the roster again.

If a jet is in phase maintenance, that means at least a couple weeks of downtime...

So unless you actually have experience in aviation maintenance, do not use phrases like 'the only way'. It make you look stupid to those of us who do have real aviation experience.

Looks like you are eager to make fun of US, but since you are new here, take my advice and be careful. In the American contingent on this forum, there are Army, Navy, and Air Force (me) veterans. We will try to be nice, but we have no problems making someone look like an idiot.

Maintenance problems happens all the time especially with budget cuts and low readiness rates. It is quite obvious these things are not being check upon frequently enough. Even the military says readiness is at near all time lows.
I think you are looking for problems about me "making fun of the US" when military readiness and maintenance problems are obviously having problems. With the way the economy the way it is its probably only going to get worse. I can't post links but you can google military aviation is in " a deep hole" at airforcetimes

 

[gambit]

Maintenance problems happens all the time especially with budget cuts and low readiness rates. It is quite obvious these things are not being check upon frequently enough. Even the military says readiness is at near all time lows.
I think you are looking for problems about me "making fun of the US" when military readiness and maintenance problems are obviously having problems. With the way the economy the way it is its probably only going to get worse. I can't post links but you can google military aviation is in " a deep hole" at airforcetimes

This has nothing to do with maintenance problems.

In my 10 yrs in the USAF on F-111 and F-16, I have never seen any jet got swarmed by bees, but I have seen feral cats took refuge inside a few 'hangar queens'.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/t...s-swarm-insects-cover-cockpit-s-nosecone.html

http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/...ht-passengers-stuck-on-plane-for-over-an-hour

http://aviationblog.dallasnews.com/...-american-airlines-plane-at-dfw-airport.html/

What is an aircraft with passengers ? An active duty aircraft. And yet we have an instance of bees swarming an ACTIVE DUTY jet and trapped the passengers inside.

What maintenance issues could there bee (pun intended) ?

Do you exercise any critical thinking skills at all ?

 

[forsigmar]

This has nothing to do with maintenance problems.

In my 10 yrs in the USAF on F-111 and F-16, I have never seen any jet got swarmed by bees, but I have seen feral cats took refuge inside a few 'hangar queens'.

What is an aircraft with passengers ? An active duty aircraft. And yet we have an instance of bees swarming an ACTIVE DUTY jet and trapped the passengers inside.

What maintenance issues could there bee (pun intended) ?

Do you exercise any critical thinking skills at all ?

Pests and other animals like birds are maintenance issues, which is why bases have to keep birds and other animals constantly away from the base. Aircraft maintenance officers are supposed to keep pests from entering the base to prevent accidents and airplane/engine damage. The original article talked about the bee hive "They likely came from a much larger bee hive somewhere else on the base, according to Chief Master Sgt. Gregg Allen, 192nd Maintenance Group Quality Assurance chief, who also happens to be a beekeeper." If there is already a larger bee hive somewhere else on the base, there is a maintenance problem. This looks like a maintenance problem that could have been prevented.

 

[gambit]

Pests and other animals like birds are maintenance issues, which is why bases have to keep birds and other animals constantly away from the base. Aircraft maintenance officers are supposed to keep pests from entering the base to prevent accidents and airplane/engine damage. The original article talked about the bee hive "They likely came from a much larger bee hive somewhere else on the base, according to Chief Master Sgt. Gregg Allen, 192nd Maintenance Group Quality Assurance chief, who also happens to be a beekeeper." If there is already a larger bee hive somewhere else on the base, there is a maintenance problem. This looks like a maintenance problem that could have been prevented.

You are making shit up. By that line of reasoning, we are not supposed to deploy ships at sea since saltwater negatively affects aircrafts. Maintenance officers are supposed to keep salt sprays and even vapors away from aircrafts.

This is nothing but a troll thread and YOU are now its biggest troll.

 

[forsigmar]

You are making shit up. By that line of reasoning, we are not supposed to deploy ships at sea since saltwater negatively affects aircrafts. Maintenance officers are supposed to keep salt sprays and even vapors away from aircrafts.

This is nothing but a troll thread and YOU are now its biggest troll.

