DL2SXM

Hi everyone,

I was sitting in row 19 on what I believe was ship #714. Route flown was EWR to DFW on Saturday afternoon. At first, I thought that there was a small piece missing from the wing. Then, I thought that the flap might have been extended, but after a few more glances, there was definitely a very small piece of the wing missing (not sure of the exact name of the part on the wing). Obviously, it was safe to fly as it was a very smooth flight.

Thought I would share the pic. comments?

colpuck

They should fix that.

bocastephen

It's the trailing edge of the flap - definitely not normal, but I'm sure it was seen by the crew during walk-around and deemed within tolerance and OK to fly. Boeing are tough, resilient aircraft.

You would have been within your rights to ask the FA to summon the flight deck crew to either check it, or have the FA tell you they're aware of it and its within tolerance.

Of course if they didn't see it before - they did now

mbreuer

I believe it's an aileron trim tab.

bocastephen

Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought the inboard ailerons were 'spoilerons', while the outboards were traditional ailerons.

pptp

Good guess but the aileron is the control surface further out. It's the rear flap. That would be a pretty big aileron. It looks like it might have been a lightning strike. That could create visual damage but not necessarily any underlying structure damage, which would allow the plane to fly (after the required lightning strike maintenance check).

pptp

If memory serves, I don't think 73's have inboard ailerons, 727's do. I've never heard of them called spoilerons (I like it) but yes, the 73's do use the spoilers to "spoil" some lift on the downward banking wing during certain turns.

JC1120

That'll buff right out!

I wonder how that happened.

bocastephen

The inboard spoilerons do exactly that, working in concert with the outboard ailerons - assuming my guess about the 737 wing design is correct (I didn't look it up).

The lightening strike is probably a good guess, but I thought the static wicks should have dissipated any charge to keep strikes off the wing and tail and let it hit the fuselage.

Oh well - any FTers on ship 714 today?

DL2SXM

I'm not 100% sure if it was 714

bocastephen

Blame the valet

meFIRST

I would have walked out of the airplane and asked to be put on the next flight. (politely)

I think that's reasonable.

Did you get on the plane?

michelle227

yikes...

Would be curious to see if it was squawked.

I know that I get twitchy with anything out of place when I do my walk-arounds on the single-engine stuff I fly...and that would definitely be something significantly beyond 'out of place.' Would definitely have brought that to the attention of someone before push-back.

doobierw

No need to walk off the airplane....really. The prudent thing to do is bring it to the attention of the flight crew.

A. They either don't know about it (and would like to) -or-
B. They do know about it, and the ship has been cleared to operate.

Most of you don't know that we can fly with pieces and parts missing, and it's somewhat common. These items are listed on the Configuration Deviation List or CDL. Panels, access doors, and static wicks (those little thingees on the back of the wing that dissipate lightning strikes) can be missing, and as long as they are on the CDL, we can proceed without it.

The CDL provides a fuel burn penalty, which must be added to the flight plan. They're somewhat silly (i.e. add 30 pounds of fuel burn for a missing lav service door) and don't noticeably affect the flying/flyability of the aircraft. I'm always amused by the fact that I'm about to burn 50,000 pounds of fuel, and it's absolutely imperative the flight release annotates that 30 pound hit for the missing panel.

When we have a CDL item that is visible to the passengers, we try to announce that we know about it, are cleared to go with it, and the plane is perfectly safe.

Some aircraft have a notch that is cut out on the trailing edge of the flaps to account for clearing the engine shroud when the controls are extended. The clean arc on this particular picture made me initially think that is what it was, but I'm siding with the lightning strike theory. The surfaces near that notch appear to be darkened a bit....

DRW

(The spoilers are those four large panels that are located forward of this area. This control would be a part of the flap assembly. The outermost control would be the ailerons.)

pptp

Also it would seem that, to physically break of a piece of that material, say like running a belt loader into it, there would be surrounding damage and suspected internal damage too. Enough to take the plane out of service for a disassembled inspection, at which point they might as well replace the part.