'Crash test dummy' smashed VIP demo by offering a helping hand
- Reference: 1707726247
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/02/12/who_me/
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This week, for instance, meet "Major Tom" – not his real name – who was inspired to write in after last week's tale of a flight simulator mishap that thankfully didn't result in expensive damage.
Spoiler alert: Major Tom was not so lucky.
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Back in the day, Major Tom was part of a team developing a head-mounted display system for combat pilots. As you might guess, this was some very expensive tech.
[2]
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Major Tom worked on a smallish team, one of several that each worked different shifts on the project.
That changed when a VIP was promised a demo of the project. As that visit neared, many more people came into the lab wherein Major Tom toiled
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The setup in that lab saw the lights darkened to maximum extent, so that images beamed by projectors would have lovely sharp contrast. The cockpit simulator was mounted on rails so that the display system could be positioned ideally to get the maximum realism out of the projectors. There's the usual simulator stuff as well, including fake engine noise (which users could hear through their intercom headsets), and an apparatus in the seat to simulate vibrations.
Major Tom’s job was to set up the simulator from a workstation, then clamber into the cockpit and roll it forward on its rails to test his work. He had done this countless times – sometimes with the helmet on, sometimes just wearing his intercom headset – while others worked around him.
Then, on his last run, he left his workstation, got into the cockpit, put on his intercom headset, and hit ignition.
[5]
Commencing countdown, engines on …
[6]Developer's default setting created turbulence in the flight simulator
[7]One person's shortcut was another's long road to panic
[8]Poor communication led to complete lack of communication
[9]WTF? Potty-mouthed intern's obscene error message mostly amused manager
Next came the roar of the simulated engines, then voices shouting, followed by a smash, then some more noise, and "a vibration that didn't feel right." Major Tom left the capsule to investigate.
It happened that, in between test runs, another technician had tethered the head mounted display (the expensive one) to the back of the cockpit while Major Tom was at his workstation. As the cockpit rolled forward, the helmet had been ripped out of the tech's hands, smashed on a table, dragged over the table and smashed again on the floor of the lab.
Its pitiful remains were then dragged along the rails upon which the simulator rested.
It was utterly destroyed.
Major Tom assumed he would be fired, or at least reprimanded – at worst, he feared he may have to pay for the damage. Remember of course that the incident occurred on his lab time – the other technician wasn't strictly meant to be there.
As it happened, the director of the program assured him that insurance would cover the cost and was more concerned for Major Tom's wellbeing. So there was a happy ending.
We are, after all, only human. If this story reminds you of a time when you were rescued by understanding management – or at least an iron-clad insurance policy – we'd love to hear about it. Tell us of your exploits in an email to Who, Me? – which you can send by [10]clicking here – and we'll make sure your story brightens up someone's future Monday morning. ®
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[6] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/05/who_me/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/29/who_me/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/22/who_me/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/15/who_me/
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You could say the helmet was strung out on heavens high hitting an all time low...
As it happened, the director of the program assured him that insurance would cover the cost and was more concerned for Major Tom's wellbeing. So there was a happy ending.
He's one of the Heroes of management...
Not to mention that the insurance probably bought the latest versions of all the trashed components, to replace the ones in the prototype...
Doesn't really sound like Major Tom's fault though. I wonder if the tech who tethered it to the cockpit was also lucky enough to keep his job?
Forget the helmet
Whose shirt was he wearing?
Ouch
That is the kind of thing that guarantees a management meeting, a revue of procedures and some serious changes to who can do what and how to communicate the change.
Not that it would be very useful, all in all. I mean, one guy did something while the other wasn't paying attention to that. There is no procedure that can cover that and just saying that you should talk about what you did to your colleague at the end of the shift won't be enough. You would have to go through a checklist and validate each item, but the tethering of the helmet might not be on the checklist, so . . .
In any case, I'm sure people were a lot more careful with the next helmet model.
By the way, would that helmet have been for the F35 ?
Just wondering.
Re: Ouch
I cant help but to think that this is the kind of situation that LOTO (lock out, tag out) was invented for. The carriage shouldn't be physically able to move when someone is doing something to it; whether he's in the path of movement or doing something else that could be affected by the movement (such as holding a tethered-but-not-attached head-mounted display unit). LOTO would have prevented this. (But then again, aren't we all lazy and make assumptions?)
Smells like a perfect excuse for the clipboard clutching pen pusher, to produce his 300 page review of the process for the "Usage And Storage Of Headsets In the Laboratory".
One of a kind prototypes
My concern isn't the money, but the fact that if a one-of-a-kind prototype gets destroyed, everything grinds to a halt until it's replaced/rebuilt.
And there are many reasons you might not have two. Of course they're expensive hand-built items. Or the progress is moving so fast they know the second one will be totally different based on the experience from the first one. And sometimes the one of a kind item is made with one of a kind tools by this one guy and he can only go so fast, and it takes months to make one. Or sometimes it's made of unobtanium and you've just used up the year's production.
Now you've got a testing/development program dead in the water.
As the cockpit rolled forward, the helmet had been ripped out of the tech's hands, smashed on a table, dragged over the table and smashed again on the floor of the lab.
Sounds like it was out of Ground Control...