I suggested we get there as early as possible, which turned out to be the best decision of the day, as we finished looking at the last of the things to see pretty much right on finishing time.
The various trades amongst TechOps had setup various displays in their departments and we wandered around looking at some pretty cool stuff... and talking to some very interesting characters who were, in general, pretty eager to talk about their world.
We started with the calibration unit, which tests and calibrates a lot of the equipment used by the various TechOps departments. One of the highlights of which was completely unrelated to their actual function... They had a little laptop connected to a projector and webcam which was using motion tracking as you walked past the webcam to pan the view on the projector[1] ;)
They other highlight was the little 'pads' they use to weigh aircraft. A group of kids were trying to get the scales to read 747... as the info sign said a 747 weighed something like 178,000Kg's... They were happy that such a big guy as myself showed up[2]... and not just because I helped them cheat by changing the display to pounds! :P
Following this, we made our way to the main hangar and apron area where they had several aircraft on display like a 777-200, a couple of 747's, an RNZAF Hercules, a 737, an old jetstream j32, the warbirds DC-3, an old tiger-moth and the little Cri-Cri...
First up we had a nosey around and in the 777-200. It is a truly impressive piece of kit... the sheer size of everything just blows you away. I'm sure the wheel wells are bigger than our old apartment and the tyres themselves are almost 5ft in diameter! This one was in the shop having an internal refit to put in more premium economy seats.
Jade thought it was quite amusing that the tyres had Boeing Part numbers on them... mind you, she also thought the person dressed as B1 (from Bananas in Pajamas) was amusing too...
Then we 'queued' our way up the stairs for a peek inside... not much to see as they had walled off the main cabin due to the refit, but at least we got to visit the flightdeck.
They had some engines in various states of repair on display and had set one up for photo ops. To give you some sense of scale, I am 6' 3".
We wandered outside to have a peek at the RNZAF C-130 Hercules, as I was hoping to get some flightdeck shots. While we were climbing up the ramp they towed another 747 onto the apron area and jade got all artistic...
As is usually the case, we queued... and queued... This led to jade getting a little bored and, being part of the AirNZ Safety and Employment Wellbeing team, she started taking some very random 'safety related' pics...
We finally made it to the front, only by the time we got there, the guys keeping an eye on things must have decided they needed a bit of a rest and had pulled the ladder out and taped the flightdeck off, so all we could do was poke our heads up into the flightdeck area for a nosy :(
So, we headed off to what jade likes to call 'A Real Aeroplane'(tm)... otherwise known as a 747. After an enormously long wait[3], we finally made it onto the upper level and onto the flightdeck...
We wandered around the 'hobby' section, where various TechOps guys had their 'toys' on display... everything from model RC aircraft, drag bikes, blo-karts, a hovercraft, a Ford 429 Cobra, a simply stunning Mini Cooper, a tiger moth and the Cri-Cri, to a 'world famous' brewer displaying some of his wares (here's hoping I win the raffle for 4 bottles of his limited edition India Pale Ale! ;)
We then headed off to some of the quieter sections... like the 'Safety' section, which was all about fire fighting equipment and life rafts... The staff member on hand was really friendly and seemed thrilled that we were interested in something as 'boring' as life rafts... but when you find out they can inflate a liferaft the size of my double garage in less than 6 seconds, well I find that kind of thing pretty cool! What actually surprised me the most, was they way they actually inflate. I always thought they were like the lifejackets and they had gas stored in a little canister and this is used to inflate the raft.
However, the gas canisters are not used directly to inflate them as they are actually only about the size of normal scuba diving tank (although they're made of aluminium and carbon fibre and pressurised to 3,000 PSI), so they don't hold anywhere near enough gas to inflate the huge liferafts... What they do is feed the gas into an 'aspirator' (basically a large venturi tube arrangement) which creates a huge vacuum and basically sucks in all the air required... quite ingenious really.
We also found out that as the material the liferafts are made out of had a limited lifespan, they don't just keep rolls of it on the shelf waiting for you to order a US$85,000 liferaft for your 767. Nope, they make the material when you place your order, which results in a lead time of some 120 days to get a new liferaft! So, if you want one for christmas, you'd better order now ;)
Following this we went to Air New Zealand Gas Turbines... who, ironically, don't actually service the gas turbine engines for aircraft... but for ships and oil-rigs!!! We ran into a really nice guy who, when he figured out I was actually genuinely interested[4], gave us a personal mini-tour and answered all of our questions. He quoted some very impressive numbers... 25,000 hours between overhaul for the engines... 10,000RPM when running near maximum... each blade on the turbine is worth about USD$7,000 and just the turbine component of the engine was worth around USD$1.85million... they had a unit on display with about 4 or 5 blades that had huge chunks taken out of them... "Most probably a nut went through the engine"... yikes!
Then he showed us a unit they had recently finished overhauling and were packaging up ready to ship out. Apparently, they don't come in quite as clean as this :P
We wandered through the composites section and had a look at various bits and pieces of carbon fibre, fibreglass, honeycomb and the way repairs are made etc... It never ceases to amaze me how something so thin and light can be so strong! We headed back to the main hanger to see if the queue for the scissor lift had got any shorter, as jade was keen for a ride, but if anything the queue was even longer, so we decided to give it a miss and call it a day.
On the way out stopped off to have a look at the 'Simulator Simulator'... I'm not sure what the purpose of this unit is exactly, but I get the feeling it is used to let crew familiarise themselves with the layout of the instrument panel.
All in all, a very fun and informative day out...
[1] I really am a geek...
[2] We made it to 747 too!
[3] At least they had plenty of seats :P
[4] I do after all have to study Basic Gas Turbine theory at some point... oh and I am a geek ;)
