fossil_digger Report This Comment Date: November 13, 2006 07:24PM
Chinese Aircraft Maintenance aka Preflight!
For anybody who is not familiar with a jet engine, a jet fan blade should be
perfectly smooth. You might want to think twice the next time you fly on a
Chinese Airline.
A pilot for a Chinese carrier requested permission and landed at FRA (Frankfurt,
Germany) for an unscheduled refueling stop. The reason became soon apparent to
the ground crew: The Number 3 engine had been shutdown previously because of
excessive vibration, and because it didn't look too good. It had apparently been
no problem for the tough guys back in China: as they took some sturdy straps and
wrapped them around two of the fan blades and the structures behind, thus stopp
ing any unwanted windmilling (engine spinning by itself due to airflow passing
thru the blades during flight) and associated uncomfortable vibration caused by
the suboptimal fan.
Note that the straps are seatbelts....how resourceful! After making the
"repairs", off they went into the wild blue yonder with another
revenue-making flight on only three engines! With the increased fuel
consumption, they got a bit low on fuel, and just set it down at the closest
airport (FRA) for a quick refill.
That's when the problems started:
The Germans, who are kind of picky about this stuff, inspected the
malfunctioning engine and immediately grounded the aircraft. (Besides the
seatbelts, notice the appalling condition of the fan blades.) The airline
operator had to send a chunk of money to get the first engine replaced (took
about 10 days).
The repair contractor decided to do some impromptu inspection work on the other
engines, none of which looked all that great either.
The result: a total of 3 engines were eventually changed on this plane before it
was permitted to fly again.
And soon they will export their cars to America, be sure to buy one of those
quality machines so you can increase the trade deficit.
BlahX3 Report This Comment Date: November 13, 2006 07:31PM
Don't buy their plywood or pressboard products either, they emit dangerous
amounts of formaldehide.
Tiw Report This Comment Date: November 13, 2006 08:11PM
Scary!
Anonymous Report This Comment Date: November 14, 2006 04:21AM
I have to call BS on this one. The author obviously is pro-American
manufacturing and is just trying to use this to sway opinion.
A. Those aren't seat-belts, they are cargo straps. Those are like 10+ feet
long... who has 10 foot white seat belts? And someone who can't spot cargo
straps is going to explain what an turbo-jet fan blade is supposed to look like
The author goes on to use the airport code (FRA) to refer to an international
airport. Seems like an attempt to make it sound more real. (known as useless
details when detecting a fabrication)
A 4 engine airplane is not certified to take off with 3 engines while passengers
are aboard. It is only certified to do so for "ferry flights". (aka
taking the plane back for repair... empty) It takes a fair amount of extra skill
to do and is usually handled by special pilots working for the manufacturer with
the right training. Pilots have a really strong desire to live like the rest of
us.
This is very likely a photo taken of an engine from an investigation of an
airline accident after it ate crash debris in the final few rotations of it's
life. That engine wouldn't have merely "vibrated"... it would have
disintegrated had it been in use. Esp. with the split connector ring in the
bottom center.
The last line is the sinker... shows the authors true intent. Even if it was
true... what does a poorly maintained aircraft engine (probably built in Europe
or the US) have to do with a car built in China?
Sorry Fossil.. had to comment
fossil_digger Report This Comment Date: November 14, 2006 10:15PM
his final comment was what made me laugh
