Does anybody remember this?

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Gary Hingley
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Nov 22, 2006 2:19 pm

Does anybody remember this?

Post by Gary Hingley »

Many years ago, early 70's I had the good fortune to ride the jump seat of a BA VC10 to Bahrain via Dahran from Heathrow. When we landed at Dahran and taxied in the aircraft had a flat tyre on its port main undercarridge. At the time BA had a very limited service arrangement at Dahran and the local agent came out to the aircraft with a spare wheel and a jack and left the crew to get on with it. I remember it was evening and we were on the ground for several hours getting very bored while the engineer was attending to the problem. I asked the Captain if I could get off the aircraft to go see how the engineer was getting on. I joined the engineer under the port wing and realised he was having a hard time trying to get the wheel off. He had it jacked up with all the nuts off but the wheel wouldnt budge. We spotted a smaller bolt in the wheel which we undid with an adjustable spanner and gave the wheel another tug and off it came. Problem was all the brake pads fell on to the tarmac. I think the brakes should have been on when we pulled the wheel off. We ended up putting the brake pads back into the hub and held them there while several stewerds and stewardesses passed the message back to the captain to put the brakes on, which then got a grip of the pads and held them in place while we put the new wheel on.
We were soon back on the flight deck taxing out to the end of the runway for takeoff for the short flight to Bahrain. The Captain took the decision to fly the very short leg to Bahrain with the undercarridge down just in case there was any excesive heat build up in the brakes during the takeoff run. We landed at Bahrain without further incident and I said goodby to the crew and went to meet my parents who were waiting for me. I was black as the ace of spades with all the carbon from the brake pads I had helped to put back, and the look on my mothers face was unbelievable. She asked what I had been up to and I said Mother your not going to believe this, but I just fixed the plane.
You cant beat the good old days!
Murray Keene
Posts: 138
Joined: Fri Oct 21, 2005 11:14 am

Post by Murray Keene »

I dont remember THAT but the wheel retaining ring is locked with a small bolt. The actual 'wheel nut ' is a big threaded ring that spins onto the stub axle.

Also with the heat packs (brakes) we used whats called a'spider'. It was a sort of thing that slid over the axle with about 8 legs on it. We could then slide it on and line up the brake pads. Once done we PUT ON THE BRAKES, remove the spider and fit the wheel.

You must have had a hell of a time if those pads dropped out reitting them without a wheelchange route kit! Well done, you shoud get a mention in dispatches and 'air clues'! :wink:
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