the lancaster kicks ass
Major General
- 19,937
- Dec 20, 2003
Second opinions needed about some ww2 aircraft remarks..
- Thread starter stalkervision
- Start date
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Oh well stupid is as stupid does.
FLYBOYJ
"THE GREAT GAZOO"
Preflights? Ha!
Very good point. That is part of the preflight and infact it even says in the checklist to remove that stuff even though it says in big white letters on a red flag "Remove Before Flight".
I remember an airliner from Argentina (I think it was) went down in the '90s because the aircraft cleaners had left the pitot covered while she was cleaning it. It never got taken off and the pilot had no information from his instruments, it got stormy, the pilot couldn't see and it went into the sea. 
I am surprised he took off since he had no instrument readings. Dumb pilot. This goes back to the other thread where you commented on pilots thinking they are experts.
wmaxt
Staff Sergeant
DerAdlerIstGelandet said:
My understanding is this It was nighttime and had a flashlight preflight. The tape was on the underside of the fusalageand and the tape color was very close to the paint color. The tape was covering a static air pressure port that affected several instruments and the instruments gave readings but they were not only lagged but variable. The readings were consistent between the instruments so it wasn't very obvious. Also as the altitude and speed increased the problems increased. I agree he should have returned immediately but the pressure is enormous to keep the schedule and the problem wasn't that apparent early on. That aircraft out of an airport in South America would only have cost $80,000/$100,000 to turn around if they found the tape and got it into the air in 30min or so. In the continental US it could rum into the millions as it would dissrupt schedules all over the country. They thought they had a very minor problem and made the wrong choice.
wmaxt
Still in my opinion no excuse that is why the whole crew does pre flights.
FLYBOYJ
"THE GREAT GAZOO"
Most of the time the Captain makes the first officer do the pre-flight. At bare minimum, one of the pilots should of noticed the pitot tube was covered. The bigger problem is the pitot tube on many airliners has additional sensors that give indications to other instruments and systems.
I like the system that we use in the Army. First us Crew Chiefs go out and preflight it about an hour before the pilots come out. Then they preflight it after us, both pilots that is. Sometimes things still get missed because we are human but in the overall point of view I can honestly say I never flew an aircraft that I felt unsafe in or was unsure about.
