Excuse Me Chief Iv'e Broken My Aeroplane

[KPax]

A question for the flyers out there, and for the techies that see the ac. As a pilot, if you have damaged an ac, say overstressed it but it wasn't too obvious. Would you own up to the techs or just leave it. The obvious answer to me, a non flyer would be that if it is broke then I need to tell someone, however I get the impression that things are, on occasion different.

[Now a 'J' Bloke!!]

Hi Gang;

Our aircraft will tell the engineers all by itself, if the master race have pulled it a little too hard (:O ).....all on the little data card at the electronic debrief....

Besides, Hofficer Hintegrity and all that......how can you question such a thing???:yuk:

Regards to Most...
SFS:cool:

[ZH875]

Most aircrew I have dealt with are usually upfront, even if it does cost them a crate of beer, after all, if the aircraft has been overstressed, they are the ones that take them back into the air.

Better to be an airframe down for a day, than one down permanently.

[exleckie]

Kpax.

I remember one of my Jocks coming in and saying that he thought he had stressed the aircraft in a high G pull up and could we check. The fatigue counts took us into post *G (deliberate) and we had to replace the wing bolts.

Honest crew fetch grumbles from the groundies at first, but then a trust forms and respect is given to the Jock for letting us know so we can do something about it.

It's always better to inform of a potential problem so we can check it out. It may cost you a beer or two depending on the embarrassment factor, but getting us to look into it could save not only your own @ss, but that of others.

Incidentally, I have come across many crew who think they have broken an aircraft and it turns out to be nothing. But at least they told us.


But remember, there are some things that you just can't hide. The fliers who know this are usually the ones who give us a good de-brief and we can get the a/c back on line asap.

When we have to mess around because of someone covering tracks,

a) we usually find out,

b) we submit reports which can easily help identify who, what, how and why.




Exleckie.

Tis what we are here for.

[A2QFI]

Years ago at Valley a pilot flew a Gnat thru a low tension cable (on telegraph poles) in the Welsh hills. Cut the cable and obvious damage to the aircaft on RTB. Happened towards the end of the day and the aircraft was fixed (resprayed?) overnight. By the time plod-u-like got up from Rudloe to investigate the only evicence was the cut cable. I do recall that it was whisky that changed hands not beer though!

[Pontius Navigator]

A particular pilot who has been elugised here, so no names and fewer clues, overstressed the aircraft doing a heavyweight but snappy departure from a foreign airfield.

On return he said nowt. The dirty deed was found when one of the riggers tripped over the ripples in the wing. Said pilot was toppled from his lofty perch and soon posted away.

As they say, be sure your sins will find you out.

[stillin1]

Always tell the gingerbeers. If it is fixable they can fix it. A well deserved boll##ing now and then shows spirit.
If it is badly bust - how u gonna feel when it goes pear-shaped on the next poor bu##er's sortie.:rolleyes:

[Red Line Entry]

We had an unofficial policy on our Sqn that if a pilot 'fessed up on the quiet to the engineers then we would take care of it also on the quiet. There's lots of ways to keep a jet on the deck ostensibly for other reasons without highlighting the issue to flt cdrs and the like (although the engineering paperwork was fully completed in all cases). Moreover, the Sqn Boss was both aware and happy that we did so.

However, to put it in perspective, in my 2 years, this only happened a couple of times (and in neither case did we find any damage).

[Pontius Navigator]

A Scampton crew, at Akrotiri about '67, was pre-flighting the ac and using a safety raiser to get up to the airs and engine intakes. They left the access to the hydaulic pump open and forgot to chock the equipment. It sliced straight through the wing.

'Cause there was a crew chief in charge he was in deep poo. We arrived to find our man and their's in deep conversation. To scrub the sortie, over Libya or not? In the end a bit of bodge tape was fixed to the slit and the aircraft flew the sortie.

When it got back the black hand mafia replaced the panel, repainted it, and next day the evidence had gone.

[exleckie]

After a fast jet night sortie (nvg) somwhere in the UK,

Jockey comes in and during his de-brief, he explained that he was "low flying in a certain area" and could "we have a look at the A/C" as he thought he "may have been flying lower" than than he should have been.

