How Airplanes are Prepared for Flight?

Based on 34 years of flying, maintenance and maintenance of airplanes and airborne tracking procedures, analysis of events, development and lessons learned, I wanted to prepare this article and share it with you.  

Looking at the average data of the Flightradar flight tracking system, we can say that in 2022, the average number of daily civil aircraft flights in the world is 200,000.  

Every day, 200,000 airplanes fly from one airport to another airport, carrying passengers and transporting materials. 

Looking at the same Flightradar data, if we want to compare the week of July 31, 2022 with previous years, we see that the 7-day flight average for the same period in 2019 has the highest value of all time. During this week, 219,575 flights were made in one day.

Based on the data and information published on Boardinginfo.com, we can say that in 2018 there were approximately 45 million flights and 4.4 billion people traveled by air. 

These numbers tell us that more than half of the world's population traveled by air in 2018. 

"How many airplanes are in the sky right now?" The answer is usually between 8,000 and 20,000 airplanes, although this varies depending on the days of the year and the time of day. 

Throughout the day, as planes begin and end their flights, a feverish work begins and continues at airports and maintenance hangars. 

Cargo is unloaded, passengers are offloaded, planes are cleaned, aircraft undergo inter-flight maintenance for the next flight, tires are checked. Airframe exteriors, engines, landing gear nests, hydraulic pipes are also checked for any problems. In order to solve the problems reported by the previous flight crew or detected during these routine checks, maintenance and controls are carried out in accordance with the relevant technical documents of the aircraft. If necessary, the material is changed and the relevant system is also checked and tested after the material change.

These operations on airplanes can sometimes take hours and sometimes days.  In cases expected to last for days, a new aircraft is allocated for the relevant flight. Thus, the flight mission is tried to be met on time. 

In the meantime, if the flight crew's working hours have expired, a new flight crew is assigned for the new flight. 

Catering materials such as breakfast, meals, tea and coffee are also prepared by catering companies for the new flight and loaded onto the aircraft to be served during the flight. 

These operations are the normal operations that are carried out by the maintenance and ground support teams and that the aircraft must perform in order to go on a new mission commercially and are completed separately by each unit and the aircraft are made ready for a new flight, which is its next mission, in accordance with the mission it will perform. 

While you are arriving at the airport for any flight, the aircraft is prepared for its new mission by working feverishly together with the technical team, ground services, ground support and airports teams at the scheduled flight time.

When you arrive at the airport to go somewhere else, you can follow the status and readiness of your aircraft on the flight tracking signs at the airports. You can also get a rough idea about the timely fulfillment of the necessary procedures and the readiness of the aircraft. For your scheduled flight, you can also find information about possible delays due to delays or meteorological conditions on these signs or on the internet. For example, you can also check the delay times and reasons for your flight, which was delayed due to various reasons such as meteorology or airport congestion. You can follow the status of the passenger you are expecting to arrive, even if it is a little delayed, from these sites. 

Just like your other vehicles and cars, the maintenance, repair and maintenance works of aircrafts are carried out by the aircraft maintenance and repair teams on the ground during the preparation of these aircrafts for flight. 

After completing the previous flight mission normally, the aircraft and the flight mission team records the problems or negative situations related to the flight mission in the file of the relevant aircraft after the flight and records the problems, if any, of the relevant aircraft one by one in the relevant file on a system basis and waits for the technicians to find and solve the problems, if any, on that aircraft. If there is no problem, the aircraft is declared as active and all necessary preparations are initiated to be trained for the next flight mission without delay. 

Each aircraft that is authorized to fly has its own tracking serial and model number and call name, which is also called tail number, like the license plate on your vehicles. The mission code and flight tracking of the aircraft is known by this name in the control towers, and any other aircraft with a different tail number can be assigned to this call name and perform this mission. 

For example, the flight call codes of airplanes flying from Istanbul to New York or New York to Istanbul are referred to as TK1, TK3 or TK11 depending on the flight time or departure point. 

However, Airbus or Boeing models with the same passenger carrying capacity also operate these flights with different tail numbers. 

This call sign is known by the international flight towers during the entire flight period of the aircraft with the flight task notification made by the flight crew in advance and is followed throughout the flight with this call sign. 

All maintenance, control, replenishment and all other operations performed on the basis of the serial number of the aircraft performing the flight are recorded in the logbooks or computer records of the aircraft with this serial number.  All maintenance, repairs and other events performed during the flight life of the aircraft with the relevant tail number can also be tracked from this serial number.  Which serial numbered device was installed on which airplane and how many hours it flew can be easily found from these records. 

The flight hours of each aircraft are automatically added to the flight hours of the device installed. 

For example, if an airplane has flown for 50,000 hours in a year, it means that the altimeter or radar mounted on it has flown for 50,000 hours with that airplane. 

"Who installed this equipment, who checked it, on which day was it replaced, what was the training level of the person who made this replacement, what is the model and serial number of the old device that was removed, what is the model and serial number of the newly installed device, and what kind of malfunctions were experienced during the period it was installed on this aircraft?"

All of this information is recorded in the file records kept under the tail number of this aircraft, either on conventional paper with signature or electronically.

The flight crew that will go on the flight also looks at these records and makes the necessary calculations and takes the necessary decisions by looking at information such as "what kind of problems were experienced in the previous flights of the aircraft, how much fuel is required for the new mission, how much material is loaded on the aircraft and how much more fuel should the aircraft take with this material, what are the meteorological conditions at the destination airport or the meteorological conditions that may be experienced on the flight path, will additional fuel be required?" and in this way, the new flight mission planning is made. Since the wind coming from the opposite direction on the route to be traveled may increase the fuel increase of the aircraft, more fuel and less cargo may need to be carried for the mission.

