There'll be no sleep in here tonight
Well, I survived the night from hell, even though I went home at sunrise.
I had both planes come back with powerplant faults (the planes are
smart, they will tell you if something is wrong with them, what it is
that is wrong, probably fixes and where to find the repair in the
manual), and it looked like I was in way over my head with one of
them. The other plane, 74, I knew what the fix was, but being on
one guy and the Squirrel Cyril, it looked to be a bad night.
I called Colin and Gus back, and then Claus came in a bit later.
Tanker 73 had a very difficult snag that Colin and Gus had been
working on before, while my plane, 74, had a snag that I knew about
before. So, I went about getting ready to change the PEC (propeller
electronic control) unit, a little computer up in the engine nacelle.
It was pretty straight forward, but required a lot of checks and
rigging after the change.
The boys working on 73 came to realize that their fault was leading
them to one of the PEC's on their plane. But we only had one that we
could install, so my plane got it.
We also had to drain the retardant tank on my plane to try and fix
something on it as well, so I towed the plane to the "pelicandrome"
(that is where they load the retardant) and the guys connected up the
fittings and started the drain. Claus and I spent that time trouble
shooting 73 some more, and did an engine run that proved the cause of the fault was indeed the PEC.
Tanker 73, it was decided, was dead for now. There was nothing that
we could do to make it better, we didn't have the part. So, we
cleaned it all up, and focused on 74.
We got 74 back over to the parking area, and readied it for all the
functions that we had to do. We fired up the engines, and started
running through the tests, but when we got to the Overspeed Governor Test, we had a failure. I was sensing something wrong before that, when the propeller torque was wrong on the one engine that I had worked on. We tried a few things, but the fault wouldn't go away.
So, we went back to the office, and found another procedure, went back out and tried again. Still failed.
Then, going back to the original paperwork, there it was, a procedure
that both Claus and I had missed. (we were both very tired by this
point) We had forgotten to tell the PEC that it was on a different
airplane and that it now had to behave differently. So, more messing
around with the computers, and another engine run. This time, magic. We were both very happy.
Then, came the Power Assurance Run. I think I nearly crapped myself.
The Power Assurance run is approximately 4 minutes long, coarsest
pitch on the props (max thrust) and max power on the throttles. If
you have ever seen the videos of the astronauts during take-off of
the space shuttle, this is what it looked like in the cockpit of our
plane. Everything is shaking like crazy like it is about to blow
apart, Claus and I are standing on the brakes as hard as we can trying to keep the plane from taking off. I am hoping that the brakes don't fail, because we will be launching across the tarmac, probably through Cyril (because he doesn't listen and was parked in the wrong place), through a fence and into the hanger down the road. That would be bad.
Needless say, I was sweating badly from the heat and the nerves; that had to be the longest 4 minutes of my life. But it all went well, and the test finally passed, but what a ride!
After that, we finished all the tests, did a large stack of paperwork
and went home about 6AM. I am still tired from the long night, but
satisfied that we did well. Who knew that fixing airplanes could be
so exciting!
Moving forward to today, I got up around 2PM, after the heat of the day was making me melt. I found Colin, feeling the same way, and we decided to get some bread, pop the cork on the bottle of white that I have upstairs, slice up the cheese and relax on the deck. I find that stopping to enjoy the little things makes the day so much better.
So, there we were, Colin and I enjoying some nice wine, yummy cheese and bread, when we look down from the balcony, and there he is, G-string Guy!
He is in his late 50's, he is NOT attractive, and he is wearing a turquise g-string bathingsuit, that is barely keeping his junk covered.
My eyes burned.
After he left, Colin and I figured that it was safe to go for a swim.
We were wrong.
G-String Guy comes back, with a different g-string swimsuit! It was painful from close up, even the ladies were running for shelter.
Needless to say, he cleared the pool. I almost got a photo to share with everyone, but he left before I was able to get a shot.
After seeing that, I think that Speedo's might not be so bad after all.
