Started the day off with painting some freshly sandblasted CMP rims, followed by a staff meeting (oh well, the day can't be perfect), followed by lunch (mmmm, pizza). We met the crane at 1, and put this radar dish back on the roof of the 90mm fire control trailer. I had done all the prep work, so it went quickly.
I talked the crane operator into trying another lift down at the other end of the compound. The Honest John, as Micheal has alluded to, needed the rocket raised up in order to put the equilabrators back onto the launcher. In order to move it previously, the base had removed the caps for the equilabrator, cut the elevation rod, and laid the rocket and launcher down flat, supported by a railway tie. I had found the equilibrator caps hiding in a locker at the other building and wanted to put them back where they belonged.
I originally had choked a 20' sling onto the front of the launcher, but the crane operators wanted a shorter one, so I choked on a 6' sling. Up up up went the rocket and with a chain hoist I brought the equilibrators up into place, and had the launcher dropped down onto the equilibrator. With the caps installed, I was surprised that the equilibrator was supporting the load to it's maximum position. That meant the sling was up around 30 feet in the air, and we had no way of unhooking the crane from the launcher. Had they left the long sling on, I could at least have unhooked the crane from the sling.
We called CE for the bucket truck to come out and help, but after a half hour of waiting (it was 3:30 already) I decided to go to plan B. There was a 24 foot piece of 3/4 pipe conveniently laying in the grass, so I stood on the back deck, the transport guys passed me the pipe, and I was able to unchoke the sling from the end of the launcher. Minutes later the crane was on it's way, and I was able to head back to the shop and call it a day.
Today I went back and fitted an internal pipe to the elevation mechanism so the load could not come down if it got windy or something. Anyway, here are some photos of the Honest John in it's maximum elevation:
This vehicle had previously been on the Shilo sports field for some 30 years, and had suffered the wrath of many beer bottles over the years. All the glass and gauges had been smashed out of it, and the weather had taken it's toll on the interior of the cab. The Honest John was normally an open cab with a soft top, so that the top could be removed and the windshield folded and protected during firing. Here is a shot of the truck back when it was on the sport field, before it's cleanup.
Man, I love my job.