Oops... KC135 High Blow Mishap

[Jeff Higgins]

This is kind of an "oldie but a goodie" in the aircraft biz, and it's making the rounds again, so I thought I would share.

One of the things we do after a major structural repair is what is known in the industry as a "high blow". We pressurize the airplane a wee bit more than it experiences at altitude, which accomplishes a number of things for us. I don't want to get off track and delve into the details of all of that, suffice to say we run up the cabin pressure. It's actually one of my responsibilities as the tool/equipment engineer on site.

Airplanes are fitted with outflow valves to relieve over-pressure situations. We plug those and monitor pressure on a pretty simple gauge. We go higher than where the outflow valves are designed to open.

So, what happens if something goes wrong? In this case, a mechanic used his own, un-certified gauge. It was broken. No one caught it, so they kept running the pressure up. Eventually, something had to give:

[onewhippedpuppy]

Doh! They gonna dock his paycheck for that one?

When I was at a local OEM, checking the pressure vessel leak rate was a final line check, and the doors and windows were netted to contain anything that wasn't properly installed. There were plenty of stories about incorrectly installed parts sailing across the factory when they got lazy with the netting. Also a sleeping mechanic that was injured from being pressurized.

[rusnak]

Someone's gonna be repairing cargo planes flying rubber dog shyte out of Hong Kong.

[Holger]

Some ducttape and it will fly again!

[widgeon13]

Better on the ground than at 47,000 ft!

[Scuba Steve]

I'm pretty sure that happened at Tinker a long time ago. Aren't they doing all the KC-135 depot level maintenance now? I thougt Boeing in SA won that contract but the government took all the work back to do it in house.

[atcjorg]

a little jb weld and solder she'll fly just like new

[JavaBrewer]

Originally Posted by rusnak

Someone's gonna be repairing cargo planes flying rubber dog shyte out of Hong Kong.

Ok so I made a snort sound reading that

[Rusty Heap]

Jeff ah yes, the joys of being a trapped cubical rat at Boeing............1 hour a day of productivity wasted a day by surfing internal and external "web" pages...jokes/photos/gunporn.


and still the salco and EPS system clicks onwards to the paycheck.


cheers.


grins.