Would you stand under this plane?!

. An out door full jacking is very dependant on the weather! The aircraft has to be facing into wind and the wind has to be less than 4kts.
Rgds Cking

I checked up on the jacking limitations for the 777 to day. It’s not less that 4kts it’s less than 35 kts!!!!!!!! If you ever want an aircraft jacking in 35kts do NOT call me!!!

Rgds Cking

That’s because it’s not a DC-10.. it’s an A310

Go to sleep Steve, I have just woken up, maybe an A300? Michael.

That’s because it’s not a DC-10.. it’s an A310

I found the Laker pics, here’s one for anyone interested.

It’s a little too early in the morning to be looking at pictures like this, but why is the third DC-10 engine underneath the fuselage?:confused:

I found the Laker pics, here’s one for anyone interested.

Guess this is the one you are thinking of, D-ABZY!:D

http://www.airliners.net/discussions/general_aviation/read.main/1415398/

Ouch!:eek:

Shows how comparatively fragile civil jets are.

A certain well known German airline did that to a 747 and bent it like a banana!!! There are pictures of it somewere on the net too!

Rgds Cking

Guess this is the one you are thinking of, D-ABZY!:D

http://www.airliners.net/discussions/general_aviation/read.main/1415398/

IThe ex Laker A300’s were also jacked outside at Stansted, although one was damaged when the tail jack wasn’t lowered fast enough (not that that had anything to do with being outside).

A certain well known German airline did that to a 747 and bent it like a banana!!! There are pictures of it somewere on the net too!

Rgds Cking

I remember jacking a Dan Air 727 outside the passenger terminal at Stansted & doing undercarriage retractions. With all the passengers watching from the viewing area, after their flight had been forced to return because the gear failed to retract after takeoff. Some of them were a bit reluctant to re board when we had finished, but it worked fine for the second departure.

The ex Laker A300’s were also jacked outside at Stansted, although one was damaged when the tail jack wasn’t lowered fast enough (not that that had anything to do with being outside).

Here are a couple of indoor shots.

I think this is a case of

“Only in China”

No thats not the case. A manchester based airline jacked a 767 up fully, outside about three weeks ago. Don’t know why though and, as they did it over night did’nt see them do a full gear swing.
It is perfectly safe. If you are down the line or the shed is full you do it outside, simple as that.

Rgds Cking

I think this is a case of

“Only in China”

Thanks guys for the informative answers from the front line!:)

Whether an aircraft weighs 100 tons or 40 tons it makes little difference when it falls on your head.

Consider the situation at sea on a carrier where jacking heavy jets is a matter of routine, and yes the undercarriage does make a racket when it houses.

More worrying than jacking an F4K at sea was carrying out the nose-undercarriage leg emergency shrink test, where pneumatics were used in place of the normal hydraulic method.

For this most lashings had to be removed because of the amount of rotation and the violance of the movement as the leg shrank. The guy in the cockpit, to operate the selector, was instructed to close the canopies – to prevent the mechanism sheering and him being ejected from the cockpit. The leg shrank so rapidly that the nose of the A/C appeared suspended in the air for a moment. Then gravity took charge and the nose would come down contacting the deck with force enough to lift the main wheels off the deck, sometimes over the chocks.

At sea, in a cramped hangar this was always ‘fun’.:D

If you have seen the operation, how long does it take to raise the plane? I presume there are three jacks in operation. Are they independent of each other in the operation or do they work in unison?

