To all mechanics, ground support, and pilots. What's the aircraft fluid that you most hate to be exposed to?

Mine personally is Skydrol. I hate the stuff. It's effects have been well documented on this forum. The first precaution I learned about the hard way. My first day at Delta I went to the bathroom without washing my hands first. The pain/burn was instant and due to my embarrassment over the situation it wasn't until later that I learned about curing the burn with castor oil. 

For those of you who might be wondering why I've included pilots, they have to endure the hazards of aviation fluids as well, albeit not often. During his preflight walk-around, I saw junior get a drop of Skydrol in the eye while trying to determine the source of the puddle on the ground at his feet. They cancelled the flight because they couldn't get another crew together quick enough. The leak was within limits and already deferred.

Another favorite   of mine, although it's not really an aviation fluid per se, is Turco 588 stripper. Ths smallest amount even diluted with water will burn your skin instantly and cause permanent scarring if not neutralized with alcohol within about 10 seconds.

Come on, let's hear your favorite stories about your experiences with aviation fluids.

Dl757Md

Skydrol...

Eughh, I managed to 'inhale' some up my nose whilst replacing a hydraulic quantity sensing probe in the tank on a 747-200. Absolute agony!!!! Burnt like hell!!! I spent the next half hour over a sink pouring milk up my nostrils.

 

And then there is the vile blue Racasan solution in the toilets don't even go there....

Skydrol, closely followed by sh*t and then fuel.
Cheekie, didn´t you depressurise the reservoir before removing the probe? The valve is on the pressurisation module, attached to the bottom of the wing inside the pylon, aft of the reservoir...

Jan

[Edited 2005-01-28 23:18:02]

I'd say blue water is the worst for me, God only knows what types of bacteria are growing in it! Skydrol is a most definite second worst fluid in my opinion.

That's easy, SKYDROL!!!!!! Anyone who has gotten it their eyes knows what I'm talking about. It's like taking a white hot nail and jabbing it in your eye. A close second is jet fuel. Get that on your clothes and it's going to take more than a couple washings to get it out. Not so long ago I got just a small amount on my winter gloves. After about four washing the smell finally got to an acceptable level.

skydrol

overheated turbine engine oil for the smell

[Edited 2005-01-28 23:48:29]

overheated turbine engine oil

Couldn't agree more. That is such a rancid, nasty smell. The worst is the oil from the PW 757 thrust reverser half hold open actuators. They leak all the time and that oil just fries in them.

Far less common but perhaps even nastier is burned Skydrol. When we'd get a pump in the shop that burned up many guys would disappear while another unfortunate mechanic had to do the post-mortem. For those who haven't had the pleasure of this experience imagine acrid burned turbine oil combined with the pungency of Skydrol. Nasty!

Dl757Md

Had skydrol in my eye once. Can't say I cared much for that!

Been told that blue water burns the eyes too. Never cared to find out.

I once took a shower in biffy juice. At the moment I was pretty sure that was the worst.

On the other hand my roomie and I overhauled the carburetors (add an extra "t" for the UK) on my sportscar in the kitchen of our apartment. Open can of MEK and no ventilation got to be fun after a while.

I have plenty of (not so) fond memories of mineral spirits dripping into my eyes while degreasing the underside of Navajos. Those airplanes get absolutely filthy.


2H4

I've never really cared for prop wash....

I've spent more time swimming in fuel tanks than alot of pilots have flying. I've taken skydrol showers, and breathed skydrol fog. I've been burned with hot oil, and hosed with wet paint stripper. I still absolutely believe that the most terrible and nastiest aircraft fluid is found in the passenger cabin. It's called bodily fluid. I shudder to even think about it.

Skydrol

MEK would be a close second, mainly because of the fumes. You smell it all night long.

I can't stand Jet fuel. For these reasons...

1) I'm a fueler

2) I had a DC-10 decide to dump about 3 gallons on me last week. I got my eyes closed in time but had it go up my nose and in my mouth. I tasted that shit till Wednesday.

3) I've never had a skydrol bath so I don't know how bad that is.

What about cleaning floorbeams in the hangar for a big check, using MEK, 3M No 1 solvent and white spirits? We were working in the aft cargo hold of an A320 and we were using filter masks. Only prioblem: The filters were only good for about 20 minutes and your nose gets numb, you don´t smell the solvents. We were like drunk, having giggly fits and singing dirty songs, until somebody from the wing team called the supervisor and he sent us outside the hangar for an hour to catch fresh air and sober up...

