F/A´s

For me, I´d rather have an older, seasoned, and experienced F/A in charge, who in an emergency will be an authoritative person getting people to do things right, than a young, pretty, inexperienced girl, who can´t get people out of an airplane.

Jan

Manners

A few years ago a friend who used to work in passenger handling for <acronym title="Lufthansa (Germany)">LH</acronym> together with me flew to the US from London on a <acronym title="British Airways">BA</acronym> plane. He got friendly with the F/A´s, they let him self service in the galley. He told...

Slides

PiedmontGirl, Don´t forget, you are talking about PILOTS, not F/A´s or mechanics. I´ve met many who´s knowledge of aircraft technical systems stopped when they when to press what button  <img src="/discussions/graphics/winkani.gif" ALT="Wink/being sarcastic"> We encounter many times that the Fa...

Emirates

As far as I understand after talking to friends who worked there the idea behind it is that the UAE are slowly preparing their economy for the time AFTER the oil wells run dry. They want to become a major international hub and tourism destination, plus they are looking to attract high-tech industry ...

Slides

PiedmontGirl, If the slide wasn´t armed it means it would still be in it´s box on the door. If it is hanging loose on the door sill it either means that the inflation mechanism failed or that a mechanic forgot to remove the maintenance safety pin, usualy used for installation and removal of slides, ...

Terrible Paxes?

I would like to turn the story around for a moment. Before I went professionaly into A/C maintenance I used to work as a loader and later gate agent, often on arrivals in the baggage claim area of <acronym title="Berlin - Tegel (TXL / EDDT), Germany">TXL</acronym>, Berlin, Germany for <acronym title...

DC10 Slide

If the DC-10 slide works just like the <acronym title="Air Madagascar">MD</acronym>-11 one (with which I´m quite familar), it is armed by a lever in the front of the door. If you move this lever to the "armed" position (with the door closed), the girt bar will be hooked into two latches on the floor...

TU 204

When I was handling the UPS 757s in Rome Ciampino (<acronym title="Rome - Ciampino (CIA / LIRA), Italy">CIA</acronym>) Italy last year, TNT had a chartered <acronym title="Tunisair (Tunisia)">TU</acronym> 204 Freighter parked every day besides my Boeing 757. Us mechanics soon got friendly and I had ...

Outsourcing Of Maintenance

I´m working for a subcontractor firm at a Eureopean hub of a big American freight carrier. In my opinion the airlines usualy sign a package deal with a contrator, covering a certain number of man hours. Of course this deal has to be cheaper than employing their own staff at company union rates. We t...

Double Flat Tyres

There exists a special jack called a rhino-jack, because of it´s looks, which is used when you have both tyres on the same axle flat.It will still fit under the jack pad. BTW, I wouldn´t want to jack up a whole plane to change a wheel..., do you know how heavy thosewing jacks are? And you´ll need tw...

Engine Shutdown

The MD11 has actually a warning message on the EAD (Engine and Alert Display) when #2 Engine spools down uncommanded, because the pilots might not notice. There wouldn´t be any yaw, like in the case of #1 and 3 engines, and the FCC´s would throttle up the remaining engines to keep the selected speed...

Towing Aeroplanes

At Shannon Aerospace we once used a small electric fork lift to tow a <acronym title="Air Madagascar">MD</acronym>-80 into the hangar when both or tugs were down for mechanical problems.It barely made it. Also I know from my own experience that it is possible for three men to push a loaded 737-300 f...

DHL Airbus

According to the pictures the outboard was certainly gone, because the hit would take out the control cables and hydraulic lines on the rear spar. They still had the inboard aileron.

Jan

757 Production Closing

If there would be a BIG customer coming, ordering 50+ planes they might reconsider, like Airbus did when UPS ordered 50 A300-600 Freighteers with another 20 as an option. Or it might be a political move like closing down the MD11 line after finishing the Lufthansa Cargo ones, on Lufthansa´s insisten...

RE: Are There Any Preserved Space Shuttle Carriers?

Cologne, Germany is one of the Space Shuttle emergency landing fields, for instance. It has been here in the 80´s. And the USAF base Zaragoza in Spain

Jan

RE: I Would Never Fly DC-10 And 742, 741s

1: Most airliners of the 50´s to 70´s were built much stronger than necessary because fatique wasn´t understood that well back then. The <acronym title="Air Madagascar">MD</acronym>-11s, 747-100 and 727-100s I work on are built like tractors compared to modern aircraft. 2: If a structural item gets ...

RE: OUCH!.......Watch Out For That Prop!

Even those prop clearance lines won´t help. Before I became an A&P ( and AME) I used to work as a rampie on the different airports in Berlin, Germany. I give one example as seen on ATR´s: The cargo door on this type is forward on the left side just aft of the cockpit, the passenger door left aft. Pa...

