fantaman

Hello All,

Just wanted your opinion on what you engineers would do if you seen a plane pull up on stand looking like this? The first picture is of the tyres on the main undercarriage bogey. The second is of the fence on the aircraft wing which looks to have a crack in it (sorry about the quality of the picture).

Would you have a legal obligation to report this to the CAA or any other body? Just of note, the aircraft is a regular visitor to Scottish airports.





Cheers

TechCons

If this is a Russian aircraft, then it is pretty normal for tyres to look like this. Most Tu154 and 134's I have been involved with had tyres that appeared to be more canvas than rubber

fantaman

Yeah its a 154 from Bulgaria. Just wondered if it was against aviation law to fly with them in this state?

p.s - not a journo either, just interested

SeldomFixit

That's why they're using a rubber chock !! 100% tread all over = good to go Boris

Dan Winterland

With some older tyres, this is OK. There are layers of cord at shallow levels which are designed to be worn away. these tend to be high pressure tyres which older Russian types tend to have. As long as the wear indicator groove is visible, there's life left.

The british V bombers used to have the same sort of tyres. When we landed our Victors anywhere other than home we usually got the comment 'Have you seen the state of your tyres?" The Victor's tyre pressure was 325psi, a lot higher than modern airliners.

Roadtrip

in my opinion, a phone call would be in order. I don't the wear limits of those particular tires, but perhaps a CAA mx inspector might. Regardless, foreign carriers have the obligation to maintain their aircraft in airworthy condition. If the tires are ok, then no harm done by a CAA inspector looking at them. If they're not, you might have saved an accident.

ROSCO328

I agree this is not a one off. When i was a dispatcher in Edinburgh I saw these tyre conditions on every Tu154 and it always made me wonder what the Caa would make of them.

fantaman

Thanks for the replies. So is it anyones responsibility to report them to anyone?

Capt Scribble

Tyres are normally good down to the bottom of the tread pattern, therefore, the exposed canvass may not be a cause for concern. Depends upon the construction of the tyre and these are probably as old as the Victor mentioned above.

Irish Steve

On Russian tyres, there are canvas layers all the way through the tread, and they are checked for end of life by taking a small "plug" of rubber out of the surface, and ensuring that there is still canvas present in the plug. Once it's no longer pulling canvas, then it's time to replace it.The tool is similar to the sort of thing used to take a core out of a cheese.

That's the story I got given by a flight engineer that spoke very good english when I raised the same question a while back when a 154 was coming through Dublin on a regular basis. He was very helpful about a number of issues related to the 154, and I've no reason to doubt his accuracy or credibility, as he did show us the plug holes in the tyres where they were checked, and of course, they were different depths as the tyres wore down.

JW411

I have come across this sort of tyre in the past. The layers of canvas were basically "wear indicators" and the thing that really mattered was the tread pattern on the middle of the tyre.

You will note that there is still plenty of tread showing but I do agree that they look pretty horrible at first glance!

Grunf

Uh,

Excuse me gentleman, but I do not see any comment on the crack in the wing surface.

I mean that would be enough to get them to stay on the ground, assuming, of course that someone has the SRM for Tu154 or at least there is someone responsible for the maintenance of that a/c.

If I see well there might be some corrosion there, as well so the sooner this bird gets a good "veterinarian" the better it is.

I mean tires are a problem, of course, but if that crack has gone where it shouldn’t it would be a pity to loose the a/c, doesn’t it?

Structural failure should not be an option, if they have proper procedures set out…one wonders, of course, how come that this carrier can land ANYWHERE?

By the way Bulgaria is Category 1 country (sic!), if this is the a/c from their registry. One wonders…

fantaman

Just asked one of the other guys I work with and he said the tyres on the Nimrod used to be the same so they look ok after all

Dont know what a catagory 1 country means but it is registered in Bulgaria. Its LZ-HMQ of Balkan Holidays.

Just out of curiosity, who would be responsible for checking it over if it came to a British airfield on a charter/scheduled flight? Would it be the job of the crew, dispatcher, engineers? Or does it not have to be checked over by anyone other than the captain?

rodthesod

It's a poor quality photo, but it appears to me that the crack is 'stop-drilled'. If so someone is obviously keeping an eye on things. It looks like a fairing which is probably not a stressed panel. But I will bow to superior knowledge.

rts

Flightmech

I think this is normal for the Russian tyres. They have multiple layers of tread reinforcing plies on top of the carcass plies. Even though the cords are showing there is still visible tread (and tread grooves) on all tyres. I remember a UK One-Eleven operator using tyres like this years ago. I think it was EAC when they first got the -510's off BA. Even a brand new tire had plies showing with a full tread groove.

As for the "crack". It's a poor quality image but possibly is stop drilled which means it's been inspected and probably documented somewhere.

Nice livery that Balkan Holidays, been in STN many times.

Grunf

OK, stop drilling is a good explanation for me but how could you see that?

I assume you're right, up to the point when we can see a better pic.

Fantaman:

Category 1 means that Bulgaria CAA satisfies FAA Category 1 rules (based on ICAO rule, I forgot which number).

It includes both carriers and MROs etc. If this was a crack that would be bad since carrier's maintenance should have catch it.


Cheers,

AcroChik

Those pictures remind me of the tires on T-38s, that always seem to have raggedy white threads visible on them. Having never actually flown a T-38 (but been up close and personal often), it's my understanding that because the airplane has weak brakes the landing protocol of bringing the nose down pretty late in the rollout wears the tires out fast. At a certain degree of wear, the visible threads change from white to red and then it's time to change the tires.

If I'm mistaken, hopefully someone more knowledgable will correct me.

Thanks.

411A

Hmmm, well now that we have more or less established that the fabric showing is about normal with tires fitted to the aircraft in question, it would seem that there are a few folks wanting to 'blow the whistle' on airlines/aircraft about which they know absolutely nothing.

So, in answer to the original question, 'what would you do....?' my reply would be to stay firmly out of someones elses business before you make a fool of yourself.

millerscourt

411A Thats a bit rich coming from you of all people

SirPeterHardingsLovechild

Nice one!