Death by Castle Nut

It?s 3:50 in the morning and I can?t sleep so I thought I would tell a campfire story or maybe you could call this a bedtime story.

Gary recently posted about a loose nut on his passenger seat of his motorhome which triggered a flood of memories from 45 years ago about an incident that involved castle or castleated nuts.

The best example of a castle nut is the nut that secures the wheel bearing on for instance a trailer axle.

Now for the actual story:

I flew helicopters for two tours in Viet Nam as a kid, (well 19 to 21 is a kid to me now).

The closest I ever came to dying in Viet Nam was not from being shot down, although that did happen.  It was not from being shot at on the ground from two B40 rockets.  Yes that also happened.  It was an incident involving castle nuts that almost did me in.

Almost all young Officers are given extra jobs in the military.  I was required to be a maintenance test Pilot in addition to my regular duties.  Now a maintenance test pilot is not anything like what Chuck Yeager did.  Rather it is a very methodical and structured job of making sure that any aircraft that has been worked on and taken off the flight line is very carefully tested to insure its safety prior to releasing it for normal use.

To further set up the story I need to mention that during the Viet Nam war there were many untold stories about race relations.  I never had a problem with race being from the Midwest but we did have a southern white Captain who was also a maintenance test pilot.

One day I was asked by him to replace him on a test flight of a Huey that had just been released from a major maintenance overhaul.

The main controls for a helicopter are provided by using very large hydraulic cylinders that transmit the force needed to tilt the main rotor.  A very small movement of the Cyclic or Yoke that we hold in our right hand is used for input for a much larger and more forceful movement of the rotor blade.

These cylinders are called ?Push Pull Tubes? and are connected with Castle Nuts.  These nuts are critical and they have safety wire inserted and twisted in a very specific manner to insure that they never come loose.  To lose one of these nuts would totally disconnect the control of the main rotor.

My normal procedure before performing a maintenance test flight was to read the maintenance log book and check the work.  The push pull tubes are hidden behind the wall behind the troop seats in the middle of the helicopter.  I normally would not pull the panel to look at them because in addition to the mechanic who did the actual work a tech inspector also would inspect the finished job and sign it off.

I did pull the panel.

What I discovered was that there was no safety wire, the nuts were backed off to only one thread was engaged and the push pull tube would have come apart in the air shortly after getting in the air.

This would have resulted in an inverted crash with very little probability of discovery of the cause in a war.

The Technical Sargent that inspected and signed off on the log was after the Southern Captain and not me but the results would have been another crash for unknown reasons.

He was court marshaled and I am sure that somewhere in military records it is documented.

I left very shortly after this incident in an unexpected way cutting my second tour short by six months.

I was out of the Army and never flew helicopters after that.

That is my campfire story and I am sticking to it.

Good story. We all looked so young then. What happened.

so, are you saying this was a setup to "relieve" that Captan ?

There were those officers we thought were going to get us all killed,  but most of the time all those fragging plots were just a bunch of talk that kept us going.

Tony,

This was real.  A fued that I inadvertantly fell into.

I guess relieving him was one way to put it.

I do not know the final outcome of the Court Marshal as I was out of the country by then.

Thanks for telling that story!
Those times make you think, for sure!  Good thing you looked!!!

I have two similar stories, although I'm quite sure that both of mine were accidental

The first is related to the castle nut, but not quite....
As a young Industrial Maintenance Engineer working at a paper mill, I spent much of my off time at the local airport earning my private license and other ratings....
Once, after having recently sat through a training course at work, all day talking about nothing but threaded fasteners.... yes, all day with two instructors!
I was walking through the maintenance hanger when I saw the A&P mechanic replacing a prop on an airplane.  The prop, in this case was held on with nylock nuts, instead of the safety wired castles that Huey describes..... one of the few airplane applications where a fastener isn't wired I supose....
Well this young A&P was re-using the old nuts.  I had just learned all about how these type of nuts are single use only.  he looked at me like I had three eyes... he's the FAA certified expert, not me after all.... I was just a 20 something kid.
I truly regret not running it up the flag pole to his supervisor, the IA or beyond..... and pray that it was not ever a problem.
That A&P later died in his friends Ercoupe when they were trying to do aerobatics.

