Heyas T-gates,
Actually, most of the -10s had build dates around 63. The oldest -30s are around 67 or so. The -50s are around 76-78.
They work great though, and almost never break. But when they do, I've seen them swap out generators and starters in less than 20 minutes. I haven't had a show stopper MX problem in a long, long time.
The hardest part for NWA is actually the instrumentation. It's impossible to find parts for those old ADIs and HSIs. Tech ops has their own re-man facility for re-building the boards and such, but there is only so much you can do as these components are ridiculously complicated with tiny motors and actuators. The few "no $hit, its broken" cancellations I've had have been mostly due to this.
The autopilots are suprisingly reliable, however, mostly due to the fact that pilots have right of refusal of an aircraft with an inop AP (along with generators, APUs and pressurization systems). That keeps MX motivated to keep them fixed.
Most of the real DC-9 bugaboos that annoyed other operators were fixed during the great overhaul of the 80s-90s, where NWA stripped each -9 to the bone and basically rebuilt them from the ground up.
Most, if not all of the wiring was replaced in the electrical system, microswitches were replaced with proximity sensors for the gear, the fuel gauges were replaced with digital units, digital ADCs replaced the old analog units, solid state battery chargers replaced the old units, and a spiffy digital pressurization controller replaced (in most aircraft) the old pneumatic system (you can tell which birds have these by the outflow valve...the new system has a single, rectangular door).
Nu
Actually, most of the -10s had build dates around 63. The oldest -30s are around 67 or so. The -50s are around 76-78.
They work great though, and almost never break. But when they do, I've seen them swap out generators and starters in less than 20 minutes. I haven't had a show stopper MX problem in a long, long time.
The hardest part for NWA is actually the instrumentation. It's impossible to find parts for those old ADIs and HSIs. Tech ops has their own re-man facility for re-building the boards and such, but there is only so much you can do as these components are ridiculously complicated with tiny motors and actuators. The few "no $hit, its broken" cancellations I've had have been mostly due to this.
The autopilots are suprisingly reliable, however, mostly due to the fact that pilots have right of refusal of an aircraft with an inop AP (along with generators, APUs and pressurization systems). That keeps MX motivated to keep them fixed.
Most of the real DC-9 bugaboos that annoyed other operators were fixed during the great overhaul of the 80s-90s, where NWA stripped each -9 to the bone and basically rebuilt them from the ground up.
Most, if not all of the wiring was replaced in the electrical system, microswitches were replaced with proximity sensors for the gear, the fuel gauges were replaced with digital units, digital ADCs replaced the old analog units, solid state battery chargers replaced the old units, and a spiffy digital pressurization controller replaced (in most aircraft) the old pneumatic system (you can tell which birds have these by the outflow valve...the new system has a single, rectangular door).
Nu