I had both planes come back with powerplant faults (the planes are
smart, they will tell you if something is wrong with them, what it is
that is wrong, probably fixes and where to find the repair in the
manual), and it looked like I was in way over my head with one of
them. The other plane, 74, I knew what the fix was, but being on
one guy and the Squirrel Cyril, it looked to be a bad night.
I called Colin and Gus back, and then Claus came in a bit later.
Tanker 73 had a very difficult snag that Colin and Gus had been
working on before, while my plane, 74, had a snag that I knew about
before. So, I went about getting ready to change the PEC (propeller
electronic control) unit, a little computer up in the engine nacelle.
It was pretty straight forward, but required a lot of checks and
rigging after the change.
The boys working on 73 came to realize that their fault was leading
them to one of the PEC's on their plane. But we only had one that we
could install, so my plane got it.
We also had to drain the retardant tank on my plane to try and fix
something on it as well, so I towed the plane to the "pelicandrome"
(that is where they load the retardant) and the guys connected up the
fittings and started the drain. Claus and I spent that time trouble
shooting 73 some more, and did an engine run that proved the cause of the fault was indeed the PEC.
Tanker 73, it was decided, was dead for now. There was nothing that
we could do to make it better, we didn't have the part. So, we
cleaned it all up, and focused on 74.
We got 74 back over to the parking area, and readied it for all the
functions that we had to do. We fired up the engines, and started
running through the tests, but when we got to the Overspeed Governor Test, we had a failure. I was sensing something wrong before that, when the propeller torque was wrong on the one engine that I had worked on. We tried a few things, but the fault wouldn't go away.
So, we went back to the office, and found another procedure, went back out and tried again. Still failed.
Then, going back to the original paperwork, there it was, a procedure
that both Claus and I had missed. (we were both very tired by this
point) We had forgotten to tell the PEC that it was on a different
airplane and that it now had to behave differently. So, more messing
around with the computers, and another engine run. This time, magic. We were both very happy.
Then, came the Power Assurance Run. I think I nearly crapped myself.
The Power Assurance run is approximately 4 minutes long, coarsest
pitch on the props (max thrust) and max power on the throttles. If
you have ever seen the videos of the astronauts during take-off of
the space shuttle, this is what it looked like in the cockpit of our
plane. Everything is shaking like crazy like it is about to blow
apart, Claus and I are standing on the brakes as hard as we can trying to keep the plane from taking off. I am hoping that the brakes don't fail, because we will be launching across the tarmac, probably through Cyril (because he doesn't listen and was parked in the wrong place), through a fence and into the hanger down the road. That would be bad.
Needless say, I was sweating badly from the heat and the nerves; that had to be the longest 4 minutes of my life. But it all went well, and the test finally passed, but what a ride!
After that, we finished all the tests, did a large stack of paperwork
and went home about 6AM. I am still tired from the long night, but
satisfied that we did well. Who knew that fixing airplanes could be
so exciting!
Moving forward to today, I got up around 2PM, after the heat of the day was making me melt. I found Colin, feeling the same way, and we decided to get some bread, pop the cork on the bottle of white that I have upstairs, slice up the cheese and relax on the deck. I find that stopping to enjoy the little things makes the day so much better.
So, there we were, Colin and I enjoying some nice wine, yummy cheese and bread, when we look down from the balcony, and there he is, G-string Guy!
He is in his late 50's, he is NOT attractive, and he is wearing a turquise g-string bathingsuit, that is barely keeping his junk covered.
My eyes burned.
After he left, Colin and I figured that it was safe to go for a swim.
We were wrong.
G-String Guy comes back, with a different g-string swimsuit! It was painful from close up, even the ladies were running for shelter.
Needless to say, he cleared the pool. I almost got a photo to share with everyone, but he left before I was able to get a shot.
After seeing that, I think that Speedo's might not be so bad after all.
posted by Travelcedric at 07:06
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