Testing engines

[cherrylock]

Hi all i was at my favourite spotting spot man airport viewing park the other morning, and a monarch plane was in the engine test area right next to us, it was making a right racket and sounded like it was about to take off, who would have been at the controls i said it would have to be be a pilot but my hubby says it would have been monarchs own engineers who are qualified to test the engines also what actually stops the plane from moving do they have to be shackled or something, as said it sounded like the engines were going at full power,final question is it possible to get permission to sit on the flight deck when there doing these tests a friend of ours said he did that a few years ago and it was really interesting

[Dave Clarke Fife]

Engineers would have been at the controls.......they're a multi talented bunch!! Aircraft would have the parking brake set and the wheels will have been chocked and the engineer would have been covering the toe brakes and ready to retard the thrust levers at the slightest hint of any 'jumping' of the chocks. Incidents do occur occasionally....................http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/300539-brand-new-etihad-a340-600-damaged-toulouse-several-wounded.html?highlight=etihad+a340+toulouse................. .............

[spannersatcx]

Engineers who hold type ratings/approvals on type can also hold a company authorisation to c/o EGR's (engine ground runs). It can be idle only or full power.

We have to do simulator checks every so often, during these checks all sorts of problems are thrown at you to ensure you can cope with the problem and deal with it in the correct manner.

As Dave says the a/c will have it's park brake set and chocks will be positioned at the main gear.

Occasionally take off power checks are required hence the use of a run bay, the reasons for this can be many, component replacement etc. It can be enjoyable if everything goes as it should, I've only ever had 1 engine fire for real in the 30+ years I've been doing it, that was interesting.:eek:
When running 747's at high power you have to balance an outboard engine with the same position on the other wing, although not to take off power there is a lot of thrust being generated, it can get a bit bumpy at times.

The only time I've had to shackle an a/c down as you put it, was many years ago in the RAF when we ran Harriers, you had to check the nozzle movement, the shackles stopped you going straight up.

As for getting on the flt deck when this is going on, almost if not totally impossible in this day and age I'm afraid..

[cherrylock]

Thanks for the replies must say it sounds great fun, must say your jammy so and so,s getting payed to play with proper boys toys!:ok:

[Double Zero]

I used to witness and photograph many Harrier & Hawk engine runs, as I was a photographer at Dunsfold, Surrey where they originated.

Seeing a Harrier run at anywhere near full throttle was something else - like watching a very p'd off T. Rex on a short leash !

We were in a 3 walled engine pen, the aircraft held down by huge bottlescrews and chains.

There was a double sided wall containing the telemetry equipment, and an armoured glass window.

The engineers conducting the runs were always Rolls Royce rep's,( 2 were resident with us at any given time ) in the cockpit in their shirtsleeves; so if anything nasty happened, they could not eject - though that may well have meant landing on any fire in their 'chutes, without even a Nomex flying suit.

There was always a fire engine standing by, with the award winning Dunsfold Fire & Rescue team, now sadly some working as security guards -The airfield is where 'Top Gear' is filmed now, and Mercedes train rich idiots to drive their McLaren supercar.

There was an occasion, early on in P1127 / Kestrel / Harrier development, when an aicraft under such tests broke free, giving the engineer the ride of a lifetime before it broke the noseleg and stopped, probably by his frantic pulling at HP & LP cocks etc !

After that, the Harrier engine run pen ( which is basically a grid with ducting underneath to take the thrust if nozzles were checked ) was strain tested at regular intervals with a load cell on the largest mobile crane I've ever seen.

Other websites can't be advertised, but if you were to dial Harrier/History into a search engine, then scroll down to 'Harrier Testing'...however you may be more into airliners.

Unfortunately I don't have photo's of Harrier runs I was stupid enough to leave them on file when I upped and left, but do have some copied pic's of the Harrier in pen & my shots of the original Hawk 200 - in which the brilliant Test & Display Pilot Jim Hawkins came to a sad end - in the pen just before it's first flight, being run up by R.R. Engineer Keith Wardel.

If of any interest, mail me & I'll pass them on; [email protected]

[kevlarcarl]

cherrylock, im not a engineer so maybe im wrong ,but i would have thought the last person you would wish to have on flight deck whilst your doing some crititical engine tests would be some half baked spotter, what on earth makes you think you could possibly be given access?????????... stick to peering through your binos from a safe distance