THREAD HIJACK ALERT! Dan,
Thanks for the UPS plug! I always enjoy that story, even though it's an Internet legend. The part about "never having an accident" is a bit misleading, the truth is that we've never had a "hull loss" or a fatality. Plenty of little "accidents", such as running off runways, landing gear collapses due to bad landings,and stuff like that. We almost lost a DC-8 in 2006 due to an in-flight fire caused by a thermal runaway in a container with lithium computer batteries. The crew did a heroic job and got the airplane on the ground in Philadelphia before the fuselage failed. Even though that should have been a "hull loss", UPS managed to patch the aircraft together for a one-time flight to the Boneyard and avoided the statistic that would have driven our insurance rates through the roof. The company and our 2900 line pilots of the Independent Pilots Association are justifiably proud of our safety record, but we realize we are living on "borrowed time", statistically speaking. We have been very proactive on both the union and management side in identifying risks in our operation and promoting safer procedures and techniques. Hopefully we'll be able to claim that we haven't had a major accident for a long tine to come! Later, Dave --- In ercoupe-flyin@yahoogroups.com, Caliendo Dan <djcalie...@...> wrote: > > I'm a member of the flying group and happy to participate. (Must admit I > almost never > notice which group the Ercoupe stuff is coming from; but try not to put > non-techincal > stuff on the tech group.) > Here's a starter for you: > > Just in case you need a laugh: > Remember it takes a college degree to fly a plane, but only a high school > diploma to fix one; a reassurance to those who fly routinely in their jobs. > > After every flight, UPS pilots fill out a form, called a 'gripe sheet,' which > tells mechanics about problems with the aircraft. The mechanics corrects the > problems, document their repairs on the form, and then pilots review the > gripe sheets before the next flight. Never let it be said that ground crews > lack a sense of humor. > > Here are some actual maintenance complaints submitted by UPS pilots (marked > with a P) and the solutions recorded (marked with an S) by maintenance > engineers. > > By the way, UPS is the only major airline that has never, ever, had an > accident. > > P: Left inside main tire almost needs replacement. > S: Almost replaced left inside main tire. > > P: Test flight OK, except auto-land very rough. > S: Auto-land not installed on this aircraft. > > P: Something loose in cockpit > S: Something tightened in cockpit > > P: Dead bugs on windshield. > S: Live bugs on back-order. > > P: Autopilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200 feet per minute descent > S: Cannot reproduce problem on ground. > > P: Evidence of leak on right main landing gear. > S: Evidence removed. > > P: DME volume unbelievably loud. > S: DME volume set to more believable level. > > P: Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick. > S: That's what friction locks are for. > > P: IFF inoperative in OFF mode. > S: IFF always inoperative in OFF mode. > > P: Suspected crack in windshield. > S: Suspect you're right. > > P: Number 3 engine missing. > S: Engine found on right wing after brief search > > P: Aircraft handles funny. (I love this one!) > S: Aircraft warned to straighten up, fly right and be serious. > > P: Target radar hums. > S: Reprogrammed target radar with lyrics. > > P: Mouse in cockpit. > S: Cat installed. > > And the best one for last ... > P: Noise coming from under instrument panel. Sounds like a midget pounding on > something with a hammer. > S: Took hammer away from midget. > > > Dan Caliendo > Ercoupe Mach 0.14 > 3658H > > On Dec 1, 2009, at 2:05 PM, ght wrote: > > > Don, > > > > It used to get a lot more traffic, several years ago. I used to post a lot. > > But since several very sociable people have sadly, died, or disappeared for > > other reasons, not much is going on. > > > > I am even reluctant to post on the flyin side unless it is related to > > Ercoupe socialization. I used to post about flying in general, ask > > questions, send jokes. It was a lot of fun and I met several friends here. > > I hope that perhaps it can be that way again. I miss it. > > > > Spook > > > > >
