Perspective...

...Big IV's post got me thinking about it but I didn't want to gum up his thread.

Recently we had an airplane get towed over from the FBO across the airport from us. They're a very basic service shop (fuel, tires, service fluids, galley stock and that's about it) so it's not uncommon for them to bring over a broken airplane for us to fix. It turned out to be something a bit out of the ordinary though. The pilot called the maintenance office from the cockpit as he was preparing to depart and reported to the DOM (director of maintenance) that the airplane was "low on skydrol". The DOM went out to the plane and put a quart of the nasty purple drink into the hydraulic reservoir and then asked the pilot to cycle the flaps to check the level. When he went back into the tail compartment to check the level again he noticed the placard that said "MIL-5606 Hydraulic fluid ONLY".

I'm sure he wanted to cry. As of today (one month later) the bill for repair has exceeded 250,000 dollars including parts and labor and the work is still not done. Every hydraulic component in the plane (a Lear 60) had to be rebuilt, every flexible line had to be replaced and every rigid line had to be flushed with iso alcohol and then flushed twice with 5606 fluid. Every hydraulic circuit and system still has to be functionally checked, that's two days at least. That mistake ended (or at least seriously marred) an otherwise spotless career in aviation maintenance.

But here's the thing about perspective; I was talking to one of the younger mechanics on the crew and he was talking about what a bad day that must have been. Eh, not really. What if he had never noticed the placard and sent the plane on it's way? Most of you guys probably don't know, but the seals used in a 5606 system are not compatible with skydrol. It will eat right through them and at 30,000 feet that's very bad news. The potential is there to lose all hydraulics in flight and several people could have died. So while I wouldn't have called it a "good" day, it could have been one hell of a lot worse.

Another lesson to take from this is; never trust a pilot. EVER. They're not bad people but they often have no idea what's going on with their airplanes. I mean, they're pilots, not mechanics. But always question what they tell you.