Folks- If you're enjoying this series, please check out Wes' first novel and 25th book INVISIBLE EVIL it's got lots of aviation in it. Get an autographed and personalized copy HERE
TANKS A LOT
Although we
had everything needed to totally disassemble the Falcon 20 in the “D”
inspection, there were some tasks that simply had to be contracted out. One of
those was the dropping and cleaning of the fuel tanks.
For those of
you who may be unfamiliar with the fuel tanks on aircraft such as this, in the
case of the wing storage, there really is no “tank” at all. The fuel is housed
inside the wing itself and resides among the spars.
The Falcon
20 does indeed also have two actual tanks in the aft fuselage, but most of the
cleaning process in the “D” inspection involved the wing tanks. For that Aero
Services brought in a specialist in wing tank cleaning. That was a fellow by
the name of Leroy Toro and he was said to be the master of aircraft tank
cleaning. He was contracted to fly in from south Florida with his
crew to get the job done.
By 1985 I
had already spent four years living in Florida and working assorted minim wage
jobs in the effort to work my way through Embry-Riddle. It was the early 1980s
and the national recession made getting any job in Michigan impossible until
late 84. In Florida, and especially Daytona, it was fairly easy to gain
employment. The hotels along the beach side alone hired anyone right off the
street. Thus you often found yourself working with some really rag-tag people.
The establishments that needed this ready labor usually did not hold back the
first week’s pay, there was no state income tax and some places, such as Kmart
paid in cash every week. Transients would work for one or two paydays and then
either get fired or just move on. I’d been hired on the labor crew at the
Daytona Plaza hotel in January of 83 just by walking in and asking for a job.
They hired seven of us that day- by the next week there was only me remaining.
Of course they hired six new faces. Three months later I’d seen a lot of the
rag-tags come and go and I was actually a senior employee. Still a lot of dirty
jobs got done and the weekly cash helped me pay for some of my school and feed
myself until I found it worthwhile to head back to Michigan for a year. Yep- I
was just as rag-tag as everyone else. Thus, when Mr. Toro brought his crew into
Hangar 6 I easily recognized a bunch of my fellow Florida rag-tags hired on to
do a very dirty job.
As Mr. Toro
and our general manager went over the specifics of what his crew was going to
do, our GM thought pensively for a while and then vanished into his office.
Later that day he came into the lunch room and told us all that everyone was
going to get a four day vacation! This was because one of the largest steps in
the tank cleaning process involved actually spraying CH3C(O)CH2CH3 into the
tank spaces after they had opened them up. What’s CH3C(O)CH2CH3? It’s the
chemical formula for methyl ethyl ketone, or MEK. Anyone working in most
industries or especially paint and body shops knows MEK as a great solvent and
when exposed to it in modest amounts the worst it will do is make your eyes
burn or your throat sore. But, when sprayed it can, like any solvent, pose
serious health hazards and can be highly flammable. Aero Services was taking no
chances. I immediately began planning my
summer trip up north to camp and watch the lakeboats go by at Sault Saint Marie.
Before they
could spray, they had to drop the tanks. Normally, the inspection panels on
aircraft are set in place with screws that are hand-tightened and easily
removed with a speed handle. That is, unless some jackass before you has
decided to use an air wrench and over-tightened them. You can usually tell when
this has happened by the presence of a tell-tale tornado scratch mark next to
the screw head. That says that the screw will likely strip and have to be
drilled out. It also means a lot of time spent on one stinking screw-
especially if the drill bit you’re using to make the tap hole breaks off in the
hole! Now you’re talking a piece of hardened steel stuck in your hole and
overtime on your time card… plus lots of swearing. The screws holding those fuel
tanks together were not intended to be removed routinely, so their screws are
not only over-tightened, but also painted in place.
Mr. Toro’s
tank crew used plenty of elbow grease and just as much profanity as they put in
12 hour days to get those tanks dropped. Once the parts were on the hangar
floor and the crew was ready to begin the spraying, I split with no regrets.
The stuff they were cleaning away was a sealant that had been used during the
construction of the wing in France. The sealant, PR-1422 and PR-1431, was a
dark brown color and when you picked at it with your fingers it seemed hard a
crusty. I wondered to our A.I. how some of that couldn’t help but break away
and contaminate the fuel? He simply replied, “That’s what filters are for.”
By the time
I’d spent four working days plus a weekend up north relaxing it was time to get
back to Hangar 6 and the Falcon 20 that looked a lot like a skeleton. There were no windows, the cockpit was empty- including the entire instrument panel, every
space that could be open was now a gaping hole, both engines were off the
airframe and resting on racks, the rudder and every other control surface was
off… but those tanks were all sealed up nice and pretty. Mr. Toro and his crew
had done their job.
Of course
they left us with a hangar that smelled like MEK for the next week or so.
NEXT: Part 4,
You gotta start spendin’ more.
This saga brought to you by Wes' 25th book- the aviation, spy thriller INVISIBLE EVIL ! If you're into aviation, this book will draw you in.
Get an autographed and personalized copy HERE
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment