If it was proper speed tape as claimed, and it certainly looks like it was, it should have been a perfectly acceptable temporary repair....... The fact that it wasn't would indicate it was improperly fixed..... probably because the engineer failed to clean the surface it was going on properly....... believe me, that stuff when used properly is bloody fantastic stuff.
Having been born and raised within spitting distance of the Mexican border, I have no desire whatsoever of going to Mexico or flying on a Mexican airline!
Brice - I'm still here. Just been on a long motorcycle ride for a while. Have to park the bike for a few months, now. It's 106 in Las Vegas; I'm 69; and I'm tired of having to wear a wet vest to ride.
What's the big deal?? Just one tiny hole in the aircraft. Seen C130's in Nam that had as many holes as solid material and still flying. I wasn't there but my buddy has many pics of just that sort of thing he has shared with me.
Larry Sellers SCI(International)Life Member Sabatti 'trash' Double Shooter R8 Blaser DRSS
Posts: 3460 | Location: Jemez Mountains, New Mexico | Registered: 09 February 2006
Originally posted by Larry Sellers: What's the big deal?? Just one tiny hole in the aircraft. Seen C130's in Nam that had as many holes as solid material and still flying. I wasn't there but my buddy has many pics of just that sort of thing he has shared with me.
Larry Sellers SCI(International)Life Member Sabatti 'trash' Double Shooter R8 Blaser DRSS
Larry,
When one signs up for the military, one is prepared to die.
When one flies a commercial airline, one expects to get home safely.
Yup- speed tape's wonderful stuff. Fixed a hole in the oil pan on a six cylinder Chevy in the middle of nowhere with it once. The repair was still holding oil when I peeled it off two years later to do a permanent weld repair. When stuck to the leading edge of a wing, the dust in the air will eventually erode the aluminum away but the adhesive will still be there.
However- there are limits to how much 350 knot wind it will take when covering an 8" hole unsupported by any kind of backing...
Porosonik.
Vetting voters= racist. Vetting gun buyers= not racist. Got it?
A few years back I saw the same thing on a flight to Joburg. Sitting on the tarmac in Dakar, I could see "duct tape" on a small part of the wing outside my window. (SAA plane). One of the other hunters saw it too. He was a pilot and said that tape was occasionally used to do a temporary fix until the plane could get a proper repair. Even that explanation did not make me feel any more comfortable!
Many years ago I hit a large bird (goose?) going into Portland, Me., at 10:30 pm in a 737...bird hit just outboard of the right engine...thankfully! All they could do was patch the hole with speed tape and ferry the plane back to Charlotte with the gear down at 210Kts....how big was the hole? well, lets just say that Boeing told us they had never seen a bird go all the way back to the spar before! Took over a week in the sheet metal shop to fix it... Speed tape can cover a multitude of sins.....
Posts: 610 | Location: NC | Registered: 17 November 2007
