Pic of CO 737-700 with small piece of the wing missing
 

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?


http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j2...3/DSC_0041.jpg

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j2...3/DSC_0051.jpg

They should fix that.

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 :)

I believe it's an aileron trim tab.

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

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).

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.

That'll buff right out! :D

I wonder how that happened.

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? :D

I'm not 100% sure if it was 714

Blame the valet :)

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?

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.

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.)

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.

Yes, we pax should always report such deviations to flight crew.

It's good to be aware of one's surroundings and provide condition reports if necessary. No harm ever done this way.

Looks like gremlin damage to me.

This statement is still bothering me. Save your own arse, but leave the other 173 people with families, kids, etc onboard and not bring it to anyone's attention.

Ironic FT callsign. Seeing a trend...... :rolleyes:

Yeah, I got on the plane. Also, it didnt seem like that big of a deal to bring it to the attention of the flight crew. Let me see if I can crop the original picture as it looks like there is some scorching around the damaged section.

A friend of mine just retired from the US Air Force and that's his opinion. he said you can slam Boeings into the ground pretty hard and they do just fine. His opionin of Airbus planes is pretty low, FWIW

Yikes - let's not try and turn this in to an Airbus vs. Boeing thread.

close up shot
 

+1 :D:D:D

Hi NYPDLieu, the part you're referring to is called an "Outboard Aft Flap" and is used to augment lift during take off and landing. The condition noted in your photos is actually an FAA-approved field repair that trims the end as noticed in the pictures. It's not too commonly used, but to be clear, there's nothing to be alarmed about when you see this.

I was going to post that it looks like there had probably been some issue/damage at the tip of the flap so the quick (and safe) fix is to cut the section off (hence the scorch marks).

Sorta how if you have a small crack at the end of a finger nail, you can file or cut that section of nail off to keep the crack from propagating.

Thanks, Scott!

B7

What would William Shatner do???

I would repeat the Uranus joke but I see that Scott's watching...

That's what Shatner said too.

Interesting. The clean cut and the shape had me a little stumped. The piece looks solid, not hollow. Wonder if it's a solid lightweight composite or if hollow, the cut was filled with something.

Scotty actually DID repair it, using transparent aluminum.

CO insider,

Thanks for the info. Friend of mine says the part in question is an inboard trailing edge double slotted flap. Possible he is correct?

Poor Scott

First it was DirecTV catching on fire, now flying with broken wings. On the plus side, we've gone 48+ hours without anyone reporting 'Shenanigans!'tm

On second thought, William Shatner would have scored an upgrade to F, and would not have seen the damaged flap.

PLEASE let this discussion rest! :cool:

Oh man, I am still not used to see an official airline rep proactively engaging issues here. Slowly please, I am from the Dl boards ;)

I had a similar incident on one of my flights earlier in the year. i also took a pic, and showed it to the captain when we landed

http://gallery.me.com/cheekyjeremy#1...&bgcolor=black

Actually, 737's have triple slotted flaps which you can see here
http://www.desktopaero.com/appliedae...es/flap737.jpg
I don't think 737's have inboard flaps, just the one set.

CO_Nonrev_elite's picture from the post above is a good example of inboard and outboard flaps but I think that's a 757.
http://gallery.me.com/cheekyjeremy#1...&bgcolor=black