Today at Work!

[Flying Torquewrench]

A topic which is quite active and very interesting on other forums, I thought we may as well give it a go here.

Today I went to Lviv in the Ukraine. Quick trip out and back.

While we were on the ground an Antonov AN124 landed and was in the process of being loaded by the Ukrainian army as we taxied past for departure.

[Banshee]

Nice :cool: :thumbs

[solarman216]

My thoughts on that are what the heck is an AN124 and more so are you not opening yourself up to photographing something that is possibly so called "restricted" Rick

[Flying Torquewrench]

The AN124 is one of the biggest cargo aircraft. It can take up to 150 tonne of cargo and is designed to operate from unimproved (dirt) runways. It is designed and built in the Ukraine when this was still part of the USSR.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov_An-124_Ruslan

We use them quite regularly to fly our engines around the world if we have an AOG (Aircraft On Ground) with engine problems.

Nothing restricted about this operation as they were loading it in front of the passenger terminal at civilian airport.

[solarman216]

Thank you FT most informative, 150 tonne wow, Rick

[Flying Torquewrench]

Rick, have a look at the Antonov AN225. That is a real beast designed to carry the Russian space shuttle on its back. It can take up to 250 tonne of cargo internally or 200 tonne on top of the fuselage.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov_An-225_Mriya

[solarman216]

OMG, but more importantly what about my post to your project thread, Rick

[Flying Torquewrench]

Apologies Rick, I hadn’t seen your post. I will get to it now. :thumb2

[Flying Torquewrench]

A quick job this morning. Customer called to report water bubbling up in front of her driveway. She lives in the village so it was only a 5 minute drive to get to her and start investigating.

[Flying Torquewrench]

A drain runs underneath that takes water from further up the hill, past her driveway into a ditch. I was informed that there was also a electrical cable buried but that it would be roughly 2 feet underneath the drainage pipe.

No surprise really that when I found the drain I also found the electrical cable. The electrical cable is visible to the right of the top pipe connector and then crosses under the pipe roughly in the middle of the new bit. Luckily I didn’t snag the cable itself.

Normally I always test dig by hand but the customer installed the electrical cable and the drain herself and assured me that they were nowhere near each other.

[Flying Torquewrench]

Now back at home again to finish off my sleeper retaining wall. The difference in level is only about a foot but we wanted something to last. The vertical posts go 4 foot deep into solid clay so no chance of this ever moving. :D

[Flying Torquewrench]

And the front. Few plants in front of it and nobody will see it.

[solarman216]

Well here we are digging drains by an airline pilot who is also an aircraft engineer, what else can you do? :cool: :bow, Rick

[Flying Torquewrench]

As I previously said, I am not your average airline pilot. I set up my own groundworks company a few years ago but didn’t do that much with it. Since I temporarily lost the engineering side of my job through Covid I put more time into the business. I now do a mixture of operating my own gear or operate a digger for another company during sickness or holiday. Quite enjoy driving a digger for a day/week, as long as I got some music to listen to.

Anyway I didn’t start this topic to talk about myself!! What is everybody else doing Today at Work?! Don’t be shy. :p

[solarman216]

Well yesterday a restaurant that I have done a lot of work for rang to say the walk in fridge was at 18 deg C, not good, with a very large value meat stock, so that was quickly distributed to alternative coolers, this system has a leak that we have been unable to trace so it is a fairly regular thing to top it up, so shot down with some gas etc, but soon discovered that gas was not the problem, the low side was far too high when running so connected the high side gauge and that was far too low, the return which should be cold was warm which suggested the inlet valve on the compressor had failed = nothing I could do on a Sunday.

Up at 8 am this morning to contact my supplier but as of noon no joy with a complete condensing unit (my preferred option as I suspect the leak could be in the condenser coil unit) so only other option was a replacement compressor, which meant dragging my oxy/propane gear to site, big bottles etc, while customer was driving miles to collect compressor I was stripping out the old one, pig of a job as had to erect a small platform in order to be at a good working height, and the bally wind got up which makes de brazing copper to copper joints difficult with a small flame, yes I could up the flame but other stuff in close proximity inhibits that, in fact one pipe I had to cut off at the face of the compressor as there was just not enough space to lift the pipe out, while waiting for the new one I needed to know what was the problem with the old one so out came Mr mini angle grinder and off with his head.

And after stripping it down found indeed that the inlet reed strip had failed, as in pic, new unit installed and gassed up by 4 pm, Rick

[Flying Torquewrench]

What is a reed strip? I have googled it to no avail.

I take it that you saved the owner a fair bit of cash?

[Flying Torquewrench]

Not necessarily today at work but we have been out looking for a new stove. Our current one is an ugly piece of kit that was present when we bought the house. Not only is it very battered it is also incorrectly installed.