LOL, they likely came from a much larger bee hive somewhere else on the base, according to Chief Master Sgt. Gregg Allen, 192nd Maintenance Group Quality Assurance chief, who also happens to be a beekeeper. Not only is there a 20,000 bee hive colony on a F22, a 350 million dollar stealth airplane, but there is likely a even LARGER (i.e 20,000+) hive on the base somewhere, that is eluded by the beekeeper, as not yet to be found. So the problem is not just bad, it may even be worse.

"Bee hives are constantly growing and they eventually become overcrowded," he said. "Around springtime, the bees will make a new queen, scout for a new location and take half of the hive with them to that location."

In the military, people get in trouble when things aren't clean, when a soldier loses his weapon or a part goes missing people are ordered to go find the missing part. When a Navy ship accidentally collides with a buoy, the officer loses his career. What happens when a expensive stealth fighter, no longer made, becomes written off due to foreign object damage due to bees? Do you think the commanding officer will be "oh its fine, that just normal operations."

You are the one that is ridiculous. I have 10 posts, and you have 19,000. Your first post to me already accused me of being anti-American just because I stated the obvious that there are bad maintenance problems. You are nothing but a company yes man, who refuses to find anything wrong how the military is being run, so you attack people who criticize as being anti-American trolls. I have friends, neighbors, and family that were in the military. There is no no longer a need to discuss anything with you anymore.

You are blocked.

 

[gambit]

...I stated the obvious that there are bad maintenance problems.

This is a TYPICAL flightline.

Not just American or military. Any airbase of any country is the same. We cannot afford to build hangars for every aircraft in inventory. Aircrafts that are in hangars are for intensive maintenance, and even then, the hangars are not airtight. You did not state anything 'obvious' but only what you think is 'obvious'. Unfortunately, you posted from ignorance. This is not a case of poor maintenance. The jet is parked in the open and the bees just happened to swarm over it for their own reasons.

You, just like all the cowards on this forum, avoided evidences that proved you wrong, and I showed you those evidences. Airliners got bee swarms. Are those from poor maintenance ? Answer that, kid.

 

[Moon]

The US Air Force's F-22 Raptor may be the most advanced fighter jet in the world but even with $143 million-worth of stealth and supersonic capabilities, it proved to be no match for one unlikely adversary --- a huge swarm of honey bees.
An F-22 aircraft from the 192nd Air Wing was temporarily grounded on June 11 after crew members at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia discovered nearly 20,000 bees hanging from the jet's exhaust nozzle following flight operations.

Honey bees hanging from the exhaust nozzle of an F-22 Raptor engine on June 11, 2016 at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia.
"I was shocked like everyone else because it looked like a cloud of thousands of bees," said Tech. Sgt. Jeffrey Baskin, 192nd Maintenance Squadron crew chief, in an Air Force press release.
Rather than try to clear the bees from the jet themselves, crew members realized that honey bees are at risk of extinction and contacted local beekeeper and retired US Navy veteran, Andy Westrich, who proclaimed the hive the largest he had ever seen after being escorted to the aircraft.
Westrich used vacuum hoses to wrangle the thousands of bees into several large buckets and safely relocate the colony.

Beekeeper Andy Westrichwas called to remove and relocate the bees to a safe place.
Before transporting the bees to their new home at a local beer production facility, Westrich took them to his house and found that the hive weighed nearly eight pounds in total, according to the Air Force release.
But how do nearly 20,000 bees, weighing a collective eight pounds find their way onto the exhaust pipe of a fighter jet?
They likely came from a much larger bee hive somewhere else on the base, according to Chief Master Sgt. Gregg Allen, 192nd Maintenance Group Quality Assurance chief, who also happens to be a beekeeper.
"Bee hives are constantly growing and they eventually become overcrowded," he said. "Around springtime, the bees will make a new queen, scout for a new location and take half of the hive with them to that location."
According to Westrich, the queen likely landed on the F-22 to rest, and since honey bees do not leave the queen, they swarmed around the jet and eventually collected there.
The F-22 was able to resume flight operations once the bees were safely cleared.
A multi-role, fifth-generation fighter, the F-22 Raptor began taking part in combat missions against ISIS in September 2014 after years of cost overruns and mechanical issues.
It was originally designed and built to replace other fighter and ground attack aircraft in the U.S. military's arsenal, but after years of cost overruns and mechanical issues, the Air Force acquired only 188 of them from aerospace maker Lockheed and doesn't plan to have any more produced.

cnn

Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope.