Big MRO Data & a Fan Blisk That's More Reliable

As you all enjoy this holiday season while in the midst of your families, unwind with this week's aviation round-up. New innovative fan blisk for GE Passport engine, Air Force destroys $115 million airplane, converting big MRO data into action, and how to manage your time.

Never Forget Your: Quote

"If the maintenance is robust and properly followed, aircraft have a virtually infinite life." — John Cox

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Never Forget Your: News

Innovative Fan Blisk Spells Reliability and Maintainability — “Among the latest innovations on the GE Passport engine is a unique, 52-inch integrated fan blade and disk, called a blisk, which replaces the traditional fan design that incorporates a hub and individual blades.”

Air Force loses $115 million gunship to a 'sideslip' — “How can you destroy a $115 million airplane without crashing it? Fly it upside down. That's exactly what happened to one of the Air Force's newest gunships, the AC-130J Ghostrider, this year during a test flight.”

Getting Ready For Big MRO Data — “As airframes, engines and avionics generate more data, MROs and OEMs evaluate ways to use it for prognostics, converting big data into action.”

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Never Forget Your: Relief

20% Off Popular Aircraft Maintenance Tape — Who doesn’t like some good ‘ole aircraft maintenance tape? We go through a ton of a few popular models so we want to extend some bulk savings to you. For the items mentioned in this post, you’ll receive up to 20% off list price on ALL case orders.

Time Management Tips — Here are 6 time management tips that can improve your organizational skills and increase productivity. The more of these tools you learn to use, the more you will get done each day.

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Never Forget Your: Events

CAPA India Aviation Summit

• February 3-4, 2016
• Mumbai, India

Asian Business Aviation Conference & Exhibition

• April 12-14, 2016
• Shanghai, China

European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition

• May 24-26, 2016
• Geneva, Switzerland

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20% Off Popular Aircraft Maintenance Tape

Who doesn't like some good 'ole aircraft maintenance tape?

You use it often and it does just about anything you want it too.

We go through a ton of a few popular models so we want to extend some bulk savings to you.

For the below items, you'll receive up to 20% off list price on ALL case orders. 

Bulk Aircraft Maintenance Tape Discounts

• 398FRP, 3" Glass Cloth 3M Tape
  • List Price: $77.58ea
  • Your Price: $65.00ea (16.2% Savings)
• Scotch70, 1" Rubber Electric 3M Tape
  • List Price: $49.22ea
  • Your Price: $39.08ea (20.68% Savings)
• 8663, 3" Transparent Polyurethane Protective 3M Tape
  • List Price: $562.02ea
  • Your Price: $475ea (15.4% Savings)

Would you like to take advantage of these awesome savings?

Get Some Tape Today

3 Ways Not To Be Consumed By Consumables

In a world of non-stop AOGs, the evaluation of the aircraft can give us one more hurdle...

Consumables.

Many years ago (years I rather not try to recount) Legos was my toy of choice.

Besides the GI Joes and Hot Wheels of course.

Lego is a toy that inspires creativity and it's something to build from scratch. Piece by piece, color by color. You can make something spectacular or have a pile of useless toy bricks.

These toy bricks are a lot like aircraft consumables.

Use the wrong piece, order the wrong product, lose an important component, and you have a messy maintenance project. One that’ll lead to AOGs, lost revenue and a stressed out you.

Consumables are an integral part of airlines maintenance operations. But of course you know this.

Any way you think of it, it’s difficult keeping up with new sealant specs, higher assembly numbers and bad information. More importantly, chasing down problems is counterintuitive...and costly to you.

Dealing with hundreds of airlines, I've heard and seen it all.

Not being consumed by aircraft consumables takes a strategy.

Create a plan of attack

How do you go about ordering your consumables?

Is it a blind RFQ to hundreds of people, or do you have a method behind your madness?

Whether it's 3M 398FRP white cloth tape or window sealant, sit back and think about the most effective distribution for you.

Some things to think about are your future needs, expiration date, HAZMAT, and transport.

If you have a long consumable list think about the logistics and the time it'll take you to process the requirement. Once you start getting into multiple line items you risk increases for possible problems.

Don't process your long consumable list immediately. Think about how your requirement will best be served and follow a plan of attack that accomplishes just that.

Establish a forecast

If there's one word that can cause stress and resolve hundred of problems at the same time, it's forecast.

When you think of forecasting you're bound to think of reports, list building, statistics, and 10 others things that are "hair pull" worthy.

Relax.

Forecasting is actually not that difficult and it will save you countless of hours processing orders and thousands of dollars in inventory.

Lets look at a good example I mentioned above, the 3M 396FRP tape. Lets say last year you bought a total of 144 rolls divided between 3 orders. Now factor in the cost of each roll, processing time, and freight and you get close to an accurate per unit cost.