Jan

Skydrol:-Had very bad experiences with drops of Skydrol at work.Can never forget them including the taste,eyeburn & the not washing before going to the Bathroom part.
MEK:- For its strong fumes,which get to you after a time.
ATF:- When your soaked in it,watch your skin dry up & peel out,The stink never goes away eaisly.

Who cares I love my job too much to loose out on all these experiences  
regds
MEL

Royco landing gear fluid.......To me about the worst smelling fluid used.....Otherwise like many before skydrol.....especially when you blow a line on a cargo door and you are in the aircraft....the skydrol fog is the worst....

GS

My username says it all for this topic.  

Fuel dripping into an eye is nasty as hell too.



LD4

Synthetic hyrdraulic fluid, been sprayed a few times, leaked on etc. I have gotten my hair soaked in hydraulic hair more than a couple times, and it seems peculiar that within a few hours I get into an argument with somebody and go off. Hmmmm...
Fuel doesn't bother me too much.
MIL-H-5606 I cannot get the smell out of my clothes.
Aircraft soap, I am allergic to it. Didn't realize it until everytime I'm on the washrack my eyes itch and I get a massive headache. I deciced not to tell the supervisors because they wouldn't know how to handle it. They would probably make me wear a huge suit and gas mask or harass me about it. I'll do the rinsing, just not the soaping.
That red Mobil grease , 81322 I think it smears never cleans up.

Oh and tonight, how about a facefull of freezing rain!!!! Get out there and get er done!!! Go! go! go!

Skydrol for the burning and irritant factor, and old engine oil, just because it smells like sheep shit.

MEK, and other solvents used for cleaning are also pretty bad, if your working in a small space, llike the fuselage of a VFW-614 trying to remove carpet tape from the floor, you get high in about ten minutes, great stuff!

[Edited 2005-01-29 12:21:14]

Most hated?

1. Blue water.
2. Old 5606 out of a gear strut, smells horrible.
3. Jet A, because the smell stays on your skin for a day no matter how well
you scrub.
4. ROYCO 22 grease, stinks.

And as for Skydrol, It doesn't bother me anymore, I think I'm immune to it from years of working on Dash 8's.


T prop.

Fuel: You can't get rid of the stink. It eats the latex gloves you wear. It dries out leather gloves. It dries out your skin. It evaporates so fast in the cold, you feel like you have frost-bite. And you can't get rid of the stink.

Hi all,

I heard a lot about Skydrol but not having worked with it, I just can't say. From my personal experience, here's my list:

1- Mil-H-5606 hydraulic fluid (got so many showers with that stuff, I just hate it!!!)

2- Jet fuel (Stinks, stinks, stinks....)

3- Mobil 28 grease (Get that on any piece of clothing and it's a done deal!!)

There are others but these three are right up there on my list.

Cheers!!!

FedExA300600R

It doesn't quite fit in here as its not really a fluid but one of my most hated things is the dust that sits on the wiring looms and insulation blankets behind the cargo liners and at the back of the forward hold in the snake pit as so much dust sits in there. Then if you have even the smallest amount of grease on your hands or overalls it will stick to you like s**t to a blanket and it really irritates the skin.

Avionic Mech

Depressurise the reservoir???? Well I never thought of that...  

Maybe it was the gale force wind I was working in which managed to separate the last remaining droplets of skydrol from the probe, and land them smartly in my face. I shall be making a request to Boeing for a maintenance manual amendment regarding the recommendation of a safety precaution not to remove the probes when standing downwind...

 

Some turbrprops offer good ways to take a kerosene bath.

Turbo Commander: Fill the center tank. Go out and fill one or both wing tanks. Come back and open the center tank. You might do that once.

MU-2: Where will YOU stand to hit the depress valve on the tiptank?

I was riding home on the bus after just such a no-brainer and the woman next to me said: "I smell diesel oil."

I said: "No ma'am. That is my cologne."

Would have to be Skydrol and MEK a close second!

Skydrol...by a country mile and [email protected]# FREEZING cold night. I have had it just about everywhere. I was/am smart enough to vigorously wash my patties before heading for the bathroom. My boss bathed in the stuff so much that he could not pick up his infant son, due to the burning. Jet-A comes in second. I HATE the smell of raw fuel. Too much tank diving in my past. I do recall a not so smart mechanic at a repair station, who could not figure out why we told him to tip the underwing fuel panels of a 727 away from himself. Not only did he soak himself once, but then he did again!!! I was on the floor for a while after witnessing that one. I had a major bath in fuel when pulling the main fuel filter on a JT8D. The incompetent boob working the cockpit didn't think the tags on the "T" handle meant anything.
To AvionicMech...what, are you kidding me!!! Walk out to where someone is really working, but wait till it isn't too cold, then remove all your wonderfully warm,clean clothes and stand underneath a draining hyd. line. Now tell me about irritated skin. Find out the real half lives!!!

