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Special Inspections During the service life of an aircraft, occasions may arise when something out of the ordinary care and use of an aircraft might happen that could possibly affect its airworthiness. When these situations are encountered, special inspection procedures should be followed to determine if damage to the aircraft structure has occurred. The procedures outlined on the following pages are general in nature and are intended to acquaint the aviation mechanic with the areas which should be inspected. As such, they are not all inclusive. When performing any of these special inspections, always follow the detailed procedures in the aircraft maintenance manual. In situations where the manual does not adequately address the situation, seek advice from other maintenance technicians who are highly experienced with them. Hard or Overweight Landing Inspection The structural stress induced by a landing depends not only upon the gross weight at the time but also upon the severity of impact. However, because of the difficulty in estimating vertical velocity at the time of contact, it is hard to judge whether or not a landing has been sufficiently severe to cause structural damage. For this reason, a special inspection should be performed after a landing is made at a weight known to exceed the design landing weight or after a rough landing, even though the latter may have occurred when the aircraft did not exceed the design landing weight. Wrinkled wing skin is the most easily detected sign of an excessive load having been imposed during a landing. Another indication which can be detected easily is fuel leakage along riveted seams. Other possible locations of damage are spar webs, bulkheads, nacelle skin and attachments, firewall skin, and wing and fuselage stringers. If none of these areas show adverse effects, it is reasonable to assume that no serious damage has occurred. If damage is detected, a more extensive inspection and alignment check may be necessary. Severe Turbulence Inspection/Over “G" When an aircraft encounters a gust condition, the airload on the wings exceeds the normal wingload supporting the aircraft weight. The gust tends to accelerate the aircraft while its inertia acts to resist this change. If the combination of gust velocity and airspeed is too severe, the induced stress can cause structural damage. A special inspection should be performed after a flight through severe turbulence. Emphasis should be placed upon inspecting the upper and lower wing surfaces for excessive buckles or wrinkles with permanent set. Where wrinkles have occurred, remove a few rivets and examine the rivet shanks to determine if the rivets have sheared or were highly loaded in shear. Through the inspection doors and other accessible openings, inspect all spar webs from the fuselage to the tip. Check for buckling, wrinkles, and sheared attachments. Inspect for buckling in the area around the nacelles and in the nacelle skin, particularly at the wing leading edge. Check for fuel leaks. Any sizeable fuel leak is an indication that an area may have received overloads which have broken the sealant and opened the seams. If the landing gear was lowered during a period of severe turbulence, inspect the surrounding surfaces carefully for loose rivets, cracks, or buckling. The interior of the wheel well may give further indications of excessive gust conditions. Inspect the top and bottom fuselage skin. An excessive bending moment may have left wrinkles of a diagonal nature in these areas. Inspect the surface of the empennage for wrinkles, buckling, or sheared attachments. Also, inspect the area of attachment of the empennage to the fuselage. The above inspections cover the critical areas. If excessive damage is noted in any of the areas mentioned, the inspection should be continued until all damage is detected. |
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