Nowadays, there is so much flight information data based on past flights that it has become standard to know how much fuel and time an airplane will require to go from one airport to another airport, including waiting time in the air.  

When the flight crew informs the aircraft systems of the destination, the aircraft computer and route planning systems automatically determine the fuel and other needs of the aircraft and inform the flight crew. 

If you are carrying cargo, the weighing and balancing systems on the aircraft, including the fact that you are above or below the load you can carry, inform you by calculating these data on their indicators. 

These events and operations that take place on a flight are valid for civil, commercial or military flights, as well as for unmanned aerial vehicles and spacecraft.  It even applies to balloon flights in Cappadocia. 

Every aircraft coming from a flight has many types of maintenance needs and processes, such as pre-flight, post-flight, inter-flight, maintenance required after a certain number of flight hours. 

Especially aircraft that have not flown for a long time may have become a home for birds, rats and even insects. 

The maintenance of an aircraft that has not flown or stayed on the ground for a few days and the maintenance of this aircraft after 100 flight hours or the maintenance processes of an aircraft that has flown for 1000 or 5000 hours require different control and maintenance processes such as separate controls, material changes. 

Depending on the flight hours or the events experienced during the flight, even X-rays of the parts of the aircraft that need to be checked are taken if necessary, or crack and corrosion checks are carried out in important areas or areas that need to be checked with methods such as non-destructive control methods. 

Aircraft that will take off in the cold of winter are maintained in a different way than in summer, and it may even be necessary to wash the moving surfaces of the aircraft with alcohol or a special liquid just before flight to prevent freezing of the aircraft surfaces. 

Aircraft maintenance technician engineer or crew is a professional title given to people who play an active role in the maintenance, troubleshooting and troubleshooting of aircraft and aircraft parts. 

Some of these technicians have specialized training and experience in technical subjects such as electricity, fuel, hydraulics, engines, airframe maintenance, flight avionics systems, communication systems. 

They regularly check the fuselage and engine parts of the aircraft and the additional areas deemed necessary with the help of a checklist due to the damages that may be caused on the aircraft fuselage and engines, such as bird strikes, the aircraft will be considered to have flown continuously in the salty area due to reasons such as flying over the ocean or sea.

These control operations must be carried out according to the aircraft technical documents published by the companies related to the aircraft. 

In order to ensure standardization in maintenance and control operations, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulates, controls and develops and publishes application procedures and sets standards for all flights. 

The most recent standard published by the FAA is the directive dated November 16, 2022 dated November 16, 2022 on the health rules to be followed by pilots performing balloon flights due to the death of 4 tourists as a result of the balloon crash in Cappadocia. https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/faa-mandates-medical-requirements-commercial-balloon-pilots

The maintenance and airport operation procedures of each type and mission of aircraft or flight vehicle are also under the supervision and control of this unit. 

Each aircraft, such as passenger aircraft, fighter aircraft, fuel tanker aircraft, etc., has its own technical maintenance and control documents according to its intended use.  These procedures are determined, implemented and inspected under the control of the relevant manufacturer and FAA. 

According to the procedures determined by the FAA, the training certificates and procedures to be followed by the flight and maintenance crew are determined. 

The aircraft maintenance engineer, crew and technician checks the operation performed on these airplanes for which they have received training, confirms that the relevant airplane can fly safely for its next flight and signs its signature. 

As a result of all these processes, it can be briefly said; "There is no airplane that cannot fly, there is only an airplane that has not been properly maintained and repaired."

With the maintenance teams performing all these flight and maintenance operations, all of the airplanes you see in the sky under the responsibility of the flight crew safely carry the passengers, materials or cargo safely from one place to another. 

For this reason, it is said that "Aviation is a team work". 

Aircraft maintenance and management is the general name of maintenance and control operations in which each individual knows their place and order, works jointly, has common communication procedures, and thousands of jobs need to be coordinated and done without error. 

In order to ensure that maintenance operations are carried out in accordance with safer procedures, directives and standards, pilots sometimes work together with aircraft maintenance teams in areas such as test piloting, evaluation, inspection and quality control, and work together in maintenance and repair processes to ensure that standards and procedures are realized at the highest level. 

Aircraft maintenance and management operations and teams also have a single purpose. 

This goal is: "To ensure that every airplane that takes to the air reaches its destination safely together with its occupants."

Flight crew and aircraft maintenance crew are the people who are expected to be ready and perform their duties 24/7, day and night.  

Thanks to the harmonious and error-free work of the Flight and Maintenance teams, approximately 200,000 airplanes fly safely in the air every day. 

In the summer of 2022, as a result of the disruption of some branches of these operations, there were intense problems in Europe in many flight missions, especially in the field of operations to be performed on the ground, and some countries tried to solve the problems they experienced in this regard by seeking human resources from other countries, considering that the problems they experienced in this regard were due to the lack of trained labor force. Today, the scarcity or lack of flight, management and maintenance teams can also cause major problems in the aviation industry or tourism. 

In 2022, although there was a shortage of trained labor force as a result of the increase in flights after the pandemic, it is evaluated that the number of aircraft flights and the number of passengers carried and even balloon flights for tourism purposes will continue to increase in the coming period.  

Depending on this assessment, it tells us that the importance of the number of flight and maintenance operations will increase even more in the coming years, and if measures are not taken, there will be problems in terms of labor force or experienced people depending on the increasing demand for flight crew and maintenance crew needs. 

References:

https://www.flightradar24.com/data/statistics

https://boardinginfo.com/suan-gokyuzunde-kac-ucak-vardir/

https://www.flightradar24.com/data/statistics

https://boardinginfo.com/suan-gokyuzunde-kac-ucak-vardir/

https://www.faa.gov/