HARRODS AVIATION (CHALLENGING MAINTENANCE)
Category: Corporate Aviation Company Profiles
Author: Harrods Aviation
Rescue from Le Bourget - returning a Challenger to the air after two years on the ground.
Harrods Aviation has supported in excess of 50% of the worldwide fleet of Bombardier Challenger aircraft and, over the last five years, no aircraft has departed later than scheduled following maintenance. "This achievement is one we are all very proud of, and is because we do the job correctly, making sure we get it right first time," explained Mick Adams, Technical Director for Harrods Aviation.
Harrods Aviation Maintenance and Engineering department recently demonstrated that there are no boundaries to its expertise and technical support of the Bombardier Challenger aircraft.
A Challenger 604 had been under restraint at Le Bourget Paris for almost two years and therefore had not flown during this period. Harrods Aviation was approached by Twinjet Aircraft Sales to see if it could conduct a pre-purchase inspection, rescue the aircraft and bring all of the maintenance and technical records up to date. Then, provided all was well, Harrods Aviation would be required to put the aircraft onto the American register for a new owner.
"Because of the uncertainty surrounding the condition of the machine, Twinjet Aircraft decided that its purchase option, granted by the courts, could only be exercised if 100% reassurance could be provided by an organisation that Twinjet trusted," explained John Keeble, Managing Director, Twinjet Aircraft Sales. "That organisation was Harrods Aviation, who were judged to be able to rapidly assess the "as lying" technical position, put a working party together and ultimately to undertake a 48-month inspection to a fixed budget in a fixed timescale.
"This tough job specification was achieved in full and Twinjet Aircraft were able to deliver as agreed, on time, on budget. Great job!" concluded Keeble.
Ideally suited to this nature of request, Harrods Aviation proceeded to dispatch a team of engineers to Paris when, at the same time, its Maintenance Control department commenced a full review of the aircraft records and history to determine the exact requirements. Harrods Aviation needed to know exactly what it was dealing with – and fast.
As such, this type of situation provided a number of technical considerations like leaking seals, sticky actuators and the aircraft flying control rigging perhaps moving out of adjustment or becoming stiff. Other considerations were how the aircraft had been stored; was it in a dry, warm environment or damp and cold? Had it been moved? Had the wheels rotated?
The aircraft's general condition was good (although it needed a good wash). The cabin was somewhat ghostly as newspapers and cups had been left exactly where they had been after the last flight over two years previously. From a technical and systems operational aspect, the aircraft was found to function well - perhaps better than expected.
Due to logistical issues, Harrods Aviation decided to take on a very ‘mobile’ approach and took a large van kitted out with tool boxes, basic consumables and equipment so as to be fully self sufficient.
The engineers conducted the maintenance inspections and functions required in order to ready the aircraft for a ferry flight from Paris to Harrods Aviation’s London Luton maintenance facility and this resulted in five separate detachments of three engineers from the Luton base.
As the engines had not been turned for over two years, extensive maintenance and inspection work was required including full boroscope inspections of the engines. A boroscope inspection looks inside the engine from ‘outside looking in’ and, in this instance, identified a very small mark to one of the 6th stage compressor blades.
In order to determine whether, or not, this mark was a crack, the top case of the engine was removed while the engine was still installed on the airframe. This activity is one tha
Comment
Print & Share
Share this article this article online
Print the plain text version
Email this article to a friend
Digital Magazine
Follow us on Twitter
Article RSS Feed
Aviation Events
Aircraft Search
Find aircraft for sale from across the world from business jets to piston singles
Aviation Directory
Search our global directory of aviation products and services.
