After last landing of the day, the engineering and maintenance teams take care of the airliners. Problems reported by the pilots are examined, and various preventive checks are done. Heavier periodical maintenance is planned well in advance, but each night, planes undergo some maintenance.

A couple of years ago, a friend of mine invited me to visit a maintenance workshop while the team was doing the overnight maintenance of an AvroLiner “Jumbolino”. The plane came in at 22h30, and one of the guys taxiied it from the tarmac to the hangar.

As soon as the plane was in, the team opened the all the compartments: avionics bay, freight, APU, and even the nose, which contains the weather radar. They also used mobile stairs to get on top of the plane. If you think the Jumbolino is a small plane, that’s because you never walked on its wing…

The plane was powered by a ground generator, so the team could use all the cockpit function (see photos below). I discovered that a special sequence of keys on the Flight Management System (FMS) gives access to maintenance and diagnostics functions. Each anormal parameter is recorded and then examined at night.

Some engine maintenance was planned this night, so one of the engines had all its cowlings open. Another couple of guys were working on a flap, and had to use special tools to bend a piece in titanium. Not exaclty standard mechanics work…

All members of the team are certified mechanics, working under supervision of a team leader. All but one were airline employees. The last one was a British Aerospace hiree, expert in AvroLiner maintenance, permanently detached to this maintenance base.

Thanks a lot to this team for hosting me on this long night shift, and for the job they do each and every night to keep the airlines running safely.

I took pictures of aircraft parts that are not normally accesible to passengers. The pictures below are extracted from my “Jumbolino Maintenance” photo gallery, which contains 68 pictures.

Landing gear and gear shaft.

Avionics bay, and a very small part of the electrical circuit. The avionics bay is located in a small compartment below the cockpit, and this is where most of the electronics (radio, navigation, engine management, …) is located.

Control cables running from cockpit to the tail.

An engine with its cowling open.

The Auxilliary Power Unit (APU), an engine in the tail, producing electricity or hydraulic power while on ground.

Pedestal with power levers, dashboard and overhead panel.

Circuit breakers in the cockpit… and more in the avionics bay

The on-board kitchen