036:33:56 Neil Hutchinson chews out EECOM John Aaron

[MadDogBV]

Future FLIGHT director Neil Hutchinson, currently stationed at SPAN for CSM operations during Apollo 13, requested data from EECOM John Aaron earlier for a TCE problem with fuel cell 3. John ran the playbacks needed, but in doing so, did not set up a dedicated chart recorder to provide SPAN with their own copy of the data. As a result, they were forced to copy the strip chart recording with a Xerox machine, something that's not easy to do when the paper is a bit over 70 inches long. Neil voices his frustrations to John with the hopes that he will correct this issue in the future.

Yes, even the best steely-eyed EECOMs can make mistakes!

Link: https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=036:33:56&ch=17

Supplemental: About 45 minutes prior to that, Neil asked for the TCE data from John, which led to the above episode taking place in the first place.

Link: https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=035:54:44&ch=17

[RobatRobot]

https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=031:09:44&ch=46

It's his own fault... 

NEIL: So, you gonna get me a copy of what you're observing now?
CLINT: Yeah
NEIL: OK.

UNKNOWN: You want a Xerox, or some actual strip charts?
NEIL: It doesn't make any difference; whatever's the most expedient - and may we ought to have a copy of before and after, huh?

UNKNOWN: OK. Did ya' copy that Dick?
DICK: Yeah, that's what I'm getting now.
NEIL: OK.

[MadDogBV]

Good point! As I went back and listened to some of the tapes, he indeed acknowledged and agreed to having the strip charts replicated on a Xerox rather than doing another playback to get the same data. Neil Hutchinson is certainly an experienced flight controller, having previously been a GUIDO before taking his current role in SPAN, so it's slightly amusing to see him struggle with something as trivial as strip charts.

He has a bit of an attitude too, based on his prior interactions with John Aaron before his complaint about the unwieldiness of the Xerox. And after all is said and done, they share this smart-ass dialogue exchange:

SPAN: "Forty-five minutes of backbreaking work."
EECOM: "We live and learn, don't we?"
SPAN: "I HOPE so! 🤨"