Most airliners are jacked using three jacks and a fourth is used as a nose/tail steady. Each jack is indipenantly controled. They are hydraulic but have an air driven pump to do the donkey work. It takes two blokes to operate each jack, one to drive it and one to turn a lockingring ring around the piston. (The locking ring is there in case the jacks seal fail and the piston collapses) There are systems about that are centraly controlled but they havn’t worked their way down to me yet! To jack one up takes about an hour(ish). To get the jacks set up get the blokes together on the other hand……
The aircraft has to be level during the lift so there is usually a person in the u/c bay watching a built in leveling device. This is ,as Skymonster says, some times a plumbob or two sort of spirt levels that the manufacture build into the airframe. I dont know what sort the 777 has but the 747,757& 767 have the sprit level types.
There are two things that stand out as unusual to me about this photograph. Firstly, they are doing it out doors. An out door full jacking is very dependant on the weather! The aircraft has to be facing into wind and the wind has to be less than 4kts. This is not so much of a problem with a wheel change as we only jack the axle.
Secondly, they have raised ALL the gears. I have very rarely been involved with raising all the gear on an airliner. I have never raised all the gear on the 747,757 or the 767. I have done loads of single gear swings on them and I have raised all three on the 737. There are many reasons for this. One being that the aircraft shakes badly as the gear come down and dropping all three increases the shaking and there is a chance that the aircraft might fall off the jacks!!!! I was watching a main grear swing on a Tristar once and as the gear dropped it shook so badly that one of the nose jack’s feet left the ground. I ran!!! Also it takes an awful lot of hydralic pressure to lift the gear. The electric pumps will do it, but they wil do it slowly.So you would need an external hydraulic supply if you want to do it and get home for tea. In the air the engines or an air driven pump are available.

Rgds Cking

I have seen this done for real (albeit in a hangar) several times and the raised a/c is very stable – the most tricky part of the exercise is raising and lowering the a/c in a precisely horizontal state to ensure it doesn’t slip of the jacks due to being lop-sided – the DC-9s I saw it done on had a plumbline inside the nose gear bay which was watched by one of the engineers as the a/c was raised to ensure the a/c remained level, but a very a/c like a 777 maybe has something a little more sophisticated.
Andy

If you have seen the operation, how long does it take to raise the plane? I presume there are three jacks in operation. Are they independent of each other in the operation or do they work in unison?

This rather bad quality shot was taken by myself, an Aegean 734 being held off the ground in a hangar at Stansted.

It was pretty fun standing around underneath all those tonnes of metal, and sticking my head inside the gear bay. And you should hear the deafening crash they make when they swing them up and down, you’d never have thought the process was so loud 😀

Another example this time an LH A330:

http://www.airliners.net/open.file?id=1213730&WxsIERv=Nveohf%20N330-343K&Wm=0&WdsYXMg=Yhsgunafn&QtODMg=Senaxsheg%20-%20Znva%20%28Eurva-Znva%20NO%29%20%28SEN%20%2F%20SES%20%2F%20RQQS%29&ERDLTkt=Treznal&ktODMp=Znepu%2018%2C%202007&BP=1&WNEb25u=Cvbge%20Znerx%20%28RCTQ%20Fcbggref%29&xsIERvdWdsY=Q-NVXU&MgTUQtODMgKE=Vg%20vf%203%20zrgref%20nobir%20tebhaq%2C%20fbzr%20jurryf%20freivpr.&YXMgTUQtODMgKERD=373&NEb25uZWxs=2007-05-21%2022%3A35%3A45&ODJ9dvCE=&O89Dcjdg=648&static=yes&width=1024&height=741&sok=%20beqre%20ol%20cubgb_vq%20QRFP&photo_nr=134&prev_id=1213731&next_id=1213729

Nothing except for the fact that its outside is unusual – as has already been said, its done all over the world on a very regular basis inside hangArs during maintenance checks. To do gear swings, the a/c has to be raised quite a bit to get the weight off the extended olios and to allow the main gear bogies to hang in their normal unloaded position.

I have seen this done for real (albeit in a hangar) several times and the raised a/c is very stable – the most tricky part of the exercise is raising and lowering the a/c in a precisely horizontal state to ensure it doesn’t slip of the jacks due to being lop-sided – the DC-9s I saw it done on had a plumbline inside the nose gear bay which was watched by one of the engineers as the a/c was raised to ensure the a/c remained level, but a very a/c like a 777 maybe has something a little more sophisticated.

Andy

If you think about it this is done every day to aircraft under going checks in hangers. This airline just felt like getting a tan when working on it this time.

I’d stand underneath it, but only as long as my 30D was there with me. 😀

I’m fairly sure the airline wouldn’t put their xxx-million dollar machine on jacks like that if there were a real risk it may be damaged!

Paul