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VMCA787 wrote:On the 747, there is a bulkhead door in the fwd wheel well. No warning light in the cockpit.
VMCA787 wrote:On the 747, there is a bulkhead door in the fwd wheel well. No warning light in the cockpit.
Lpbri wrote:On wide bodies, they are accessible from the cabin, narrow bodies they are not.
DL_Mech wrote:Some E&E cabin access doors have been deactivated due to security reasons.
GalaxyFlyer wrote:Yeah, the Whale has one. A friend, who was a wrench on it at UPS loved to tell of diverting into King Salmon and using it as a way to the ground to order fuel. No stairs available.
zeke wrote:In Airbus widebodies there is no access from the cabin to the bay.
fr8mech wrote:GalaxyFlyer wrote:Yeah, the Whale has one. A friend, who was a wrench on it at UPS loved to tell of diverting into King Salmon and using it as a way to the ground to order fuel. No stairs available.
Yes, but that is the normal E&E access in the floor of the main deck. Six’ish feet below that is the exterior E&E door, which is monitored by a warning system.zeke wrote:In Airbus widebodies there is no access from the cabin to the bay.
Our A300 have access from the flight deck. Can’t recall if that access exists on pax birds…Pan Am was a long time ago.
Lpbri wrote:All airliners have forward E&E compartments. On wide bodies, they are accessible from the cabin, narrow bodies they are not. On the 777, the E&E is accessible from the forward cargo. The 787 also has an aft E&E, not accessible from the cabin but from the aft cargo. All E&E compartments have external access.
fr8mech wrote:GalaxyFlyer wrote:Yeah, the Whale has one. A friend, who was a wrench on it at UPS loved to tell of diverting into King Salmon and using it as a way to the ground to order fuel. No stairs available.
Yes, but that is the normal E&E access in the floor of the main deck. Six’ish feet below that is the exterior E&E door, which is monitored by a warning system.zeke wrote:In Airbus widebodies there is no access from the cabin to the bay.
Our A300 have access from the flight deck. Can’t recall if that access exists on pax birds…Pan Am was a long time ago.
Starlionblue wrote:Lpbri wrote:All airliners have forward E&E compartments. On wide bodies, they are accessible from the cabin, narrow bodies they are not. On the 777, the E&E is accessible from the forward cargo. The 787 also has an aft E&E, not accessible from the cabin but from the aft cargo. All E&E compartments have external access.
Semantics but not always from the cabin. Some avionics bays have the access hatch in the cockpit.fr8mech wrote:GalaxyFlyer wrote:Yeah, the Whale has one. A friend, who was a wrench on it at UPS loved to tell of diverting into King Salmon and using it as a way to the ground to order fuel. No stairs available.
Yes, but that is the normal E&E access in the floor of the main deck. Six’ish feet below that is the exterior E&E door, which is monitored by a warning system.zeke wrote:In Airbus widebodies there is no access from the cabin to the bay.
Our A300 have access from the flight deck. Can’t recall if that access exists on pax birds…Pan Am was a long time ago.
Same on the A330/A340 and the A350.
77west wrote:
The 747 one is shown quite well on a Sam Chui video where they climb up an old stored one in the desert, they climb up on the nose gear and them up into the EE bay and then through a panel in the floor of the old first class.
fr8mech wrote:VMCA787 wrote:On the 747, there is a bulkhead door in the fwd wheel well. No warning light in the cockpit.
Sure about that? MD11 has one that I only found out about recently. Never saw one on a B747.
As stated, just about every ATC aircraft has an E&E compartment, or two, and as far I’ve come across, they are all pressurized. Accessible is a different story.
fr8mech wrote:Back when I was a newly minted, youthful and energetic A&P, I would climb up the aft side of the gear, reach back unlatch and open the hatch and scamper inside. Later as youth and energy dissipated, iI would climb up, open the hatch, reach in and deploy the ladder (that was tricky, but could be done), climb back down and climb the ladder into the compartment…like a civilized person.
thewizbizman wrote:Thanks for the insight. Is there ever a reason the avionics compartment would need to be accessed by crew mid-flight?
fr8mech wrote:
Now, I just send someone up and tell them to shoot me a picture of what they want me to see…or I just take their word for it. I’m too old for that kind of action.
113312 wrote:While this question, I'm sure, is a quest for information and knowledge, to answer it in a public forum could constitute a security risk for commercial operations. I would suggest to the site administrator that the replies be considered and filtered for potential sensitive information. I would not want to see innocent questions and well meaning answers later involved in an investigation. Access to the flight deck and equipment of the aircraft is restricted and must be secure from malevolent intervention.
113312 wrote:While this question, I'm sure, is a quest for information and knowledge, to answer it in a public forum could constitute a security risk for commercial operations. I would suggest to the site administrator that the replies be considered and filtered for potential sensitive information. I would not want to see innocent questions and well meaning answers later involved in an investigation. Access to the flight deck and equipment of the aircraft is restricted and must be secure from malevolent intervention.
fr8mech wrote:Sure about that? MD11 has one that I only found out about recently.
celestar345 wrote:thewizbizman wrote:Thanks for the insight. Is there ever a reason the avionics compartment would need to be accessed by crew mid-flight?
