45 minutes in Airport ...

Heathrow Airport, London is recognized as the world most busiest airport with average of one aircraft taking off and lands at every two seconds. Engineering crews who work in airport ( or what we call " line " ) belong to a department known as apron Servicing Unit (ASU). In my last post, I introduce about B737 with some descriptions of its background, and for this post, I will share about the maintenance tasks that need to be performed, not only by ASU but from various departments, during the aircraft is in-transit mode.

This B737 is on transit from KLIA to KCH. As you can see, there are lots of crews working on this aircraft. Each aircraft should be cleared for take-off after line maintenance in about 45 minutes. Delaying aircraft must be avoided as far as we are concerned, because MAS is a 5 Stars airlines which provides 5 Stars services. Our formula, delay = loss of profits!! Haha :)

A pilot and an engineer are doing a walk-around checks, particularly visual inspection on airframe. Common inspection includes, checking for nose landing gears and main landing gears condition, clearing defects in MR1 or MR2, checking for leakage (fuel, water, hydraulic), checking for security of various panels on airframe and etc ... To prevent any negligence, there is a Transit Checklist that need to be completed and signed off before the aircraft is released into service.

Cargo Department is responsible for the transition and loading of your cargoes. B737 has two cargo compartments, one forward and one aft at the lower right hand fuselage with capacity of 1,373 ft³ (38.9 m³).

Fuel for aircraft is of high quality kerosene, known as JET-A1 fuel. Usually, underground fuel pipes allow refueling without the need of tank truck. Truck is only used to carry necessary hoses and pressure apparatus, but not fuel. Refueling is done by connecting fuel hose to a manifold under the right wing, while pressure from the tanker will supply fuel directly into aircraft fuel tank ( usually wing tank is filled first) Fueling is a dangerous activity due to the accumulation of statics charges as the aircraft flies through the sky. If these statics charges are not dissipated before refueling, an electric arc can occur which may ignite fuel vapors. Therefore, grounding of aircraft and tankers is compulsory as a safety measure. Fire extinguishers must be present within aircraft's vicinity during refueling.

Food and drinks are loaded into the aircraft's galley by the catering service provider. The food are pre-cooked, so the cabin crews will require to heat them up during flight by using the ovens. The B737 consists of two galleys, one forward for business class and an aft galley for economy class.

Once everything is done, the passengers will board into the aircraft. A tow-tug will be used to push-back the aircraft to runway for taxying and then take-off as instructed by the control tower (ATC). Note: A B737 require tow-tug of this kind, bigger aircraft such as B747, B777 and A330 will need a high-powered tow-tug for push-back. LAE will sign off to certify the airworthiness of flight before aircraft is allowed to fly. That's will be my future career ... Huge responsibility, I must admit that!!

I hope you have learned something from this post. Aircraft Maintenance Engineering is rare in the eyes of public. What they know, is, oh yes, the pilots fly the aircraft!! Neither they knew, Engineers play a huge role too in ensuring the airworthiness of flight. Since Kuching does have any base maintenance, so in future, if I wish to transfer back, I will need to work in ASU. Base maintenance will perform heavy maintenance tasks in hangar, unlike in line maintenance. I would say working in ASU will be more hectic and stressful, considering the time constraints with the amount of workloads. Furthermore, you will need to be really good and expert in trouble-shooting defects in any particular aircraft's systems, otherwise, you will be the one to be blamed for delaying the flight. Serious, this is not a joke!!

Well, that's all from me. If you any questions regarding this posts, please feel free to share with me. I will try my best to clear your doubts. To all my colleagues, if I did wrote any mistakes in this post, please let me know ASAP. I will make correction for it and learn them at the same time.

cHeErS,
KeithK :)