The walls are plastered which is considered a combustable material for stove installations. Our stove is installed too close to the wall and the flue is uninsulated and therefore also way to close to the wall. As a result all the plaster behind the stove is cracking.

After looking for a few days we have found a new stove. It shouldn’t be this difficult but most freestanding stoves are wood only and we also burn coal. The job is pencilled in for the end of next month and in the meantime I need to remove the old stove and repair the plaster behind it.

The plan is to install the old stove in the garage so that the winters are a bit more bearable in there. Seems a shame to take it to the scrap yard.

[solarman216]

What is a reed strip? I have googled it to no avail.

I take it that you saved the owner a fair bit of cash?

If you look at the pic the strip is in the centre with a bit broken off, the head should be completely flat and the strip covers two holes, one end of the reed is captive, the face you can see faces the piston, on the down stroke gas is sucked in via the springy reed through the holes it covers, on the up stroke gas is passed through the smaller holes also covered by another reed on the top of the head, they can go by various names reed valve, disk valve (when it is a free floating disk with a light spring behind it) and various others. Google reed valve

Yea saved a lot of stock being ruined, Rick

[Flying Torquewrench]

Thank Rick, learned something new. Hadn’t heard of a reed valve before but I can see that they are used for a wide range of applications and even on two stroke piston engines.

[lfteixeira]

Well, in the spirit of the topic.

Not today, but working...

Note: My work is not plane related... But it was cool to be "close" with the airplane.

[lfteixeira]

This one IS work related.

Someone called telling that the printer doesn't work.

Well, i found the source of the problem!!! :thumb2

[lfteixeira]

One more.

[lo_zarro]

quite unexpected, i suppose!

[Flying Torquewrench]

Well, in the spirit of the topic.

Not today, but working...

Note: My work is not plane related... But it was cool to be "close" with the airplane.

The airplane is an Airbus A340 and the airport is somewhere in Portugal as the handling equipment is from Portway. Looks to be somewhere on a freight apron as the building on the far right is DHL with what looks like a Netjets hangar to the left of it. It is not Lisbon or Faro so my guess would be Porto?

Not what you expect to find when you get called out to a malfunctioning printer. What sort of snake is it? Poisonous?

[lfteixeira]

quite unexpected, i suppose!

Not at all. But it was fun to show around the company... :naughty

[lfteixeira]

The airplane is an Airbus A340 and the airport is somewhere in Portugal as the handling equipment is from Portway. Looks to be somewhere on a freight apron as the building on the far right is DHL with what looks like a Netjets hangar to the left of it. It is not Lisbon or Faro so my guess would be Porto?


Yes, Porto Airport, cargo "side".
Near DHL and other freighters.
It's a A340? Nice to know...



Not what you expect to find when you get called out to a malfunctioning printer. What sort of snake is it? Poisonous?


I don't know the species, didn't search at the time.
But in Portugal we don't have poisonous snakes... that i now of...

[lfteixeira]

I was checking to see if the tyres would fit my Maverick... :thumbs

But after closer inspection, i don't think it would fit. :lol

[Banshee]

I was checking to see if the tyers would fit my Maverick... :thumbs

But after closer inspection, i don't think it would fit. :lol

:lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :cool:

[Flying Torquewrench]

Airbus A340-300 operated by AirX based in Malta. Thought I recognised the freight side of Porto

The nose wheels are a bit smaller so the body lift required will not be as high.:D

[Flying Torquewrench]

Not really today but yesterday. Flew into Lisbon to pick up some freight. Beautiful day to be flying.

Now 3 weeks off, going to Portugal for a few days of R & R followed by some digger work when I get back.

[Flying Torquewrench]

Spend the last week on a Caterpillar 349E working on the HS2.

Not allowed to take a photo on site, so you will have to do with a stock photo. :)

[Banshee]

Spend the last week on a Caterpillar 349E working on the HS2.

Not allowed to take a photo on site, so you will have to do with a stock photo. :)

I'd love a day in one of those :cool:

[terranosaurusdoug]

Rick, have a look at the Antonov AN225. That is a real beast designed to carry the Russian space shuttle on its back. It can take up to 250 tonne of cargo internally or 200 tonne on top of the fuselage.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov_An-225_Mriya

Flippin wow :cool:

[Flying Torquewrench]

Not so much at work but at home I changed our two 50w LED floodlights to two 150w floodlights. (Separate corners of the house). What a difference that makes! Supposedly 16.000 lumens each.

Perfect for letting the dogs out in the evening before going to bed. Lights up the garden quite nicely. :D

[Flying Torquewrench]

Did a bit of tiling over the last couple of days.

[Flying Torquewrench]

And some floor tiles too.

[solarman216]

Looks nice but is the cold feed to the WC on the wrong side? and the waste pipe looks a tad high, but pics can lie, Rick

[Flying Torquewrench]

Cheers Rick. As far as I am aware everything is correct but I was only there to do the tiling. The pipework is all done by the plumber.