Reply #6: Reminds me of my days as a jetmech - all too true.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

P: Evidence of leak on right main landing gear.
S: Evidence removed.

Actually I was a "plane-captain", one of those guys who fuels the planes, changes tires, supposed checks everything, etc.

We had a hotshot pilot in our squadron who kept blowing tires. We kept him from getting his flight hours by downing his plane by manufactureing problems - amazing things can be done to a plane with a scredriver. He caught on and promised a bottle of Scotch for every tire he blew. We collected 3 bottles before he had us jack up a plane he was assigned to and discovered that we were mounting worn tires with the worn side down. Of course, every time a tire blew he could have flipped, but hotshot lieutenants were in good supply, expensive scotch wasn't.

In lousy weather, we would crawl into the cockpits and have a nice snooze then sign the planes off as pre-flighted. Seeing as how the pilots were frequently drunk or hung-over their own pre-flight inspections were reduced to cursory so they could get to the oxygen-masks before attempting take-off - if they couldn't bribe us to down the plane.

Semper-fi

Edit to add: You could always tell the plane-captains on flights. We were the ones with seatbelts tight enough to cut off circulation, and sheer terror on our faces, knowing that our Air Force couterparts probably operated the same way we did. I still hate to fly.