RE: Glass/transparent Jetways

TXL since when? When I´ve been there last in July they still had the old metal ones from the 70´s. <acronym title="Berlin - Schonefeld (SXF / EDDB), Germany">SXF</acronym> has them, as well as <acronym title="Cologne / Bonn (- Konrad Adenauer / Wahn) (CGN / EDDK), Germany">CGN</acronym> and FRA2 Jan

RE: Birds Are Not The Only Animals Around The Airports

Here in <acronym title="Cologne / Bonn (- Konrad Adenauer / Wahn) (CGN / EDDK), Germany">CGN</acronym> there are hundreds of rabbits living in the grass areas, with foxes feeding of them, occasionally the foxes move between the planes on the ramp area, trying to get hold of rubbish. In <acronym titl...

RE: Is This McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 In Danger?

Chris,

Because it uses the curvature of the earth to take off... it can just fly straight and level with it´s 5 APU´s and does it while the ground drops away from it...  

Rgds,
Jan

RE: Why Whould A Small Jet Have 4 Engines?

The joke goes at <acronym title="Lufthansa (Germany)">LH</acronym> that the <acronym title="Air Belgium">AJ</acronym> is an aircraft with 5 APUs, but with the advantage that you won´t need an engine trolley for changing one, you should be able to carry one on your shoulder  <img src="/discussio...

RE: Guns In The Cockpit

In <acronym title="Berlin - Tegel (TXL / EDDT), Germany">TXL</acronym> a cleaner, who brought toilet paper to a RussianTransaero 757 got the shock of his life when a Russian security guard pointed his <acronym title="Air Asia (Malaysia)">AK</acronym>-47 at him. In <acronym title="Berlin - Schonefeld...

RE: Jumpseat On Lufthansa?

I used to work for <acronym title="Lufthansa (Germany)">LH</acronym> years ago. They used to have the rule that ONLY pilots, F/A´s or mechanics could use cockpit and F/A jump seats ( asides of government inspectors). The reason was that you had to know how too operate the safety equipment (oxygen ma...

RE: What Is The Oldest Plane In The Major Carriers?

Dear Penguinflies, as far as I know N922UP, N924UP, N930UP and N941UP, all 727-100QFs of UPS have been build in or around 1966, s far as I could read on the certificate of airworthiness. N682UP is as far as I know UPS´s oldest 747, as far as I know she was production plane #7, but still in good shap...

RE: Translation Please?

Dear LanAlemania, we all know what Lufthansa stands for, but I don´t want to get banned  <img src="/discussions/graphics/winkani.gif" ALT="Wink/being sarcastic"> Now serious, Hansa derives from the "Nordische Hanse", the hanseatic league, which, as some other reader stated previously, was a med...

RE: Longest 757 Route

Back in 1997 LTU was flying <acronym title="Berlin - Schonefeld (SXF / EDDB), Germany">SXF</acronym> to some place in Thailand (not <acronym title="Bangkok - International (Don Muang) (BKK / VTBD), Thailand">BKK</acronym>, I forgot which). I remember with the plane coming to <acronym title="Berlin -...

RE: Financial Investment For A&P Training

I did an apprenticeship with Lufthansa years ago. Afterwards I worked for several years in Ireland, where I got the Irish Basic Aeronautical Engineering Certificates Part 2,4 and 6 (Pressurized airframe, gas turbine engines and electrics, tough essay type written and oral exams in each subject). The...

Eyebrow Windows

Years ago I´ve been working on a C-54 restauration project. This C-54 had the big perspex cupola just aft of the cockpit. Sorry, got no picture...

Jan

737 HUD

We use the same HUD as on Alaska Airways on the UPS 727-100QF. No problems with them maintenancewise.

Jan

707 Pylons

Dear 747Skipper,

Even though I´ve been tinkering a little bit around on MEA 707s back during my apprenticeship, the oldest jet engine I´ve got serious experience on is the JT8D, so please forgive me falling for the oil story.

Jan

707 Pylons

Back in the old JT3D / Conway days the bleed air provided from the engines was too oily to be used directly for cabin pressurization, therefore they used the turbo compressor inbetween.

Rgds,

Jan

737 Fire Bottles

You didn´t state if maybe the APU compartment was open for a maintenance run, like for a leak check, when the fire happened. The fire bottles are only effective in a closed compartment, so if you perform an APU run with open APU doors you should have a CO2 fire extinguisher nearby.

Rgds,
Jan

RE: Was This Plane Damaged Upon Landing?

On the Aero Lloyd picture you´ll see a red line painted on the fuselage in front of the NLG. This is the maximum tow angle when towing or pushing with the torque link (scissors) connected. If you exceed this angle (maximum position of the tow bar) you´ll damage the steering mechanism. Of course you´...

RE: The Other Side Of The License

It is the same situation within the whole aviation industry. Us engineers get constant pressure to risk our licences to sign off A/C with "slight" problems. Face it: In a company which´s name I won´t mention there are a lot of statistics: One for maintenance delays and another one for opened and clo...

RE: Airplane's Sewage

Ref. DHL DC-8: Yes, the drinks came in an ice box filled with dry ice and not with water ice as usual. The F/O found it was too much and dumped a few kg´s of it into the lav, as it was procedure for water ice. Shortly afterwards the bowl belched and fumed. He called the captain. Then the holding tan...

RE: Funny Airline Nicknames

I forgot:

Philippine Airlines (PAL) = Plane always late

Rgds,
Jan

RE: Funny Airline Nicknames