And your story reminds me of a second incident....
As a newly minted Private Pilot, I had recently transitioned from a cessna 152 to a larger Cessna 172, and was up doing practice touch and go landings.  I still remember the plane well, N3564E
After several rounds, I was flaring for another when my seat came off the tracks and flipped back to a recline position.  Somehow my reflexes were quick enough to grab the glare shield of the "dashboard" and hold myself upright enough to make the landing...... a lot of people have died like that.  It's a fairly common issue that was supposed to be taken care of with a safety pin. 

whenever I see kids in uniform today....... I remember some of the things these 19 year olds go through in service of our country.

The military removes all the child from you.

thank you for your service,  Bill .

I don't have a story about any castle nuts, but I do have a thank you for your service, and for the interesting stories.

My father served on the USS Bennington in Vietnam and my grandfather was one of the navigators on the Enola Gay (we never knew this until he and my grandmother passed away and we went through his things it must have been a huge burden as well as a moment of pride for helping at the same time).

Anyway I love the stories of the "real" life things that went on while men and women served back then....and now. So thank you again, and safe travels to you.

Red

I worked in the helicopter industry for a few years, with the egos involved I could see something like that happening. Most were very conscientious and very good at their jobs but a certain percentage had no business fixing or flying aircraft.
My dad served as an airframe and hydraulics instructor during WWII but refused to step into an aircraft after his discharge. When I asked why he said he was always afraid he would see a former student on the ground crew. After some of the stunts those guys pulled, he wouldn't take the chance. ;D

I, too, thank you guys for your service -- especially during that crappy war.  I was one of the lucky "college deferred boys", but I'm sorry to this day I never served. 

My son, however just made Chief in the navy, and I'm proud of him as can be.

Neat story.  Thank you for your service to our country.  My uncle served in Vietnam, but never shared any stories with us before his untimely death... we suspect related to agent orange.

Alas despite a desire to serve I was 4F (Blood pressure)... But I still have a 2nd hand story..Short.

Army.. The lecture of the day was on gun safety.. After the lecture one of the recuits took out his gun, Did a fancy western twirl and it discharged.. 7 of his fellows, Including a friend of mine, went to the infirmary.

It is unknown what happened to the gun-slinger.. But we suspect he got the advanced lecture in gun safety..  Around a week of standing at attention as sgt after sgt drilled it into him not to mention some quality contemplation time.

I would like to add a chapter, "Death By Reversed Elevator Control Cables with a Runaway Autopilot", the one and only time in 38 years of flying I ever had to scream "Mayday" at a control tower...good times....  8)

Loose Nut on the passenger seat?  I hope Maria doesn't read this. 

Unfortunately, during the Vietnam era we Air Traffic Controllers experienced way too many maintenance related emergencies while trying to handle the real battle damage emergencies. Little things like a F-104 shooting all it's rockets during a fuel check after having major maintenance. Several of the rockets went over my GCA unit. BTW 2 men were killed in the Recon area and 3 CH-53's were hit.

My husband was in Vietnam also, he was in the Mekong Delta.  He was fortunate not to be in combat he was in supply.  He heard stories about what some of the pilots did to the Vietnamese but didn't know whether to believe them or not so I won't say.

However, he said he did help the body section at times.  He just told me about it but not in detail, he didn't talk about that part.

He said they lived an worked around all those big bladders of avgas and lived in fear that something would hit one and the whole
area go up in flames.  War is an ugly thing.  His brother was in the paratroopers and ended up with some medals but no one even
knew it till it came in the mail.  He had nightmares for a long time MIL said.

No stories like you folks, just some conversations we had.

Our son was fortunate too he was in the US and Korea instead of the middle east.  Though he is a civilian now he is in a unit and if war
came he would go to the field.  It sounds like he is up for a promotion, if he gets this new job that part will go away.  At 46 I hope
it happens, he doesn't need to go into someplace like that at his age.

None of the guys regretted serving their country, I only wish I had.  I wanted to enlist in my senior year of college and my dad threw a fit, I have always regretted not doing so.  My husband and I talked about it after we were married, he said he would take care of the kids but with 2 I didn't think that was wise by then, I was still young.