Personally I've had a few bad experiences with various "fluids".

1) hydraulic fluid (don't remember what kind)

I was walking by a DC-3 engine with the cowlings off. Nobody bothered to cap the hydraulic lines and somone activated the cowl flaps. I got showered with it. It took days to wash it out completely. And my scalp was as red as a beet...

2) Jet Fuel

We used to wrap towels or rags around our wrists to soak up the fuel and stop it from running down your arm into your armpit. I left my rag around my wrist for too long and it left bright red itchy rings around my wrists. We had one guy who discovered he was allergic to latex when he used a combination latex glove and rag solution the problem. He had a fairly serious reaction to the latex including bright red hands and problems breathing until we got him to the hospital.

3) "Cake mix."

This is the term we used to describe the watery mixture found in the bottom of the belly. It has various organic and inorganic components but seems to always turn brown with the odd green, red and blue streaks in it. Sort of like watery diarhea. Anyway, I was lying in the belly one day in a perfectly dry spot while they were jacking the airplane up. The nose came up a little quicker than the mains, and I was quickly covered in cake mix. Or do you call it batter in this context?


4) Turco paint stripper

I was showing a new recruit around the hangar one day when I bent over a bit to point something out in a wheel bay. Suddenly my arm felt like it was on fire. Somebody was stripping paint off the gear door frame in preparation for a repair. He didn't bother putting up a sign or other warning. I ran out the nearest door and wiped mud from the parking lot on my arm to stop the pain. That scar stayed around for a few years!

I haven't had any bad experiences with Skydrol or MEK as yet. I think its because we are taught to fear it. Count Zinc Chromate primer in these days as well.

My answer will definatly be hydrazin.

Guess most folks here knows its deadly, and that its used as the main power source for the F-16 EPU.

An interesting story form the Lockheed Martin factory, somewhere down the F-16 line. It was this mech guy discovering some clear liquid near the hydrazin compartment on a F-16. The poor guy curious about the liquid licked his finger to taste , but since hydrazin is tasteless, he had to taste sevral times. That was the last thing he did.

Strange how things like that can happen.

Amtrosie, if you were lucky enough you could have been avionics aswell and not had to deal with all this horrible stuff. haha, only kidding.   I have got skydol all over my hands and arms before but I know how bad this stuff is so have washed it off real quick which is the advantage of being in the shed, you have a wash room close by.

If you´ve got fuel soaked clothes, you´ve got to get rid of them immideately and wash your skin with soap. Afterwards use some lotion or hand creme (I usually nick my girlfriend´s stuff), because, once it soaks into the skin, it will cause a violent rash with blister forming and it will hurt like a bad sunburn. I had it twice, lying in a 737 and 727 wing tank in a small puddle of fuel. You won´t feel it at first, but when it starts itching, it is too late and shortly afterwards it will burn as if you are on fire. Next day your skin will come off.

Jan

[Edited 2005-01-30 03:10:07]

Reading the Posts........Its fun to be in Mx  
Its amazing what a single drop of Skydrol can do.
regds
MEL

I dont have such a bad reaction with skydrol as most, fuel is what messes my skin up most of all.
I was changing the fuel flow governor on a 757 once and it didnt matter how much i let the thing drain before I released the clamp, I got soaked, anyone whos changed an FFG on an RB211 will agree. You have too pull it out of the gearbox and tilt the back end up to free it from all the rigid pipes, If I remember rightly its also a good idea to take the rigid pipe off between the FFG and the LP fuel filter, as soon as you tilt it up, the fuel just comes gushing out of there.
Since then my hands have suffered from severe dry skin conditions, Im using Atrixo hand cream frequently, but I struggle to get the oils back into my skin, seems as though there gone for life.

I forgot to mention, the worst smelling fluid by far is the C-duct open/close actuator fluid, its smells like sick !!, I dont know why it smells so bad or what the fluid is, I know ive topped the pumps up with engine oil before when they get low, but im not sure its the right stuff !!

my vote is for Skydrol. Anything that can eat the paint off a jet can't be very good for you! I have gotten it in my eyes and in cuts; it's not very pleasant stuff.

Hey AvionicMech, I have spent many a night chasing electrons "all over hell and gone". You haven't lived until you have changed a "B" system hyd. pump in the wing-to-body area of the "B" system bay of a 727 and had the skydrol get dead in both eyes. I gained a great appreciation for the blind. Or maybe, being in the keel beam area of the wheel well, changing one of those hyd. components......now we are talking head to toe "warm sensation" followed quickly by the fire "down below". This is living and playing with the big dogs, not sitting on the porch watching it happen.

