6 ms·
How hard is it to reactivate these planes?
by blhack 6y ago
How hard is it to reactivate these planes?
- Simulacra 6y agoGenerally they can turn around and activate a reserve plane in about 30 minutes. It’s got everything it needs except food, water, and fuel.
- redis_mlc 6y agoWell, there's some nuances. If they're mothballed (skin covered and various systems pickled), then about a month of work each. If they're not mothballed and they do weekly or bi-weekly maintenance on each plane like they're supposed to, then an inspection, and then they're ready. So the worst case is a month, and the best case is an inspection plus 30 minutes. Also, note that in the mdoern era, a lot of avionics require periodic updates, which also have to be performed before flight. But if I was the FAA, I'd be requiring crew-only acceptance flights before any revenue flights. You never know where those pesky wasps built a nest, or if those AOC sensors corroded, etc. Source: commercially-rated airplane pilot.
- Krasnol 6y agoDo they have to be maintained in any way or can they just leave them there for weeks/months?
- ddoolin 6y agoThey can be left wholly unattended but they will not be considered airworthy when their maintenance/inspection requirements lapse.
- redis_mlc 6y agoNot exactly. To be left unattended with the intention of flying them again, mothball/pickling is needed. (Tape the outside including sensor ports, plug the engine nacelles, use the right hydraulic or motor fluids, disconnect batteries, etc.) If you literally just park a 737 somewhere for months, especially a sandy desert, and walk away, then you might have to do millions of dollars of maintenance on the plane to be sure it's airworthy. Like pulling the engines and dealing with corrosion throughout the airplane. I have a small airplane example. The danger of parking an airplane for an extended period of time, even in a hangar, is that if mice create a nest in the fuselage and urinate there, the aluminum corrosion can cause structural damage. ie. that plane will never fly again. All those King Airs, Cessna 310s, etc. you see hangared are prone to that. So clean your airplane regularly!
- Razengan 6y ago> if mice create a nest in the fuselage and urinate there, the aluminum corrosion can cause structural damage. ie. that plane will never fly again. Reading that evokes a somber reminder of how quickly our civilization could turn into ruins if left unattended for a few years.
- rickdangerous1 6y agoI was just envisioning what this storage airport would look like in 10 years if the airline industry NEVER picks back up to its previous levels. Trillions of dollars worth of airplanes rotting in the sun???
- redis_mlc 6y agoI have a feeling the 800 or so 737 MAX aircraft will all be scrapped (or just the avionics parted out.) Besides the AOA sensor system problems, there's been FOD in the fuel tanks, wire chafing and very long periods of AOG. One of those might not be fatal, but all of them? Doesn't look good.
- Razengan 6y ago> Trillions of dollars worth of airplanes rotting in the sun??? Should make for an interesting location in a post-apocalyptic or science-and-sorcery story.
- Lammy 6y agoA 757 crashed in 1996 when it sat for three weeks and gave mud dauber wasps time to build a nest in the pitot-static tube that fed airspeed information to the autopilot: https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19960206-0 https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19960206-... https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-02-08-mn-33706-story.html https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-02-08-mn-33706-... https://www.independent.co.uk/news/crash-plane-may-not-have-been-serviced-1318149.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/crash-plane-may-not-have-... https://www.flightsafety.org/ap/ap_oct99.pdf https://www.flightsafety.org/ap/ap_oct99.pdf
- jedberg 6y ago> a lot of avionics require periodic updates, which also have to be performed before flight. Better to happen before flight than during it!
- lovemenot 6y agoover-the-air-in-the-air update. What could go wrong?
- redis_mlc 6y agoThe point is those updates may have expired, and it's required to have updated avionics data before flight, not if OTA updates are available or not. You're supposed to have "all available data" with you during flight, but for local VFR it's not as big an issue as for IFR or Parts 121/135 operations. In Canada, they rename the position fixes to catch you. Messed up, but very effective! Expensive too, as I was buying plates for just one flight during the update period. (I say it's messed up because pro pilots in the US can/are expected to memorize fixes and frequencies, but one of those is not possible in Canada. I was listening to 2 Aloha Airlines pilots talking once, and the captain gave his copilot shit for not memorizing the frequencies they have to use every day.)
- j88439h84 6y agoHow long does it take to get an inspection from the time it's requested?
- thephyber 6y agoSupply/demand curve. I remember reading that this airport specifically has a contractor that specializes in storing (and presumably maintenance). As airlines start flying more, they will likely send a percentage of their mechanics to this airfield to speed up the tasks.
- perilunar 6y ago> I was the FAA, I'd be requiring crew-only acceptance flights before any revenue flights They'll have to fly them to another airport to pick up passengers anyway, so I imagine all of their next flights will be flight crew only.
- tonyedgecombe 6y agoIt's probably going to be a lot easier than reactivating the airline industry.