I have a theory that the best and brightest in PMEL eventually figure out that main K6 is the best section to work in and gravitate to it. Main K6 gets lots of freedom to go onsite and meet people all over, go on TDY's, and has the funnest calibrations. Most of the real characters in the lab such as the funny, outspoken and bizarre people end up there too. K6 cal's are not so mentally draining or time demanding so people can BS more while still doing the job. K6 guys are a lot less "anal" also than the other areas of PMEL. My views of the other sections:
K3: Die hard K3 guys are smug and think they are way smarter than everyone else; like they are the master race, but in reality the monotony of calibrating spec ans forces them to have to feel superiour or they would lose their minds. Little do they know that K6 has many more complex principles and mathematics involved, just K6'ers don't have to use them that often.
K8: These guys are the vegetables of PMEL, I feel sorry for them. Nuff said.
K6 68°: These guys are a subset of K6, who are so sick of PMEL management that they have found themselves a little hiding place where nobody bothers them. They use special tactics to keep the majority of PMEL people out of their area like "Your throwing the room out of tolerance". 68° people just don't want to be bothered anymore, they are truly happy to never see or talk to anyone in PMEL. Being part of K6 they are smart as well, their reasons for being K6'ers are just different. Probably beaten down too much in K3 in past years where they just don't care anymore.
Where but in K6 can you get such classics as:
1) The helium filled 30" diameter chem gear black floating glove of happiness while in MOPP 4.
2) The time delayed freeze spray bomb
3) The TTU 205 floating ground "shock test of manliness" (Just remove the ground cord and hold the case and copper buss bar while the its running)
4) The " how long can you hold your hand in the ice bath" test.
5) The 50.000 lbs of force to the blue smurf experiment.
6) The new airman super shrapnel 100 times rated pressure pressure gauge explosion.
7) The toxic hazard evacuate the lab temperature bath overfill and burning oil on the elements fiasco.
Honorable mention "Are you making margaritas?" and vacuum chamber marshmallow
Please don't be offended by my postl, if you are than you probably have never worked K6 or they kicked you out of it. Or maybe you will just never get a clue.
All comments to my post are welcome, its all in fun. :wink:
DONT HATE ME BECAUSE I AM RIGHT :-P
--> :mrgreen: :evil: 8-) :-D These are K6 types
--> :cry: :x :-( These are K3 types
--> :? K8, nuff said
:-o 68° guy
I either worked, or did QA evals in all the areas at Ramstein, and I will admit that K6 was a blast. I hated TACAN, and I didn't much like doing Spec An's, either. Working TFCU was cool because you saw a lot of different stuff, along with the added pleasure of hauling 300# of weights up a mountain to calibrate a personnel scale at a comm/radar site way out in the boonies (usually accompanied by lousy weather)... In terms of raw intelligence, I have an opinion that the K8 area had the best and the brightest for electronic acumen, overall metrology principles, and general intelligence. K1 and K3 had better pinochle players, but that may have been a site-specific phenomenon...
There were bright stars in every area, though. Merle Ellet was the best K6 troop I ever met. Erik Winkler could explain electronic theory in K3 like a college professor. Chuck Kulpa was the best K1 supervisor I ever saw. Linda Villines had the "touch" with 'scopes. All of my TFCU partners were multi-talented and conscientious as hell. Overall I was very proud to work at Ramstein under Chief Maier, and we considered ourselves the best of the best for PMEL in Europe, and our AGMC and IG audits proved it. We even ruled the continent in softball...
In general, I think EVERY military-trained metrologist is smart. Their backgrounds may lend them to excel in different areas; some people love K6 and hate K1, and vice versa. But the overall feeling in the USAF (at least when I was in) was that when it came to electronics, PMEL was the cream of the crop. If we couldn't fix it, it wasn't broke.
Velasco makes some solid points, though I personally hate to be termed a "vegetable," being an old K8 supervisor. From his perspective, it may be a valid adjective! Anybody who plays with TTU205's has to have a sense of humor! Venture out to K8 and do a full-blown, no redline cal on a Fluke 5100B-03, and then see if "vegetable" still fits...
What tha hell is K6? :?
