Avionics vs Mechanical

Remember the previous A330 Air Berlin that I have been working on? It had left last Friday, and now, come another one. This A330 Air Berlin came into hangar on last Sunday for C Checks. Since I am attached to Seat Bays Workshop, we all need to do carry out maintenance and repair for all the business and economy class passenger seats. First, we start off with taking out all the seats covers, one by one, guess how much is the amount? The total ... is 295!! Gosh. Luckily, it wasn't a B747, otherwise the amount would be double of this. Haha :) All these we did them in 30 minutes. Yup, all of them. < Keith smiles cunningly ;) > Wait, don't get me wrong. I mean we took 30 minutes to remove seat belts only. Haha ... Plenty of tasks to do, such as, remove seats covers, seat belts, ash trays and etc. It seems to be repetitive tasks, soon I got bored. Hmmm ... Lunch time, I went down to floor to observe the process of overhauling an A330 Pratt and Writtney (PW 4618) Engine 1 down from the pylon. Can you believe that the A330 engine is attached to the pylon by using 8 bolts only? 4 on the front, 2 left and 2 right, the same arrangement goes to the aft side. This is the wonder of Engineering! This is quite a complicated process, especially if you have phobia for height, after all you need to climb onto the scaffold, about few feet tall to gain access to the engine. You need to align the engine properly with the engine before you can pull down the engine too. Altogether, it need around 10 maintenance crews to do it. Estimated time of completion is half day or more. Wow, definitely, a challenging one for a Mechanical LAEs. I saw the tension on their faces as they gave instruction to their team members. Scary! Serious! Careful!

A330's PW Engine

Apparently, the forward cargo and aft cargo door were opened. I had a chance to sneak into the cargo compartment to have a look. It was huge! Really huge! I took a closer look at the aircraft's waste tanks too. There were two of them, located back at the aft cargo compartment. Inside here, at your right side, you can see the Black Box or Flight Data Recorder. Have you ever thought what is the color of Black Box? Most people will say it is black in colour. So, what do you think? Hehe :)

In aviation, there is always a debate between avionics and mechanical, even in my college. Most of time, people are concerned on which thread is more vital / important? They would say without Mechanical ( control surface, engines, hydraulic, just to name a few), it is impossible for an aircraft to fly? Okey, I, as an Avionics will reply, so without all the switches in the cockpit, how are you going to start the operation of each systems? Then, without, all the instruments and Navigation Display, how are you sure you are heading the correct destination? Don't tell me you are flying to Antarctica instead of heading towards Paris. What an unreliable flight! ~ Phew ... ~ Conclusion, there is still no clear cut answer on this topic. It is still arguable that both threads equally has their own points. No doubt about that.

Dear Readers,
Any opinion from you?

ChEeRs
(",)
KeithK