[QuadList] Little more fun

Sat Mar 6 13:11:45 CST 2010

When I was in VT ops one of the guys owned a plane, and when we were both
working together on an outside broadcast at a horse racing course where the
Jockeys, all flew in, to an adjacent strip we decided to do the same, but
there was a problem getting it started (one of the magnetos)

When we arrived on site we were a little late but fortunately the director
was even later, when he walked in he said sorry crew my car would not start

simultaneously the two VT op's said "yes we had the same problem with our
aeroplane"

TrevorB

UK Member 

From: quadlist-bounces at quadvideotapegroup.com
[mailto:quadlist-bounces at quadvideotapegroup.com] On Behalf Of
georgenann at aol.com
Sent: 06 March 2010 18:49
To: quadlist at quadvideotapegroup.com
Subject: [QuadList] Little more fun

Since the chatter seems to have dwindled somewhat I thought I might pass on
a little more fun in the TV business.  I  want everyone to understand that I
am not a bad guy, I just love a good gag, even if it is on me and it is well
done.

I hope everyone in ops realizes that playing jokes on maint folks is not
considered good taste, except sometimes by maint personnel themselves.

One time early in my time in VT Maint, the supervisor told me to go and fix
"VT-5", it won't lock up.  I checked all the ops setups and everything
looked OK.  So I broke out the schematics and scope, meter, etc. I dug thru
the servo and a couple hours later found there is supposed to be a voltage
feeding one of four delays in the cap servo causing it to track in either
the "Home" track or slip to any of the other heads for tape sync. I traced
this from the "Home" track switch. There was nothing feeding any of them, so
I reached up and turned the "Home" track switch and found it sitting between
track 1 and 2, but the knob had been reset to track 1.

I knew right away I had been had.  I switched it back to the "Home"
position, loosened the setscrews in the knob, reset it to the proper
position and tightened the setscrews. I put everything back together, took a
well earned break, had a couple doughnuts some coffee and went back in the
shop where everyone was "Very Busy" and couldn't look at me as they had
their noses buried in books, boards, etc. and I announced I got "VT 5"
working, that I changed the 5U4 in the 135 Volt Power Supply.

A number of years later I pulled another one on my fellow maint. techs.
Saturdays were reserved for routine maint.  A pair of machines was taken out
of service for that purpose.  While the guys on the machine next to the one
I was working on went on a break, I fast forwarded their tape  on to the TU
reel, put it on the supply side (inverted) and inverted the empty reel and
put it on the TU side and fast forwarded the tape on the inverted TU reel.
Then I put the TU reel on the supply side and threaded the machine up and
ran it to where it looked like the place they left it.  Now the tape is
reversed, the heads are looking at the back of the tape. Nobody noticed it
because we had a number of tape types and I don't think anyone associated
the numbers with wether the shiny side of dull side was the oxide.

This really had them going and they were getting a bit angry about the whole
thing, and I was beginning to fear for my life if they found out about it
and blamed me, so when they went to lunch I just took the tape off and put
another proper reel on the machine.  I don't remember what I told them the
problem was, but it was almost as bad as the 5U4 in the power supply.

I think this would work on the 1" machines also, but I never tried it.

There is another joker out there, my good friend Don, from WTVJ, now Hero in
Fla.  Don is a pilot as is Lou Bitton, (Mr. Ampex).  Don and I wound up at
AVR-2 school together.  One day Don suggested we rent a plane and go flying.
Sounded good to me so we did, Don flew and Lou was co-pilot and I just rode
in the back seat.

After about an hour or so of just flying around, sightseeing, Don thought he
would give me a demo of just what this plane could do, so he put it into
what felt like a 90 degree nosedive till we almost got to the mountains
around Redwood City, then pulled back on the stick and we were in the
clouds.  He did this a few times and the wings were straining up and down
and I was yelling "Don what the %*&# are you doing, and he and Lou were
laughing their heads off, while I was trying to hang on to anything I could
get my hands on. After we landed, the ground never felt so good, and after I
had a chance to change my underwear we laughed it all off.

A couple days later Lou asked me if I would like to go for a ride in his
plane.  It was an old Piper (I think) tail dragger.  It had no radio or
battery.  He would pull his car up to it and start it with jumper cables,
then get his car out of the way, then hop in the plane before it took off by
it 'self.  I explained to Lou  that was the day I had set aside to rearrange
my sock drawer and couldn't make it.

By the way Lou bought the plane somewhere on the East coast, perhaps Va.
while he was on a teaching assignment.  He had just received his pilot's
license. The only way he could get it back to Redwood City was to fly it
there.  Not something someone with a brand new license should try, flying
from the East coast to the West coast, over the Rockies, etc. So he did it
any way.  Somewhere in the mid west he developed some engine trouble and
landed at a small airport near by.  Would you believe there was a meeting of
a flying club of guys with the same type of plane as Lou's??  Well they
fixed his plane up, no charge and got him on his way. Someone was looking
out for him.

DE, George Keller

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