CRJonBeez From United States of America, joined Nov 2004, 317 posts, RR: 4 Posted (7 years 6 months 1 week 2 days 8 hours ago) and read 2874 times:
well, i made my first and hopefully ONLY mistake friday afternoon at work...a friend and i were putting away a gulfstream 3 in a hangar. the airplane is my baby...everybody at work refers to it as "jon's plane" because i'm so in love with it. anyways, we were putting it in the corner of the hangar when i told my buddy to stop. he stopped the tug, but the momentum of the aircraft, even though we were going slow, was enough to pull the spring in the towbar and jerk the tug just a little bit on the suspension w/o the wheels moving. unfortunately, the right corner of the elevator clipped a beam and has to be replaced. work made me take a drug test and fill out 8 million forms. i have been suspended w/o pay until the test comes back. it's a horrible feeling messing something like that up for a company you are so militant about. luckily, they were very understanding and knew i felt bad, especially when i told them what happened and got sick in the bathroom shortly after!
somebody please give me some stories so i don't feel like the only one!!!
Dougloid From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 1, posted (7 years 6 months 1 week 2 days 8 hours ago) and read 2838 times:
Well, I did work for Garrett in Long Beach for a number of years-there were some Gulfstream products around there, but here's what I saw.
A 731 Jetstar came in for 4 core repair/modifications. It belonged to Georgia Pacific if you are interested. Anyway, all four engines got the deluxe treatment and were hung back on the airframe. A mechanic was detailed off to fill the engines with 2380 and instead he grabbed the wrong servicing reservoir/pump and filled up all four engines with Skydrol. All four engines had to be removed and beaucoup orings replaced even though they were not motored.
The same mechanic replaced a cockpit window in a 727 and a) did not get the OK to install and b) did not bury the string in the sealer. It broke coming out. After he bashed the leading edge of a Falcon 20 with a B1 stand they got rid of him. It was funny because they had an expediter with the same name and a lot of people were asking him why his other self got fired.
As far as what I did? I wrecked a fuel control solenoid on a C441 that cost a bit.
BHMBAGLOCK From United States of America, joined Jul 2005, 2698 posts, RR: 5 Reply 2, posted (7 years 6 months 1 week 2 days 8 hours ago) and read 2806 times:
During the early days of the V-22 program, I worked in the structural dynamics group at Boeing in PHL. Most of our NASTRAN runs would run on a detailed model of the fuselage(what we built) with super simple "stick) models of the empennage, wings, stow assembly, nacelles, etc.
These would usually run on an IBM mainframe and in those days cost about $3-5k. These would regularly have mistakes and need re-running, bad but not terrible.
Periodically(every 3-4 months), we would merge our detailed model with those from Bell, Grumman, etc. and do some runs for this much larger, much more expensive model on the Cray in Seattle. We had a guy working on contract from Cessna(few jobs there in the mid 80s) who screwed up one of these runs with a bill over $100k. He was not a happy camper but we had a great boss and it was treated as an educational experience for all and I can assure you that he never made that mistake again.
Oh yeah, I've also seen a few gear up landings and a few people who had bad experiences with carb ice when they forgot heat on landing.
EMBQA From United States of America, joined Oct 2003, 9286 posts, RR: 13 Reply 3, posted (7 years 6 months 1 week 2 days 7 hours ago) and read 2714 times:
Lumberton From United States of America, joined Jul 2005, 4708 posts, RR: 21 Reply 4, posted (7 years 6 months 1 week 2 days 7 hours ago) and read 2685 times:
I recall reading about an L1011 incident years back where a mechanic installed some rings backwards causing a flameout in 3 engines. By some small miracle, the pilot was able to get one engine back on line. I believe it happened over the Carribean. IIRC, the offending mechanic was fired over vigorous union protestations.
"When all is said and done, more will be said than done".
Bond007 From United States of America, joined Mar 2005, 5098 posts, RR: 8 Reply 5, posted (7 years 6 months 1 week 2 days 7 hours ago) and read 2681 times:
Most expensive mistake ... marrying my ex. wife!
I'd rather be on the ground wishing I was in the air, than in the air wishing I was on the ground!
RoseFlyer From United States of America, joined Feb 2004, 8739 posts, RR: 52 Reply 6, posted (7 years 6 months 1 week 2 days 7 hours ago) and read 2653 times:
My most expensive mistake as an engineer at Hamilton Sundstrand (which is an aviation technologies company that makes everything from propellors, to electrical generators for all sorts of planes) was to order the wrong part because I read a number wrong on a parts list. Yeah I ordered a $5,000 part for a test stand for the 787 main electrical generator that we didn't need, want, or know what to do with. Whoops! I read a 4 instead of a 2, which meant that I ordered a part from a machine shop that was ten times more expensive and not at all related to what we wanted. I should have checked the engineering prints before sending them out for quotes.
[Edited 2005-11-15 00:41:06]
If you have never designed an airplane part before, let the real designers do the work!
Lumberton From United States of America, joined Jul 2005, 4708 posts, RR: 21 Reply 7, posted (7 years 6 months 1 week 2 days 7 hours ago) and read 2595 times:
Quoting Bond007 (Reply 5): Most expensive mistake ... marrying my ex. wife!
Hey, man, the poor guy's looking for consolation not more agony!
"When all is said and done, more will be said than done".
Jamake1 From United States of America, joined May 2004, 894 posts, RR: 2 Reply 8, posted (7 years 6 months 1 week 2 days 5 hours ago) and read 2423 times:
Dougloid From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 10, posted (7 years 6 months 1 week 2 days 5 hours ago) and read 2397 times:
Quoting Lumberton (Reply 4): I recall reading about an L1011 incident years back where a mechanic installed some rings backwards causing a flameout in 3 engines. By some small miracle, the pilot was able to get one engine back on line. I believe it happened over the Carribean. IIRC, the offending mechanic was fired over vigorous union protestations.
As I recall that was an Eastern bird and the drain plugs were installed without orings, all three engines lost their oil and the crew was able to keep one lit and get on the runway before it coraked.
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