Toilet Trouble grounds Cathay's Airbuses!

ArrrgHHH!:eek:

So, this is a “Bog Thread”, is it? Well that’s nothing. Imagine doing a tour round Central Africa, tropical temperatures, and not visiting a maintenance station for a few days. Man, those toilets start to hum after a while! No grounding the plane. You finish the tour of duty, or, as we once did out of desperation, park at the far end of a remote runway and open the drain valve…

“Thats nothing, that”!
A mate of mine dismantled a Tristar at Bournmouth years ago. When they came to remove the forward bog tank they had to up end it to get it out of the forward lower hatch. He thought it looked a bit heavy as his two mechnics struggled to lift it. The two guys BELOW the forward lower hatch had the contents of the tank emptied onto them. The tank had not been emptied when the aircraft landed there THREE YEARS previously!!!!

Rgds Cking

So, this is a “Bog Thread”, is it? Well that’s nothing. Imagine doing a tour round Central Africa, tropical temperatures, and not visiting a maintenance station for a few days. Man, those toilets start to hum after a while! No grounding the plane. You finish the tour of duty, or, as we once did out of desperation, park at the far end of a remote runway and open the drain valve…

Toilets are a source of endless fun. In fact it is part of an Aircraft engineers creed that when ever more than two of us are gathered together we will always end up talking about blocked bogs. We all have a good “Bog story” and after telling it it is the rule that somebody else tells another starting with the line “Thats nothing, that!”
Quite a few years ago there was another Bog thread running on the forum.

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=35084

Towards the end of it I discribed the two systems used on airliners. all new Airbus and most new Boeings have vacuum toilet systems.

Rgds Cking

Thanks for that!

They all have a vacuum toilet system fitted.
They ALL have the same problems.
Go before you fly and keep your legs crossed!!!

Rgds Cking

oh great,

Im due to fly them on the kangaroo route to australia in 2 weeks, any news if these problems will be sorted in time?

flying B744 A333 out

flying A333 A343 return

to suck poo from one end of an aircraft to another… ..still the best job in the industry!;)

Rgds Cking

:diablo:

I was on a course with KLM at Norwich a few years back and the instructor there told us that the 777 had to have bends put into the poo pipes because such a long straight section, when tried on the engineering mockup, let to the t*rds going supersonic and smashing their way out at the far end. 😮

They use a synthetic block for testing, in case anyone’s wondering. 😉

Did they reach Turdinal velocity?

Rgds Cking

Hmmm…… Where’s Sherlock Holmes when you need him? 😎

No sh*t Sherlock !

I was on a course with KLM at Norwich a few years back and the instructor there told us that the 777 had to have bends put into the poo pipes because such a long straight section, when tried on the engineering mockup, let to the t*rds going supersonic and smashing their way out at the far end. 😮

They use a synthetic block for testing, in case anyone’s wondering. 😉

it was always a ground engineer who ended up with one arm stirring the poo to clear the exit valve of the waste tank.

Been there, done that!
It’s amazing how health and safety rules don’t seem to apply to us engineers:confused:

Rgds Cking

I can only begin to imagine what people put down toilets in aircraft, despite signs asking for only human waste and toilet paper.

I have done this job of emptying aircraft waste tanks for many years myself, and believe me, not only the passengers throw all this blocking stuff into the toilets. I’ve seen CA’s throw milk cartons, trays of used tea-bags, plastic water bottles, halfway used-up toilet paper rolls and such in the toilets at the end of their shift when they wanted to get off the plane ASAP. As we, ramprats, were not allowed to put our arms into the tanks, it was always a ground engineer who ended up with one arm stirring the poo to clear the exit valve of the waste tank. And when they tried to explain to the CA’s why they should not throw that stuff into the lav they were met with surprised looks from the innocent-eyed CA’s. They said something like ‘oh, really?’ and left.

Tillerman.

Regarding A vs B I agree completely with Cking….this problem affects both the same on a/c that are equipped with vacuum toilets. Passengers ignore the signs and put things down there that shouldn’t go down there….the toilets get clogged, but eventually it all passes…:)

Sounds like a s**t job to me.

Paul

It is intriguing to note, though, that Boeing aircraft are not similarly afflicted.

Oh yes they are!!!
There is basicaly only one way to suck poo from one end of an aircraft to another. Airbus and Boeing do it the same way.
They BOTH get blocked by the same stuff. The punters ignore the signs and stuff all sorts of stuff down there.
I have delt with the results on both types! It’s still the best job in the industry!;)

Rgds Cking

I think this is a load of crap personally.

… I’ll get me coat … 😀

Paul

Cathay Pacific’s director of flight operations, Nick Rhodes, admitted in a memo to staff the problems were “possibly due to a change in the cleaning procedure introduced approximately six months ago”. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/25/kaput_khazis/

Hmmm…… Where’s Sherlock Holmes when you need him? 😎

I agree, strange it only seems to be Airbus and Cathay Pacific!

I can only begin to imagine what people put down toilets in aircraft, despite signs asking for only human waste and toilet paper.
It is intriguing to note, though, that Boeing aircraft are not similarly afflicted. Perhaps they have wider toilet pipes.