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I've found stuff in wing tanks that shouldn't be there 30 years after a plane was built. I obviously have no idea when they were left behind, but some of the stuff, flashlights and different sorts of scrapers, should've been caught before the airplane was put either into or back into service. I once found a 1/4" drive 1/4" socket floating around in the PDB (power distribution box, basically the electrical brain/heart of a G-IV), we'd removed it to replace a faulty contactor. The backside of the box has like 30 something connectors, the bottom has all of the AC and DC power coming into and out of it through a dozen or so 4 gage aluminum terminals. It weighs about 200 lbs and when you dig into it's all open terminal ends and big relays. Bare metal like a socket just roaming free inside that thing for years makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Oddly enough it's held in place by two screws.Marine unit found metal shavings in F-35 fuel, plastic tool in wing
In a memo obtained by Defense News, a Marine Corps squadron commander raises the alarm about the quality of Lockheed Martin's new F-35C jets.
I don't recall the frequency, if memory serves it was hourly and not calendar based, maybe every 100-150 hours? It's just one of those things that pop up on the due list. The samples are normally taken when replacing the oil filter. You rarely do an oil change on a turbine engine, you just add oil constantly and replace the filter when required.
In my experience you get a "kit", it's a box with a plastic jar some papers a couple of stickers and a return shipping label inside. Inside of the plastic jar there's a smaller plastic jar, that's where the oil goes, there's also a plastic/teflon/silicone straw. I've never used the straw but I don't recall ever throwing them away. Once you get the sample in the small jar (don't send too much, they only need a little bit) you seal it up, clean the outside of the jar and then put it in the bigger jar and seal that up. Then you fill out the paperwork (N-number, engine S/N, engine position, times/cycles), grab the shipping label, toss everything into the box, tape it up, affix the label and either give it to shipping/recieving or drop it off at FedEx or UPS.
Non military planes have "environmental" cans to avoid this sort of thing. It's basically just a little reservoir that catches the unburnt fuel from the burner at shut down and sends it back to the hot section using a jet pump when the engine starts again. They used to have a filter for the motive flow line on the Speys and Tays that would clog up and the engine would just dump fuel after shutdown. This is not an ideal situation but it was exacerbated by the fact the baggage door opens underneath the left engine and when people were trying to unload the bags after the engine shut off they might get a shower of fuel. The obvious fix is to remove the filter, I haven't seen one in quite a while.Other thing I thought was funny/ironic. In my early days of flying, I’d always take a fuel sample from the wing drains when preflighting, the standard few ounces checking for water or particulates, then toss it onto the ground or the grass…in the heat here, most of that evaporates in no time. Today and lately, that’s verboten, tossing a few ounces out.
And yet, every time I’d shut down my A-10 or even my HH-60, whether at a mil or civilian field, the engine’s Overspeed Drain Valves would dump the remaining jet fuel from the lines and onto the ground, a pretty significant amount, maybe a quart or more, to keep it out of the hot section. And no one would complain about that. But a few ounces of AvGas….doom!!
Other thing I thought was funny/ironic. In my early days of flying, I’d always take a fuel sample from the wing drains when preflighting, the standard few ounces checking for water or particulates, then toss it onto the ground or the grass…in the heat here, most of that evaporates in no time. Today and lately, that’s verboten, tossing a few ounces out.
And yet, every time I’d shut down my A-10 or even my HH-60, whether at a mil or civilian field, the engine’s Overspeed Drain Valves would dump the remaining jet fuel from the lines and onto the ground, a pretty significant amount, maybe a quart or more, to keep it out of the hot section. And no one would complain about that. But a few ounces of AvGas….doom!!
