A little PSA

Ed Batist said:
I also see other idiots trying to be funny about something serious, SMH.
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I assisted on a pre-buy on an airplane that my IA said "a walk around is pretty much an annual", yet in reality it took about 5 hours to actually go through EVERYTHING. A couple special tools that I'm pretty sure TSA would not be happy with, and a long sit with papers dating to before my father was born. Some things are just not reasonable to check on a pre-flight. You do a compression check on the pre-flight of a piston? Because that is a crap ton more telling than making sure the lights work. How about an oil analysis? That will tell you when bearings are going or if you have corrosion on any internal part and which part. While we're at it, lets change the oil filter, and cut open the media on the old one and look for metal.
All of those things are kind of ridiculous on a pre-flight. So is getting out a 40-200ft ladder to check the top of the horizontal stab. The act of checking the stab is going to be more dangerous than assuming mx did their job and it's fine.


Autothrust Blue said:
I have yet to fly an airliner - including the cited accident aircraft, which was a Brasilia - in which I can inspect the upper surface of the horizontal stabilizer.
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I don't think there's even a part 23 t-tail twin you can check it.
 
Groundpounder said:
Little PSA:


j31usair.jpg


Big PSA:

psa-airlines-american-eagle-bombardier-regional-jet*1200xx4320-2430-0-405.jpg
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FIFY :D

Little PSA:

PSA%20BAE%20146.jpg


Big PSA:

PSA_L1011.jpg
 
Ed Batist said:
I also see other idiots trying to be funny about something serious, SMH.
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First of all, don't call people here idiots. They aren't anonymous user names like many of the other web forums out there but rather actual people that many of us know that participate in this community both on the web and in real life. Secondly, people are giving you crap not because the idea of doing a thorough preflight is bad but rather because the example you gave was something that wouldn't be caught on a preflight, ever. So, if you are going to harp on good preflights (which is certainly something that could be harped on... I've watched way too many guys walking around in the dark without a flashlight or in the bright light without sunglasses), at least give an example that is relevant.
 
BobDDuck said:
First of all, don't call people here idiots. They aren't anonymous user names like many of the other web forums out there but rather actual people that many of us know that participate in this community both on the web and in real life. Secondly, people are giving you crap not because the idea of doing a thorough preflight is bad but rather because the example you gave was something that wouldn't be caught on a preflight, ever. So, if you are going to harp on good preflights (which is certainly something that could be harped on... I've watched way too many guys walking around in the dark without a flashlight or in the bright light without sunglasses), at least give an example that is relevant.
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tl;dr: let's at least talk about something that matters.
 
It's a called a pre-flight, not an annual. Can't check everything.

With that being said- some mechanics are shady.
 
BobDDuck said:
No.

TL;DR: When talking about something that matters, you realistic examples.
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That's what I meant.

If you talk about something that matters with unrealistic examples, you're making it, um, something that doesn't matter.

(Don't get me wrong, this is me on preflight inspections:
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)
 
Autothrust Blue said:
That's what I meant.

If you talk about something that matters with unrealistic examples, you're making it, um, something that doesn't matter.

(Don't get me wrong, this is me on preflight inspections:
serious_business_lego.jpg
)
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We only do walk arounds on the first leg of the day (unless we swap planes). That means that the plane is (possibly) going 8 or 9 legs with no external check by the flight crew. The rampers are trained to walk around during a turn, but it means the one shot we have at actually checking up on stuff better be a good one.
 
Ooh! I know! We could get some of those drones with the cameras, and like, fly 'em over the parts of the airliner we couldn't see?! That way we could see what we can't see, ya see?
 
One thing that I try to do on every flight (which you 121 guys can't do) is make a quick walk around the airplane after the passengers have climbed aboard. I'm just looking for big things, like a fuel or lav panel left open, or a pitot cover still on. Takes about 30 seconds, and give me a peace of mind that I won't be forced to update the resume sooner than I'd like to.
 
BobDDuck said:
We only do walk arounds on the first leg of the day (unless we swap planes). That means that the plane is (possibly) going 8 or 9 legs with no external check by the flight crew. The rampers are trained to walk around during a turn, but it means the one shot we have at actually checking up on stuff better be a good one.
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Wait, what?

That's...that's really interesting. I mean I assume you'd pop downstairs if you think you hit a bird or something and look again, but that's really interesting. The pre/postflight was never permitted to be waived on the Brasilia. (Of course, we couldn't check engine oil without looking at the gauges either; that and propeller condition were the only serious "every leg" things. New airplane? FFOD? Thorough inspection. Through station? "Did I hit anything?")

Groundpounder said:
One thing that I try to do on every flight (which you 121 guys can't do) is make a quick walk around the airplane after the passengers have climbed aboard. I'm just looking for big things, like a fuel or lav panel left open, or a pitot cover still on. Takes about 30 seconds, and give me a peace of mind that I won't be forced to update the resume sooner than I'd like to.
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I did this on the Bro when checking the fuel doors. I looked for gear pins and open panels. More often than not we would be ready to close the door, so I would take the paperwork, check the fuel door, hand off the manifest, climb onboard and away we went. Of course, it's easy when you bring your own stairs.

Our ramp apparently does this on the 175. "Yep, walkaround's done, green light!"
 
Autothrust Blue said:
Wait, what?

That's...that's really interesting. I mean I assume you'd pop downstairs if you think you hit a bird or something and look again, but that's really interesting. The pre/postflight was never permitted to be waived on the Brasilia. (Of course, we couldn't check engine oil without looking at the gauges either; that and propeller condition were the only serious "every leg" things. New airplane? FFOD? Thorough inspection. Through station? "Did I hit anything?")


I did this on the Bro when checking the fuel doors. I looked for gear pins and open panels. More often than not we would be ready to close the door, so I would take the paperwork, check the fuel door, hand off the manifest, climb onboard and away we went. Of course, it's easy when you bring your own stairs.

Our ramp apparently does this on the 175. "Yep, walkaround's done, green light!"
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We only do pre-flights, not post-flights, at my shop. Pilot monitoring.
 
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