Flying (coach) today... some fluid on the wing.

[lahso]

Thanks guys... I appreciate the responses... Like I said, I really hesitated to say something given my lack of experience behind the controls... Then I decided I should given my experience behind the wing.

So... How often DO you pro-pilots get told irrelevant info?

How many people claim "I'm a pilot, too.... I've shot the checkerboard approach into Kai Tak a bunch of times... in FSX"?

Trust me, I can relate... I'm in the music biz and EVERYONE knows how to make a song better.

~mt

 

[Mama's Boy]

Hydraulic fluid isn't yellow; it's red or purple, depending on what is in use (in some cases it can be either). Yellow is fuel. Yellow or clear. Or oil. Turbine oils are slightly purple, brown, or in some cases, yellow.

It is hard to tell from the picture but it very well could be hydraulic fluid. Skydrol has a purple dye added but it does not necessarily remain purple. Either way, in my opinion you took the correct action.

From a Skydrol website Q&A

Q: What happens when Skydrol fluids change color?

A: Skydrol fluids are given a purple dye to make it easy to distinguish them from other fluids. But the dye does not usually last as long as the fluid does. The color may change from purple to gray or yellow or green, yet the fluid can still meet all used fluid specifications.

 

[McNugget]

It looks like grease. You guys ever see a real hydraulic leak from an airliner? It pours out of the aircraft, all over the ramp. MX guys have to go crawling up looking for it in haz-mat spacesuits. It is ok to ask, though. It sounds like the problem here was the FA. Half of them don't even know how to retract the door stop on the cockpit door.

 

[avbug]

You guys ever see a real hydraulic leak from an airliner? It pours out of the aircraft, all over the ramp. MX guys have to go crawling up looking for it in haz-mat spacesuits.

I've certainly seen "real" hydraulic leaks which ranged from filling the aircraft with a thick red mist of H-5606, or blown out brake lines and pressure lines, to pinhole leaks that warned of what might occur. I've seen surfaces wet after being wiped down,which is the most common thing to see with a hydraulic lceak. A real one, that is.

Rarely does anyone need to don a tyvek or other protective suit to tackle the problem.

The pictures in this case say little; the fact that the wing has that much fluid and dirt on it in that location demands attention, and yes, it most certainly should be referred to maintenance. I once had two wings completely cracked through on an airplane, with the only external indication being two small stains on the same wing station where fuel from the integral cells was leaking through the cracks; both only an inch long. Big things are often foretold by little things, and it may be the only warning you get. A catastrauphic engine failure last year was preceeded only by a slight chemical whiff and no other signs, then the oil was gone and shortly thereafter I was on a hillside. Little things, often unnoticed, warn of big things.

As both a pilot and mechanic, I'd certainly take it seriously. I'd take the comments of a private pilot seriously, and I couldn't afford not to. I'd take the comments or questions of a non pilot passenger seriously, and I have, and it's paid off.

You have an obligation to take such things seriously. If they turn out to be nothing, then so be it. But until that's proven to be the case, both the flight attendant and the flight crew have an obligation to proceed as though they do have a legitimate issue with which to deal. History is full of cases where crews didn't, and lived or didn't live, to regret it.

 

[McNugget]

Rarely does anyone need to don a tyvek or other protective suit to tackle the problem.

I was flying (or about to, anyway) a DC-10. Was coming out from the tail section beneath #2. Poor bastards, they came out drenched in it.

You have an obligation to take such things seriously. If they turn out to be nothing, then so be it. But until that's proven to be the case, both the flight attendant and the flight crew have an obligation to proceed as though they do have a legitimate issue with which to deal. History is full of cases where crews didn't, and lived or didn't live, to regret it.

I think so, too.

 

[say again]

Ok, so I take the airplane back to the gate, for something that I know what it is? So I delay the flight because some PVT pilot with a C172 type tells me he sees something that he does know kown is grease? Then we are out of the line up delay 150 people because you think with all your Cessna time you know about Boeings too. Give me your name and number, and hire me your lawyer, so that when I'm brought before the CP, you can help with my carpet dance I'll be doing.

"ain't good" How do you judge that? Do you have an A&P, Do you have a rating on the CRJ, The B757?

"holly Sh!t" you do have a CRJ rating, how long have you been flying? You mean to tell me you have not seen excess grease "flow" out! Have you ever been in a shop, have you ever looked at the top of airliners? WOW!

Sorry I am just in shock, that you quoted go back for MX over this.

Well what makes you the know it all???? The guy had a concern and wanted another opinion about it. Why is that such a problem?? If he goes back to MX and they say its nothing, so be it. I'd rather that then the alternative!!!!

 

[wrxpilot]

Should I have kept my mouth shut?

Like you, I don't have any experience with a/c like that. But I would've said something too - that looks really weird and out of the ordinary (to me). Good for you on saying something!

 

[svcta]

Give me your name and number, and hire me your lawyer, so that when I'm brought before the CP, you can help with my carpet dance I'll be doing.

You're the guy who takes a lawyer to talk to the CP? And where is it that you work where you'd have to do a carpet dance for having Mx look at excessive fluid on your ride?

Go back and reread your post. I think the point you made is that you're an a$s. Good one.

 

[COpilot]

Well what makes you the know it all???? The guy had a concern and wanted another opinion about it. Why is that such a problem?? If he goes back to MX and they say its nothing, so be it. I'd rather that then the alternative!!!!

What makes me the know it all, is the 15 years of riding around in the back of that airplane and looking at that wing, it's the 10 years of flying that airplane and walking under that wing! That's what makes me a know it all, just as every other person who flys these types had better know what grease running of of a flap attachment point looks like...

I said in my first responce that the pax did great reporting, and the crew should listen. The crew should not discount information, but if something you have heard a hundred times; then no I'm not going to shut down a flight. There's being conserative, and there's overkill.

 

[COpilot]

You're the guy who takes a lawyer to talk to the CP? And where is it that you work where you'd have to do a carpet dance for having Mx look at excessive fluid on your ride?

Go back and reread your post. I think the point you made is that you're an a$s. Good one.

Your not getting this, that was not excess fluid for a B757, and anyone who flys it should know that.

Two, at CO, and if you get called to the CPO you had better have a Rep. with you. And yes, I'll go back to the gate if a pax saw something that I had not seen, and (or) did not know what it could be. I would not expect to have anything said for doing that. But they do expect us to know what things look like on our airplanes, for excess grease bubbling up they would say something.