Work

On Monday, we had an A319 in for a wing check. I wound up with the ops check cards. Ops checks are system checks to ensure the proper function of various components. Amongst others, I had the RAT auto drop, the blue hydraulic system internal leak check, and the rudder centring spring check.

The Ram Air Turbine (RAT) is a small propeller beside the left wheel well, that automatically drops when certain conditions are met. It provides electrical and hydraulic power sufficient for getting the airplane to a nearby airport. To do the RAT auto drop, you use a computer in the cockpit to simulate an airspeed greater than 100 knots, and then pull certain circuit breakers. The RAT drops when it detects that electrical power has been lost.

The blue hyd system internal leak check is done by connecting the hydraulic test stand to the blue system ground connection, increasing pressure to 3,000 psi, and checking the flow rate. The flow rate has to be below 1.5 US gallons per minute, more or less. In this case, it was 1.1, so very good. Not so good - a sticking gauge that led to us overfilling the reservoir, a big mess, and quite a bit of unnecessary farting around.

For the rudder centring spring test, the input shaft for the rudder is disconnected. Another person runs hydraulics from the cockpit, and I pushed, then pulled on the shaft to move the rudder right and left. A very simple test, it takes longer to set up than it does to run (which is actually true for many of the ops checks).

On Tuesday, we had an A321 in for a wing check. I did the inspection on one wing, which went quite well. No snags worth talking about, which is normal for wing inspections. I have almost never found anything major on a wing inspection. Wednesday was another wing check, on an A319. Nothing exciting there.

On Thursday, we had one of our older A320s come in for a gear / fuselage check. I did the inspection on the passenger doors. I found that the L1 door, the normal passenger entrance door, had excessive play at the upper connection to the support arm, and so we had to remove the door. Once the door was off the airplane, I took apart the lifting arm mechanism and was in the process of reshimming when the shift ended. This airplane will still be in the hangar on Friday, as there is a major flap repair that couldn't be done in one day. So Friday will probably consist of re-installing the door and checking the fit - mostly because I wrote a separate snag for that, and it couldn't be done with the door off.