At the risk of sounding the Old Man Bell, may I support Fred,
Frans, Kevin and David in their suggestions on care and feeding of
batteries?
The F-86 had four hydraulic systems mainly because one is never
enough. Without suitable hydraulic power, the Sword became a lawn dart as
there was no direct physical connection with the flight controls. The engine
produced preferred hydraulic pressure, the battery a back-up.
The word was - if you must reduce demand from or shut down the
engine, the battery would produce sufficient power to operate one system and
get you back to the bar in good order. With this puerile acceptance we
wheeled and spun about the blue.
One day, a thinking Engineering Officer cranked a Sword up on
orange boxes and sat aboard with only the battery, gear retracted, wheeling
and dealing with abandon. Of course there was no resistance from moving the
flight controls in the air at speed, but it lasted four and a half minutes.
Even supersonic dives couldn't get you on the runway before she froze.
In those days there was no hacking of the web, so everything was
done by telephone. Don't tell the drivers - so alternate circumstances
grounded each machine until new batteries were tested and installed. I still
think about this, sixty-five years later.
Mind the battery.
Ferg
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