Physical/Dimensional - think surface plates, pressure gauges, scales, gauge blocks, surveying equipment
Or, on this site under the Main Menu, select Forum, and scroll down to the K Sections, and all will be made clear...
Wow, that was a long, descriptive post. You almost had me going until you mentioned the "funnest calibrations". I've NEVER considered any calibration, be it K6 or "arcs and sparks" :-D, fun.
I have worked both over the last 16+ years and I find that most of the K6 guys are there because they couldn't hack it in any other area. I don't think you can compare a TTU-205 to a E5504 Phase Noise System. K6er's Smater? I don't think so. You definition of smart " Funny Calibrations". I think enough is said. :cry:
By the way, smarter is misspelled on purpose, just in case you are like all the other K6er's outthere. :evil:
By the way, I'm just kidding. When I get bored with one area I like to go to another. That's the good thing about PMEL, it allows variety. However, I do not like doing bunnies, because they bore me. :-D
Oh, ok...gotta ya...Phy/dim stuff. In the Marines, we always put the FNG's on that stuff until they got confidence to work on electronic gear. you guys still use the TTU-205? We phased those out about 7 years ago.
:mrgreen: I hope I didn't raise to many hairs with my post, just poking fun. I worked K3 for a (long) while with the whip cracking on me. The monotony and constant push to cal equipment there sucked. I had always noticed how much fun and how good the comaraderie in K6 was, so on my next PCS move I begged for K6 and got it. Best thing I ever did PMEL, now I cal test cells ( get to bs with the flight line guys), cal hospital equipment (cute females), and cal weird things in strange places.
No calibration in PMEL is all that hard, 68 degree room stuff does take some actual skill though. Anyways this is just my opinion, this board needed some "K6 type excitement".
Hey if the Marines are not using TTU 205's anymore, why do I ship all the NRTS ones to their depot for upgrades and repairs?
:-D Don't hate me because you are stuck in a different part of PMEL.
:| Today I did have to work a Hush House for 12 hours, so it does sometimes suck, customer tells me they blew up the pressure computer after I spent 2 hours trying to find out what was wrong with our equipment (previously customer had said there stuff was working fine)
No doubt that K6 is the best.........and for us Navy guys that were IM's.........nothing even better. I will say that a good Phys/D person makes the best K8 techs on the upper end stuff........and by Phys/D I mean the 68 degree stuff......as that is what we were taught in school.......and that is not the school ya'll goto.....that was for us later........The arguments I have had with Kevin John on what we can and can't do. :wink:
Quote from: Velasco on 12-19-2005 -- 04:28:23
:mrgreen: I hope I didn't raise to many hairs with my post, just poking fun. I worked K3 for a (long) while with the whip cracking on me. The monotony and constant push to cal equipment there sucked. I had always noticed how much fun and how good the comaraderie in K6 was, so on my next PCS move I begged for K6 and got it. Best thing I ever did PMEL, now I cal test cells ( get to bs with the flight line guys), cal hospital equipment (cute females), and cal weird things in strange places.
No calibration in PMEL is all that hard, 68 degree room stuff does take some actual skill though. Anyways this is just my opinion, this board needed some "K6 type excitement".
Hey if the Marines are not using TTU 205's anymore, why do I ship all the NRTS ones to their depot for upgrades and repairs?
:-D Don't hate me because you are stuck in a different part of PMEL.
:| Today I did have to work a Hush House for 12 hours, so it does sometimes suck, customer tells me they blew up the pressure computer after I spent 2 hours trying to find out what was wrong with our equipment (previously customer had said there stuff was working fine)
Serious dude, I was A LCpl (E-3) when we got rid of them. They're no longer authorized to use in the Corps. They've been replaced by some air data test set....
Quote from: Velasco on 12-19-2005 -- 04:28:23
:mrgreen: I hope I didn't raise to many hairs with my post, just poking fun.
Naw...most of us don't take things too seroiously on here. Don't mind flew-da-coup. He's a little obsessive compulsive. Don't ever get him started on politics. :-D
Funny as Hell! I love it! You have a very descriptive way of putting it and agree with most of it.
K6 all the way.
You ever work on the old TTU205 B models? Thats what I got started on as a young airman, those were some leaky POS.
Not sure why the boss got mad today, I found the hydraulic port on the 3458. It just does not read right. Not my fault it wont read!