737-300

[speakerman1]

All these people are freaking out. It is the same thing as the Aloha Airlines did except a little less. It is called the Aloha mod and it is ugly.. It is cracking right at the lap joint of the crown. The 37 is a narrow body; but it is fat. LOL I don't think it is the landing or pressurization cycles. It is a design flaw on the 37. If I remember right I did one many years ago. You put 4 rows of button head 1/4 inch rivets on that lap joint. It is ugly and a rough job. Try bucking 1/4 inch rivets every day for weeks.

Larry

 

[Web Police]

Sure it is not one of the ones you worked on? Maybe you left a few surplus hemostats or Denon Tapes under the skin?

 

[speakerman1]

No I tried to never do sheetmetal work. I was slow and I hated it. LOL

Larry

 

[Web Police]

Does the pressurization have that much affect on the frame? I'd think that excuse was BS, more than likely just metal fatigue from the everyday stress along with reduced and or outsourced inspections. Profits, profits, profits.

 

[laatsch55]

What amazed me was the landing cycles, 39000 takeoffs and landings??? Now ya now all those weren't in perfect weather or done by an old KC-135 tanker hand, who had a gazillion hours on his logbook. Quarter inch rivets require a pnuematic gun do they not?

 

[speakerman1]

Yes remember pressurization is in psi. Lot of square inches in a plane so it is a lot of pressure. We bull very few rivets. You mostly buck them. With a 1/4 inch your going to use a 4x gun or bigger. Remember there is a guy inside bucking them. And you are going to mess up so your drilling to. And you put them in wet with sealant so they don't leak.

On the pressurization I have made it snow with rapid depress. I have made people cry with head colds. Taking it up very fast then just dumping it. You run a pressure of about 8 psi. When you get sucked out it is because of all the pressure is go through a hole and your going with it. LOL

Larry

 

[Web Police]

What amazed me was the landing cycles, 39000 takeoffs and landings???

Larry help me out with the math here. On a good day maybe the plane flies 3 times? Which over the course of one year would be about 1000 flights. 39,000/1000 = 39 years. How often do they strip them down to the frame and totally inspect them? Not often enough I guess. lol

 

[jbeckva]

I gotta laugh tho at one comment I saw about this...

"I'm glad that I am on the NO FLY LIST . Hell no I don't want to fly . "

LOL.. still reminds me of a story a "mech" buddy told me when he worked in a C-2 squadron. They'd get the newby pilots good. Do the final walkaround before pushing off, then before they wave the pilot off they would put a bunch of hydraulic fluid on their hands - and THEN give the pilot the "thumbs up".. with all that fluid running down.

 

[Web Police]

LOL.. still reminds me of a story a "mech" buddy told me when he worked in a C-2 squadron. They'd get the newby pilots good. Do the final walkaround before pushing off, then before they wave the pilot off they would put a bunch of hydraulic fluid on their hands - and THEN give the pilot the "thumbs up".. with all that fluid running down.

I'd have done that too, maybe hold up a bunch of bolts and let them fall outta my hand. If the pilot asks tell him they were left over after servicing the engines.

 

[speakerman1]

What amazed me was the landing cycles, 39000 takeoffs and landings???

Larry help me out with the math here. On a good day maybe the plane flies 3 times? Which over the course of one year would be about 1000 flights. 39,000/1000 = 39 years. How often do they strip them down to the frame and totally inspect them? Not often enough I guess. lol

They do progressive inspections. A,B,C,D. They are done by the hours flown. A heavy D check all you will see is wings and the fuselage totally gutted. No flight deck, no flight controls, no engines, no gear. That happens about every 6 years. But there are inspections done every day or night. Most airlines farm the big inspections out. Trust me the company doing them want money so they look for the littlest thing. A light C check can cost about 2 million. I did a flap mod on a 727 that came out to be 1.25 million. Just for it, Man hours was 750,000.00. So it isn't cheap.

Larry

 

[Web Police]

It sounds like some of the carcasses out there flying have outlived their useful life expectancies.

 

[laatsch55]

Whadda ya expect for 300.00 round trip to Phoenix???? Thats from Gillette, course that was last year.

 

[speakerman1]

It sounds like some of the carcasses out there flying have outlived their useful life expectancies.

There are B-52s still flying made in the 50s. There are 727s flying made in the 60s. I wish I had pics but you can't take pics in the hangers of aircraft. I have done some pretty mean stuff to an aircraft. I have had 3 crash which shook me up. Worked on the slats on the 37 that crashed on TO in pit. No survivors. The Beech 1900 in NC crashed no survivors. You wake up hearing that stuff on the news it rocks your world. I got pretty drunk waiting for the phone to ring. Not something most professions can say. A Dr. buries his mistakes. We couldn't. 99% of all crashes are pilot error. I heard a so called maint. expert on Fox say you can't just go by the book. I almost fell out of my chair. You have a manual reference for changing a light bulb. We use to say IAW Standard Maint. Practices. They made us stop. You do everything by the book. That is one part of the job you have to get good at. Looking up references. I fixed a hole in the Lav trashcan door. You know how long it took me to find a reference for toilet paper mixed with epoxy and painted. It was a grounding item and I had to clear the book. We had no filler. Guess who found the hole on a ramp check? The FAA everyone was scared to death to touch it. Not me. No balls no glory. Not going to let a plane that is ready to fly just sit there. It has to go. So I used TP. LOL. It took me 4 hours to find a half way legitimate sign off.

You have about let me see a SM, a PM, MM, AM, OHM, STDM.. The you have vendors manuals. For what you do you must find it in one of those manuals. I'm not a big fan of pilots. On a bogus write up I have put R&R'd Stick actuator. OPs CK GD I/A/W 12-20-10 B727 MM.

Larry

PS Do you know what a stick actuator is?

 

[laatsch55]

The f#$%king pilot.

 

[speakerman1]

I hated pilots. Arrogant lazy bastards.

Larry

 

[Web Police]

Arrogant lazy bastards.

Larry

Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk, I resemble that remark.





just kidding.

 

[stuwee]

We got lots of boneyards down here, military and commercial, most could fly again with a quick tune-up. I love to go to boneyards and look at all the cool old stuff.

 

[laatsch55]

Arizona is home to AMARC, the Aircraft Maintenance and Regeneration Center. Where planes(military) go when they can't afford to fly them anymore or someone has a case of common cents. At one time America did not have a dedicated ground attack aircraft, thank god someone had the sense not to scrap the Warthog, the most tank bustin, troop friendly plane in history. needless to say, I think they are on their third total airframe rebuilds.

 

[laatsch55]

I hated pilots. Arrogant lazy bastards.

Larry

You would have loved my Dad. He was a flight Engineer first and spent as many hours turning wrenches as the wrench turners did. Until that fast black sumbitch.

 

[speakerman1]

I almost became a FE on 27s. Stuwee the guys that fly those planes out of the bone yards have cajones as big as houses. They wouldn't be there if they just needed a tune-up. Trust me I have brought some back to life. The tune-up lasted months. Oh my one near crash was a reworked DC-8 that came out of the desert. On test flight fresh out of maint. They held it to long in a climb and the #3 and #4 engines stalled. It rolled over. It ripped flight controls and panels off the plane. He righted it 300 feet above impact and landed. He was fired. It took him the 2nd and the FE to pull it out.

Larry