The junk Lockheed L1011 sat forlornly on the ramp expanse
It's blue and white ex-British Airways paint job faded and oxidized
It's UK registration spray painted over
No engines upon it's three pylon mounts
No landing gear for it to rest upon
Instead sitting atop square steel section shoring
That had been welded up in place
With the added indignity of having it's L4 and R4 doors permanently open
A massive steel beam running straight through the two door openings
With the weight of the rear of the aircraft pressing down
At the top of the door cutouts in the fuselage
This plane was going nowhere
Ever again
But for a couple years it is fair game for spare parts
To be used on the still-flying fleet of L1011's that we operate
Most out somewhere in the world
Making money hauling freight or passengers
As a good airplane should
Today I needed a door counterbalance spring assy
From the clever Lockheed entry door setup
Which instead of having the door open like a regular door on hinges
Had the door instead get rolled up into the upper fuselage
Hiding away completely out of the way
Which was a really neat idea
Normally electrically operated
By an electric motor which drove a toothed gear mounted on the fuselage
Which in turn drove the door up and down via a toothed track mounted along it's edge
It also had an 'emergency' mode
Where you could pull a handle and have the door quickly rise up into the stowed position
This was accomplished by the use of a wound spring assembly in the upper wall next to the door
Designed to be used with the full weight of the door plus it's mounted emergency slide
There were stories of mechanics who had pulled the open lever without a slide installed on the door
Only to have it spring upwards too quickly in it's lightened state
Smashing through the rubber stops on the fuselage and breaking structure on it's way through
Not something you wanted to do
My partner and I had our paperwork for the removal
Freshly printed out from the persnickety microfiche machine in the hangar only minutes before
And we climbed up into the plane through the nose access door
Making our way to the L2 door
Carefully stepping on the floor beams
As much of the flooring had been removed
Or was laying about loose
Allowing us to see into the cargo pits below
Should we have been interested to do so
Grabbing a wooden box to stand on
I set my toolbag down and climbed on up for a closer look
There only seemed to be five bolts holding the spring assembly in place
Roughly barrel shaped and ten inches in diameter
The one and a half foot tall cylinder was layed sideways in the upper wall structure
Mounted between fuselage frames
Safety wired pairs of bolts spaced around it's outer shell
"Hand me my ratchet set for these bolts"
I asked my partner
"This looks easy"
If only that had been true
It's blue and white ex-British Airways paint job faded and oxidized
It's UK registration spray painted over
No engines upon it's three pylon mounts
No landing gear for it to rest upon
Instead sitting atop square steel section shoring
That had been welded up in place
With the added indignity of having it's L4 and R4 doors permanently open
A massive steel beam running straight through the two door openings
With the weight of the rear of the aircraft pressing down
At the top of the door cutouts in the fuselage
This plane was going nowhere
Ever again
But for a couple years it is fair game for spare parts
To be used on the still-flying fleet of L1011's that we operate
Most out somewhere in the world
Making money hauling freight or passengers
As a good airplane should
Today I needed a door counterbalance spring assy
From the clever Lockheed entry door setup
Which instead of having the door open like a regular door on hinges
Had the door instead get rolled up into the upper fuselage
Hiding away completely out of the way
Which was a really neat idea
Normally electrically operated
By an electric motor which drove a toothed gear mounted on the fuselage
Which in turn drove the door up and down via a toothed track mounted along it's edge
It also had an 'emergency' mode
Where you could pull a handle and have the door quickly rise up into the stowed position
This was accomplished by the use of a wound spring assembly in the upper wall next to the door
Designed to be used with the full weight of the door plus it's mounted emergency slide
There were stories of mechanics who had pulled the open lever without a slide installed on the door
Only to have it spring upwards too quickly in it's lightened state
Smashing through the rubber stops on the fuselage and breaking structure on it's way through
Not something you wanted to do
My partner and I had our paperwork for the removal
Freshly printed out from the persnickety microfiche machine in the hangar only minutes before
And we climbed up into the plane through the nose access door
Making our way to the L2 door
Carefully stepping on the floor beams
As much of the flooring had been removed
Or was laying about loose
Allowing us to see into the cargo pits below
Should we have been interested to do so
Grabbing a wooden box to stand on
I set my toolbag down and climbed on up for a closer look
There only seemed to be five bolts holding the spring assembly in place
Roughly barrel shaped and ten inches in diameter
The one and a half foot tall cylinder was layed sideways in the upper wall structure
Mounted between fuselage frames
Safety wired pairs of bolts spaced around it's outer shell
"Hand me my ratchet set for these bolts"
I asked my partner
"This looks easy"
If only that had been true
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