Unlikely the will need to, but you never know when you will need to. We had one incident where a power transfer relay decided to fail during a test flight, whole cockpit went black and only standby instruments available. Jumped down within 30 seconds and smacking the relay like mad to bring it back to life...
VMCA787 wrote:Am I sure about that? with about 12,000 hours on various models through the 100, 200, SP, 300 and 400 freighters and PAX versions, YES! I would suggest it's kind of like your revelation on the MD-11
Sadly, I have even had the pleasure to crawl up there to get into the aircraft.
bigb wrote:Next time I do a walk around of the whale I will take a look, but I do know there is a dress panel aft of the nose gear.
fr8mech wrote:Our A300 have access from the flight deck. Can’t recall if that access exists on pax birds…Pan Am was a long time ago.
thewizbizman wrote:Thanks for the insight. Is there ever a reason the avionics compartment would need to be accessed by crew mid-flight?
fr8mech wrote:I’ll walk out to one tonight. Should have one in the barn, with the NWW doors open. Might even have a stand in the wheel well.
thewizbizman wrote:Thanks for the insight. Is there ever a reason the avionics compartment would need to be accessed by crew mid-flight?
RetiredWeasel wrote:thewizbizman wrote:Thanks for the insight. Is there ever a reason the avionics compartment would need to be accessed by crew mid-flight?
In the 747-200s there was definitely an emergency procedure for the FE to go down and unbolt a plate to release the nose gear. The wrench was even kept on a lanyard down there. This EP was noted as the last option if the first two didn't work for dropping the nose gear. During initial checkout every FE/SO went to the hanger, opened the hatch, climbed down and was shown where the bolts, the mechanism and the wrench were located.
Edit: Upon further memory digging, this procedure actually would be performed to release the nose gear door which may be keeping the gear from falling.
Lpbri wrote:I would think the crew would want access to the E&E in the event of a fire.
kalvado wrote:To let air into the fire and smoke into the cockpit? Not sure how smart that is....
kalvado wrote:Lpbri wrote:I would think the crew would want access to the E&E in the event of a fire.
To let air into the fire and smoke into the cockpit? Not sure how smart that is....
Horstroad wrote:kalvado wrote:Lpbri wrote:I would think the crew would want access to the E&E in the event of a fire.
To let air into the fire and smoke into the cockpit? Not sure how smart that is....
The equipment down there is ventilated anyways. It's not sealed off. Usually you can throw stuff down to the E&E compartment fwd of the rudder pedals.
Woodreau wrote:
I have no confidence that smoke would not end up in the flight deck if there was a fire in the avionics bay.
bigb wrote:No door in the nose wheel well of the 747.
747classic wrote:bigb wrote:No door in the nose wheel well of the 747.
The E&E bay entry door is just aft of the aft pressure bulkhead of the nose wheel well.
See at time 05:34 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OK9zhumtGg0
And : https://crewroom.alpa.org/CARGO/Desktop ... ntID=40942
When our (cargo) 747 was parked at a remote position during a night stop with no main entry door stairs available, we always used the E & E bay entrance to board our aircaft to fire up all systems, before finally the stairs arrived (always too late !) to bring up our suitcases.
rjsampson wrote:I have to wonder why large avionics bays haven't gone by the wayside on newer A/C's. No doubt a modern smart phone has more than enough compute power for every system on the aircraft. Not that I'd be advocating for a central controller or anything. I have heard that a lot of the technology is deliberately "rugged" (e.g. using highly outdated, [presumably more reliable] processors like 8086's).
One would think however that reliability and redundant lightweight controllers would save a significant amount of weight, free up room for cargo, and ultimately generate substantial savings and revenue.
Any thoughts?
rjsampson wrote:I have to wonder why large avionics bays haven't gone by the wayside on newer A/C's. No doubt a modern smart phone has more than enough compute power for every system on the aircraft. Not that I'd be advocating for a central controller or anything. I have heard that a lot of the technology is deliberately "rugged" (e.g. using highly outdated, [presumably more reliable] processors like 8086's).
One would think however that reliability and redundant lightweight controllers would save a significant amount of weight, free up room for cargo, and ultimately generate substantial savings and revenue.
Any thoughts?
rjsampson wrote:I have to wonder why large avionics bays haven't gone by the wayside on newer A/C's. No doubt a modern smart phone has more than enough compute power for every system on the aircraft. Not that I'd be advocating for a central controller or anything. I have heard that a lot of the technology is deliberately "rugged" (e.g. using highly outdated, [presumably more reliable] processors like 8086's).
One would think however that reliability and redundant lightweight controllers would save a significant amount of weight, free up room for cargo, and ultimately generate substantial savings and revenue.
Any thoughts?