system
Oy!!!
Oy!!!
Okay, Bean Counter Managers, this isn’t nuclear physics here. Either hire more people to work the floor or stop pushing the ones already there so hard and accept a lower production rate.
There is absolutely NOTHING NEW in the processes for building Boeing aircraft, especially the fuel tanks. As the tank areas are built, ensure that the areas are cleaned after each step. Then, prior to closing ensure that an final cleaning is accomplished then 100% visually inspected. Heck Boeing People, you have been building large fleets of big airplanes since the B-17 and, as far as I know, there hasn’t been a in-Tank FOD issue until recently. While the technology is new, the -737Max and the KC-46 (-767) are NOT NEW and EXOTIC designs with special / new / complicated processes for making fuel tanks.
Or, of course, you can continue your failed “Bean Counter” ways until the production finally halts for lack of orders and your all important stock value falls to zero…
Stress, production schedules and the general work load and oversight are of course a huge systemic problem.
But having visited the Boing plant as well as Gulfstream and Beechcraft plants, I often wondered how some American Mechanics actually manage on the job with their physical fitness.
I’ve seen many so severely obeese workers that I really wondered, how they manage on the job where you have to work kneen all the time, lie in compartments and fit into tight spaces…
This goes especially for Integral Fuel Tanks. If you’ve ever been in an accessible fuel tank (777, A330 etc.) you know how tight it is there. To really carefully clean up after your work there requires a lot of physical mobility, fitness and disciplin. Mechanics who are just a bit on the fatty side or unfit, will have a hard time or even be incapable of leaving a perfectly clean work area in the fuel tanks when they’re done.
As someone who regularly flies with glass, I agree. Not having to maintain a mechanical gyro is nice but electronically driven instrumentation is not foolproof. The small jets I fly have dual AHRS along with a third independent attitude gyro for backup. I have had my share of AHRS and display failures over the years to make me glad I have the third backup.
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Type certificate or TSO.
So if the screen itself breaks for for whatever reason, you loose all important instruments at once.
If you are in IMC while this happens, it is happy go fun time!!
It’s important to realize how computers can “break” for even trivial reasons.
One recurring cause is simply the clock rolling over to a certain value, like the recent 787 51-day (internal network) and 248-day (generator) issues. Note that is a surprisingly-common problem across computer devices.
No doubt map and procedure database expirations have and will affect avionics operation in surprising ways, especially as devices become obsolete (unsupported.)
In reality the pilot workload with just a TC would be through the roof.
After any overbanking, the amount of effort and time to regain control with a TC would be very stressful for single-pilot operation compared to the sight picture an AI provides, so I never seriously considered it to be a desirable AI backup.
Conceptually, TC shows a relative value, rate of turn, while AI shows absolute bank.
You can think of the difference kind of like using an ADF vs. VOR - for most people. that latter is more comfortable, especially after some time off, and it’s unlkely they could correctly follow a procedure navigating with ADF today.
I’m saying all this as a 6-pack fan, so the above goes doubly so for a glass cockpit pilot. Love to see some videos of pilots reacting to a sudden dark glass cockpit, especially SP.
Great idea if you can afford it. The electronic backup AI can cost in excess of $30,000 brand new. I know this due to having to replace one in the jet I fly.