I went out there personally and removed varying amounts of foliage from the wing pylons, control surfaces etc and then cleaned away all traces of evidence of a treetops strike.

One very lucky pilot, who from then on, insisted on making sure I was always there for his de-brief.

I think that is what you call mutual respect.


Exleckie.

[Blacksheep]

Damage a piece of primary structure and the aeroplane is dangerous too, until it is fixed. Tales of overnight fixes are pure urban legend. Real damage takes lots of time and plenty of work.

In civilian life, the pilots are not officers and rarely gentlemen. the crew that did this (http://www.goldenrivet-images.co.uk/Images/Aviation/va30.jpg) were leaving the aircraft with a "Nil Further" in the Tech Log. The Ground Engineer asked if they were going to report the heavy landing or leave it to him to write it up. They responded by returning to the flight deck and writing "Firm Touchdown" in the log.

Always, always, always own up, chaps. Its someone else's life you are risking.

...and you will almost certainly fly it again yourself at some time.

[BEagle]

Once upon a time, one of our VC10K3s was plagued with fuel leaks. This seemed a bit odd as it had always been one of the best ones. On looking at the F700, it was noted that it'd had a surprising number of high G counts.... Including one at max fuel weight on 'departure' from an airshow by a crew which had been there on static display....

That particular captain was noted to have overstressed the same a/c on another occasion - he'd only gained his captaincy because he wasn't suitable for CFS, so a far better candidate had been joe'd for that. With the evidence we had obtained, 2 of us approached a Flt Cdr and suggested that a word should be dropped in his shell-like.

A desire to impress is one thing; hazarding an a/c with an incompetent and unauthorised low level fly past which uses up 6 months' worth of fatigue is quite another!

[Pontius Navigator]

One dark night, declining runway lights, the Sea Vixen lined up on the shiney tarmac, accelerated for about 400 yards and came to a sudden stop in the gloop.

Continuing at full power they were make a right hand turn on to the runway from where they had left the ORP. They taxied back to the dispersal where ATC eventually found aircrew and a couple of ratings hosing the mud off the ac. A short while later they took off and returned to mother.

I can just imagine the pools of muddy water gathering in Ark's flight deck. No idea if they ever confessed.

[ShyTorque]

A certain Harrier pilot Ziebarted his aircraft in Belize one Tuesday morning in the early 1980s whilst incorrectly carrying out low speed / nozzle down / high power engine runs on the runway at Airport Camp.

His misdemeanour was discovered after he vacated the runway by a B737 pilot, who, having landed, was about to lower the nosewheel and very skilfully got airborne again without dropping into the 2 foot deep hole which went down to the limestone base!! The aircraft went all the way back to Miami.

The Harrier's rust proof treatment (the melted tarmac off the main runway) took about 3 days and many drums of diesel fuel to wash off. The runway took all night to repair.

The VC10 for the personnel change over diverted back to Dulles - shame for the Harrier pilot as HE was about to go home in it! :p

[jindabyne]

8 Sqn Hunter chappy putting in some ECT during the annual APC performs a roller, sans undercarriage, neatly removing most of the paint from the underside of his 230-gall drop tanks. Thanks to a sporting Boss and SEngO, there is a disused well in outback Sharjah that is now the resting place of the quietly written-off UWTs. RIP Alfy.

[Samuel]

Youngish, newish, juniorish pilot wanders out from crew-room to Line Hut to sign 700:

"Is my aircraft ready Chief?"

Without looking up from his paperwork, Chief replies: " It isn't your aircraft until I tell you it is. Now bugger off back to the crew-room until I do"



On another occasion, a Harvard [yes, there were some around until the mid-70s] returned without having declared an emergency, and it is noticed [well, you would wouldn't you!] that starboard wingtip is damaged and aileron is dangling in the breeze.

It turns out Pilot Officer Pilot had hit a truck while low-flying along a beach! Clever bit of aviating to get the aircraft back but it didn't save him; gone within a week!