There was a Beech 18 that an museum organization at Goshen Airport owned a while back, I did some avionics work up in the nose, behind the panel, that was fun getting my big ass stuffed in there. A couple of days later, I got to set in the right seat on a test flight to see if my rewire job worked. Even with foam earplugs and and ANR headset, it was still loud in there. Of course you're setting just behind the arc of the props.
Someone at Goshen just recently bought an 18 and was doing takeoffs and landings for a couple of hours one afternoon when I was at my hangar. Good thing avgas is only $4.60 a gallon.
Funny story. Back in the early 80's on a dark and stormy night, I got called in sometime after midnight to load 2 skids of catalytic converters onto a Beech 18 turbo prop/nose wheel conversion. My job was to provide fuel if needed, and drive the forklift. The pilot was a **** (insert expletive of choice here).
First, the skids weigh a ridiculous amount.
Second, they have to be slid forward, then LIFTED over the wing spar.
That isn't going to happen. The only way to do it is to put an empty skid in front of the wing spar and then hand-load the converters over the spar onto the new skid.
Well, I wasn't getting paid to do that part. The guy is screaming at me to do it as he's on deadline. I told him no. Call my boss. He calls boss. Boss tells me to help the pilot load it.
Mind-you, I'm getting paid a whopping $20 service call out fee.
So I put the first skid into the back of the plane and it promptly sits down on it's tail. Pilot starts screaming at me again. I take the skid off and he puts a jack under the tail like he was supposed to do, and I load the skid again. I then get into the plane and start taking the converters out of the skid and setting them forward of the skid. Plan is to get them out of the skid basket, fold down the skid basket, lift it over the pile of converters forward of the spar, set it back up, load the pile into the empty basket and then get the next one on.
While I'm doing this, the pilot is nowhere to be found. It's pouring rain, and it's taking me some time to unload, move, load inside the plane by myself.
Pilot finally returns and starts screaming at me again to move faster. I tell him he's supposed to be helping me and I'm about to puke because these things are heavy.
I finally get the first one done and go to do the 2nd one.
I put it in the back of the plane, and the pilot tries to get me to help him push it up to the back of the spar with a J bar. It isn't budging. He starts yelling at me again and tells me to get out, remove the skid, move it more forward on the forks, and try putting it in at an angle and using the forks to push the skid forward. Calls me stupid then.
So I get out, get on the forklift and unload the skid from the plane. Reset it at an angel and head for the door. The pilot is inside the plane, leaning out the freight door yelling at me to hurry up. I've been there 2 hours already. It's pouring. The forklift is a manual transmission and the rubber pad is missing from the clutch pedal. As soon as he peaks his head out the door to yell at me again, my foot slips off the clutch, the forklift lurches forward and the skid just barely missed pinning his head agains the door post. He dives inside as I get my foot back on the clutch and the forklift rolls back. He pops his head out to yell at me again and my foot slips off the pedal again and almost kills him again. I panic and hit the clutch again, foot slips for a 3rd time and slams the skid into the post again and caves it in.
At this point, the guy thinks I'm trying to kill him. I'm soaked to the bone, freezing, shaking, and pissed off. So I just sat there looking at the plane. He finally pops his head out and I give him some choice words and tell him he's on his own. I drop the skid on the ground and leave. He comes into the office a while later and apologizes.
We take a break, and then I load the skid into the plane and he unloads it forward of the skid and just puts the loose converters on the floor. He got a sledge hammer and pounded the door post back to almost straight, closed the door, put a ratchet strap on it and took off.
That was the worst night I ever had at an airport.
