Roehris Aviation Pages - Gallery on the job

A310 Gran Canaria/Las Palmas (GCLP), Turnaround on a rainy day / D-AIDD / 10.02.2005
Our aircraft had been leaking fuel the day before when she was refuelled, as the commander noticed during the walkaround. After two hours of troubleshooting and dealing with our maintenance department on the mobile phone, we finally decided to hand over as many passengers to other Hapag-Lloyd aircraft leaving Gran Canaria. The other 170 passengers were picked up by a relief B737 dispatched to Gran Canaria by means of a ferry flight. D-AIDD was repaired during the night by two mechanics flown in by our company Challenger businessjet, together with spare parts and tools. The next day, the aircraft was relesed to be ferried to Hannover. We only took along the two mechanics who repaired our "bus", 5 tons of fresh tomatoes, and the baggage of the "stranded" passengers.
	After a long stormy and rainy night and day, -DD is standing on the apron, waiting for us.
	The ground power carts who deliver electrical power to the aircraft are connected to the aircraft.
	The forward hold waits for the cargo, 5 tons of tomatoes, to be loaded.
	Mjammy, fresh tomatoes!
	If you ever wanted to know how your tomatoes travel to europe, when they are declared coming from the "canarias": Here you go!
	The baggage is waiting to be loaded to the aft cargo hold of -DD.
	The aft cargo hold is now "open for business".
	The tip of our mighty wing with the position lights and the nice winglet.
	A typical Airbus picture. If the hydraulics are unpressurized (before engine start), the "bus" has all flight control surfaces hanging down. Somehow she looks sad like this.
	The reason for our 36h-delay: Fuel dripping from the aft drain mast, where fuel from the APU feed line shroud or the trim tank fuel line shroud flows to. A shroud is a concentrical "second hull" for fuel lines, so as to make them "extra safe". As soon as the main (inner) fuel line ruptures, the fuel does not spill into the aircraft structures, but is guided to the aft drain mast and then overboard via the second, larger hull around the fuel line. Somehow, fuel came out of this drain mast, without having fuel in the APU or the trim tank line. Therefore it was kind of "Scotland Yard" brainwork to figure out what it could be, and where this fuel comes from. Very strange...
	Feet to trust on... :-)
	The A310 wing - 219 m2 of good cover when rain is pouring!
	Our huge fan engines, eager to push us homewards again.
	A very inviting view, isn't it?
	Our office at the pointy end of the aircraft, seen from outside.
	A view back from the front door...
	...and a little "zoomin' ".
	The weather is finally getting better. I wonder what our guests thought that left Gran Canaria the night before - the temperature were around 6 degrees Celsius and the rain was pouring all day long, together with a gusty wind. Is this really the holiday weather you are looking for?
	A B737 is landing, producing a tempest of water...
	...using the reversers on the soaking wet runway.
	Finally the highloader is here...
	...loading the containers into the aft cargo hold.
	Another one...
	We are finally loaded, fuelled excessively (should there be another fuel loss problem)...
	...and a special briefing concerning alternate airports has been given by the commander to cover all eventualities, should we loose fuel again, despite the maintenance done by the mechanics.
	After an uneventful flight to our homebase at Hanover, we parked D-AIDD on the ramp shortly after 0100 local time, and handed her over to the mechanics, who took a detailed look to the fuel system during the night.