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Aviation History
1980
1980 - 3638.PDF
BAe 748 and NAMC YS-II turboprops (above left) provide domestic services to mony airports not suitable for One-Eleven operations. PAL currently undertakes only simple maintenance work on GE CF6-50s (above right), but will become self-sufficient at the end of next year the two engines' modules. "GE is com mitted to assist us," says Jorgensen, "in any area we need, including shop design and supervision of work." General Electric seems to be benefit ting from a wave of investment world wide in CF6 maintenance centres— competition between these for outside business must have an impact on the operating costs of GE's big civil turbo- fans. PAL is already self-sufficient in maintenance of the Rolls-Royce Darts and Speys which power its domestic fleet. This was one of Jorgensen's earliest objectives on joining PAL, and no Dart or Spey has been sent out for maintenance since January 1979. A study by US consultants found that it is much cheaper for PAL to do as much in-house maintenance and engin eering as possible, hence Jorgensen's plan to achieve self-sufficiency. This forms part of a 15-year strategy. The first four years will see cash flowing out as money is spent on capital in vestment, but after 1983/84 the bene fits of self-sufficiency will begin to show on the balance sheet. The capital investment plan in cludes a whole new maintenance and hangar complex to augment PAL's present quarters at Nichols Field (the military side of Manila's airport). The need for more hangar and apron space has become more urgent with expansion of the widebody fleet. A lack of widebody hangar space has meant that most maintenance work had to be done in the open, and was disrupted by bad weather. The plan calls for two hangars capable of accommodating a total of four wide- bodies, with room for another two 727s or One-Elevens. One hangar is now in use, while the other is under construction. Adjacent to this, space has been reserved for a third hangar which could accommodate up to six domestic fleet types. Apron space is being extended to accommodate up to a dozen widebodies. Adjoining the widebody hangars, a new airframe maintenance shop and parts store is being built and should be completed by the end of next year. Together with the CF6 overhaul facility, the new complex is expected to yield con siderable cost savings over the next ten years as work currently farmed out to Haeco in Hong Kong, KLM and United is taken in-house. The new 747 fleet's maintenance is currently being phased in from United Airlines over a one-year period. The new wide- body hangar has been designed for a "modest" 747 fuselage stretch, although Jorgensen refuses to specu late as to whether PAL will have a future requirement for the new stretched upper deck variant or other 747 stretches. The new apron's bear ing strength has been calculated on the assumption that load classification numbers will not get larger in the foreseeable future and that footprints will stay at their present maximum levels. The past year has imposed a heavy load on the operations support de partments as two new widebodied types have been taken on strength. But the addition of 747s and A300s has been successfully digested and the Boeing widebodies are achieving 12-5 hours a day utilisation. The short/medium-haul A300s are now up to six and a half hours' daily utilisa tion. Jorgensen would like to see the widebody fleet reduced eventually to two types. The DC-10 fleet would eventually be disposed of. The air craft were purchased at a time when they were much cheaper, and adding some more 747 and A300 capacity would now be very costly. The current abundance of secondhand DC-10-30s also makes a sale impractical. "You can flood a market with five aircraft today," says Jorgensen. A more pres sing fleet problem comes in the form of eight DC-8-50 series aircraft (five -51s, two -53s and one -55F). These fuel-thirsty aircraft were grounded at the summer's end. With the excep tion of the -55F, they will be difficult to sell and will join the rapidly grow ing world fleet of elderly jets un wanted by front-line carriers. "We have now to start melting these old aeroplanes down, like TWA's Convair 880s," he says. This may be the best solution in many cases as it will be safer to completely scrap many of the world's oldest 707s and DC-8s, rather than let them fall into the hands of dubious "cowboy" operators. The problems of maintaining a large disparate number of fleet types are the immediate responsibility of maintenance vice-president P. C. Pangilinan. He commands a workforce of some 2,500 people, but has approval to increase this to 3,000, to cope with the brain-drain of skilled personnel. "Only the skilled ones leave," he says. "For every ten who leave there are 50 replacements, but they don't have the skill and experience." The mini mum educational standard for new entrant mechanics is two years in technical college, on an aircraft- orientated maintenance course. This is followed by one year's training at PAL's own training school before the new entrants are absorbed as airline employees and begin to specialise on individual types. Introduction of the 747 and A300 has been smooth and PAL is now well down the learning curve on DC-10 maintenance (PAL acquired its first McDonnell Douglas widebody in 1974). The A300, in particular, has proved very reliable with only one un scheduled engine removal for main tenance so far. The two 727s have a high despatch reliability, according to Pangilinan, and all maintenance is subcontracted to Hughes Airwest which has a ten-man unit at Manila to carry out the work. The phase-out of DC-8s is welcomed by Pangilinan because it releases skilled staff for new aircraft coming into the fleet. As well as the aircraft, PAL has a substantial stock of DC-8 spares to sell but Pangilinan says that "most other operators are trying to unload spares at the moment." While the DC-8 fleet was still active, some mechanics had to learn maintenance skills for three different fleet types but the phase-out is allowing a return to a more digestible two types for most staff. The DC-8-55F still has some useful life in it, with an airframe some 40,000hr old, but the other air craft average a barely economic 50,000hr. PAL's One-Eleven fleet is achieving "extremely high despatch reliability," says Pangilinan—some 86 per cent. Problems with One-Eleven spares shortages experienced in early 1979 have been overcome and he com mends BAe's spares-support service. The fire which destroyed a large stock of One-Eleven spares at Weybridge earlier this year has had no effect on One-Eleven operations. Spares for the Japanese-built YS-lls, out of produc-
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