Amtrosie, been there, got the T-shirt, except for skydrol in my eyes. I´m shortsighted, so I´m wearing my prescription glasses all the time, and they saved me a lot from getting this stuff into my eyes.

Jan

Well in that case it sounds like I really don't want to live, and would much rather be chasing my silly little electrons around the aircraft than changing a 'B' system hyd pump on a 727.

I know in the avionics department we are lucky enough not to be exposed to these horrid fluids that you guys in the airframe and engines section are. But it is not all great fun for us, such as doing mods in the p37 panel on a 757 for example. Because it is impossible to get yourself positioned in a way that does not twist your back for the whole time you are working in there. And when you are working in there for maybe 3 or 4 days at 10 hours a day that is one time when I would rather be 'living and playing with the big dogs' as you put it.

Avionic Mech

MD11Engineer;
I'm too vain to wear glasses and too lazy to find saftey glasses. Guess who the schmuck is, when he is dancing around blind. I must say in my defense, that I am getting better in my old age. Wisdom is its reward.

Read about lots of Skydrol FAQs HERE




LD4

I remember the Skydrol site.
Very interesting stuff there.
regds
MEL

Skydrol, closely followed by fuel - fuel burns are painful and all to easily aquired.

Andy

Skydrol takes the cake for most hated fluid especially when you trying to cap a line after a b-nut strips it's flange and it goes down your arms into your arm pits. I noticed nobody said anything about the remnants of a bird strike especially when one goes down the engine intake, a most unpleasant smell. Or my all time favorite is when you don't have the lavatory hose locked or the valve is open when you take off the cover and you take a blue water shower.

I am working in the oil business. From day one I have learned that the most hated aircraft fluid is water - when it comes into the fuel tanks.

But in 1999 I was a passenger on a flight from LIS to CPH and seated next to another passenger who had been exposed too heavily to ethanol, which became the most hated fluid on that flight. Ethanol is a crystal clear fluid like water, but unlike water it kills brain cells, even if it is pretty good for cleaning windows.

My personal least favorite as a line guy is DG-19 (aka Blue Juice, Lav Juice, Poop Juice, etc.)

I am working in the oil business. From day one I have learned that the most hated aircraft fluid is water - when it comes into the fuel tanks.

Water.....Thats a surprise,but understandably so,since you are in the Fuel/Oil business.
 
regds
MEL

From and engineers point...

Skydrol...

Because I have seen what it will do magnesium OIL housings! Can you say swiss cheese. No wonder you shouldn't get it on your skin!

2nd would be bodily fluid...that stuff is not friendly to the aircraft structure, and hell, by the 2nd and 3d HMV that stuff is just nasty.

3d would be coffee, coke ect., also not very friendly to the aircraft structure

Shawn

A few weeks ago it was skydrol. But then came the day I had to drain water from an EMB 145 wing tank. The valve broke off. Trying to stop the leak I soaked my clothes with tons of kerosene. The fire department installed a kind of "swimmingpool" to collect the 800 kilograms of fuel running out of the wing. Bad day!!! Me and my family smelled fuel everywhere for the next 3-4 days.

How much fuel was lost before the Fire dept constructed the Pool to collect the fuel,was the pool partially covered.
regds
MEL

Nothing, I picked my job to be a mech and I KNEW I will get dirty.

I've managed, luckily, to mainly get fluids on my hands, sometimes without wearing gloves from hydraulic, JP-5, and turbine oil. Chemicals like Turco stripper, PD-680 cleaning solvents, paint remover aka baby shiat, the works requires to use double protection of rubber gloves, eye protection, and an apron since they'll eat thru your skin. But one time, I wasn't lucky. I was working outside at our jet engine test cell doing a troubleshoot on an F404 engine, F/A-18, normally I don't work on these but hey, I knew what I was doing taking a pump off and installing a new one. It was in the low 20s at night, using flashlights, how fun, took the main fuel control off, and splash, It felt sooo cold all over my head, back, and drenched on my coveralls. What good feeling as I got home. Smelled like jet fuel after taking a hot shower and washing my uniform for days. So, I guess for me, Jet Fuel is the worst...the stench stays for days.

One more thing, I hate Turco stripper. I used to get drench from turco 3 times a night while the crew topside on the flight deck performs flight deck washdown while we're performing jet engine testing from start up to shutdown, ugh.

Kevin

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[Edited 2005-02-07 09:41:13]