Over the next 12 months you forecast the same consumption rate. Building this forecast allows you to have the tape in stock when and as you need it. No overbuying or stocking for long periods of time. It significantly cuts processing and holding cost.

This is the primary purpose of our JIT program. You would receive 12 rolls per month as a part of your monthly JIT consolidation. No POs, no shipping instructions, it just shows up at your door.

Forecasting generates simplicity and simplicity saves you time and money.

Having a “go-to” resource

When you have a problem, whose your external resource?

Having internal resources is great but what if engineering tells you need Cargo Gel Tape?

Where do you go, who do you ask, who can best serve your needs?

Having a professional external resource that has your best interest at the front of everything they do is crucial.

They'll help you solve consumable hurdles, answer your questions about specification, and most important they’ll work with you to streamline your consumable distribution.

Relying on that "go-to" source will save you countless hours.

Your time is scarce and consumables have a tendency to peak their little heads and consume much of your day.

Problems are inevitable and it takes pre-thought planning, accurate forecasting, and reliable partners to alleviate most of your headaches.

Are you being consumed by consumables? Comment below.

Why Aviation Tape Is Boring

For the non-engineer, aviation tape is something you play with in arts and crafts.

It’s boring and brings me back to my childhood days of having to open birthday gifts that my friends’ mothers over taped. Scratching, clawing, and banging the gifts trying to get through the tape’s adhesive structure.

The difficulties of childhood. I can only reminisce on how the 3M Scotch tape created so much stress for me in my younger years.

Back to reality!

The boring truth of tape...adhesion

Recently, a low-cost airline carrier received tons of intense reactions about passengers complaining that the airline used duct tape to repair its aircraft windshield. Talk about fear of flying! This is not duct tape-but a speed tape used to do a temporary fix, while waiting for an extensive repair.

As boring as it may sound, aviation tape has many indispensable uses.

The adhesive quality of aviation tape.

According to 3M “Adhesion is the molecular force of attraction between unlike materials. The strength of attraction is determined by the surface energy of the material. The higher the surface energy, the greater the molecular attraction. The lower the surface energy, the weaker the attractive forces.”

Snooze, boring, now wake up!!

Aviation tape is boring for the following reasons:

• It sticks to things, that's it.
• It’s flat and comes in a roll.
• Colors are usually bland.
• It’s primary purpose is simple, at least to most people.
• It’s terrible when it sticks to you.
• Your friends can hang a sign on your back without you knowing.

Oh the simplicity, but tape is much different in the aviation world.

Boring or not, it’s a marvelous feat of ingenuity and has hundreds of uses in the aircraft maintenance world.

The importance of aircraft tape

Tape is far beyond a characteristic of just sticking to things. Fly-away tapes are used in the construction of aircraft such as:

• cargo bay seaming
• moisture barrier
• mounting
• sound damping
• heat shielding
• cable harness wrapping
• anti-corrosion
• electrical, and electronic systems

And the list goes on and on.

It also has the job of non fly-away activities such as composite bonding, flame spray, paint masking/stripping, processing, and surface protections.

Top uses of aviation tape

Whether you think aviation tape is boring or not, it’s critical to your aircraft maintenance activities.

Without it, your aircraft maintenance checks just wouldn't be the same.

1)      Information: Airlines write notes on tape, or place tape on areas needing mechanical attention for ground crews and mechanics. Labeling damaged areas saves the ground staff at each plane station from documenting the deferred mechanical repair. There are also notes on non-functioning areas like a broken seat, damaged lavatory door lock. These notes serve as polite ways of letting the passengers know that the airline crews are aware of the damage.

2)      Ensures safety of your passengers. In reality you may have just fallen asleep but aviation tape is critical to flight. Take speed tape for example. This aluminum tape can endure a range of temperatures, expansion and contractions. It shrinks and holds its position when it’s cold and the plane is flying high. It also expands without being dislodged in warmer temperatures.

Speed tape is capable to sticking on an airplane fuselage at high speeds, hence the reason the name it 600mph tape. Clever I know.

According to PlaneCrashInfo.com, mechanical related pilot error is the 3^rd cause of aircraft accidents from 1950 to 2010. So, whether you think aviation tape is boring or not, it’s critical to your aircraft maintenance activities.

3)      Guarantees the continuous operation of your business:  One of the top causes of flight cancellation or delay is the problem with aircraft maintenance.  Airlines have to shoulder their passengers’ lodging costs if the cause of delay/cancellation is their own fault, which is applicable in case of mechanical failures. Without quality aviation tapes, aircraft repair is totally impossible.

If your next question is, do we supply aviation tape? The answer is yes, we support many international airlines with their taping needs.

Simply click here to learn more.