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American Airlines mechanic Azriel “Al” Blackman has died
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Re: American Airlines mechanic Azriel “Al” Blackman has died
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is a famous story about how an F16 got grounded because an half inch metal pin was missing from the cockpit canopy. Nobody knew what the pin did or if it was even necessary but you can't fly a plan that 'missing a part'. After several days of being grounded they finally reached out to a guy who had retired 20 years ago who told them the pin was a part of a analogue sensor that had been replaced nearly 30 years…
> but you can't fly a plan that 'missing a part' It’s a great story, but I assure you there is a pretty high percentage of airplanes flying with missing parts and systems placarded as INOP in both military and civilian aviation.
Before you can placard something as INOP, you must determine whether the manufacturer and certifying authority have included that part in the Minimum Equipment List or Dispatch Deviation List. Mechanics do both get to determine this at their own discretion. Hence the call to the manufacturer for clarification on the necessity of said pin.
To reiterate, you CANNOT fly an airplane with an undocumented missing part. If the part is documented in the logbook as removed, and it is acceptable to fly that way, then it is not missing.
I have been building and maintaining commercial aircraft for a living for 30 years. What is your experience?
Re: American Airlines mechanic Azriel “Al” Blackman has died
#93How many apprentices did this guy managed to put through the pipeline before his career was over? It always shocks me how low this number tends to be for highly skilled craftsmen. They spend their century maintaining/creating some of the best work on the planet but when they disappear, unenumerable amount of knowledge, tips and experience silently disappears as quickly as it was gained, and it's sad to observe every…
I work in a mid sized engineering organization, and the older engineers (and engineer-adjacent people like me) mentor the younger ones all the time.
One thing that can't be codified in procedures is what I call "situational awareness" for lack of a better term. I don't think you can learn how to work in a machine shop safely from a book. Or recognize when a complex design is heading towards being unworkable. In my organization, the older engineers have a sixth sense for projects that are going to be cancelled.
There's a reason why older drivers (up to a point of course) pay less for car insurance, yet the rules are the same for all of us.
Re: American Airlines mechanic Azriel “Al” Blackman has died
#94[flagged]
retirement doesn't suit everyone
Re: American Airlines mechanic Azriel “Al” Blackman has died
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Even if stuff is written down you have to know where to look. That's one of the things I love about AI: It's excellent at figuring out where to look, because it can digest so many documents so much faster than a person.
Yeah it’s great to point an AI at a very detailed and specific engineering manual and have it distilled down into bullet points. There’s certainly no room for information loss in that plan! /s
Plus everything important is always written down.
It’s more true in aviation than anywhere else (except maybe space flight), but still.
Re: American Airlines mechanic Azriel “Al” Blackman has died
#96[flagged]
Re: American Airlines mechanic Azriel “Al” Blackman has died
#97[flagged]
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Re: American Airlines mechanic Azriel “Al” Blackman has died
#984dd
Re: American Airlines mechanic Azriel “Al” Blackman has died
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cool! I did not know that. Augmented reality glasses, coupled with an AI that can interpret vision would seem to be useful here then.
I’ve had the same thought re: AR glasses with a HUD for mechanics/construction workers, there are a lot of cool possibilities.
Yeah ... then you can have basically anyone off the street do the job. A great opportunity to pay your jumbo jet mechanics less than taxi drivers.
I guess it would explain those small insignificant issues, however:
https://viewfromthewing.com/ntsb-report-confirms-the-unravel...
Re: American Airlines mechanic Azriel “Al” Blackman has died
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cool! I did not know that. Augmented reality glasses, coupled with an AI that can interpret vision would seem to be useful here then.
I’ve had the same thought re: AR glasses with a HUD for mechanics/construction workers, there are a lot of cool possibilities.
We worked on a proof of concept using HoloLens for an engine teardown team at a trucking OEM. Ran into issues around network, security, the Hololens itself and a general disinterest from the teardown team but there's a lot of room to run in this space. It was a fun, if frustrating, project.