Who tests airliners ?

[J4CKO]

Say when a plane has had maintenance or for diagnosis purposes, do they just get any of the normal pilots to do it or do you get specific test pilots ?

[ecsrobin]

We have air test captains who can sign off any major work after a test flight.

[J4CKO]

ecsrobin said:

We have air test captains who can sign off any major work after a test flight.

Are they normal captains that do that role or a specific job ?

[ecsrobin]

J4CKO said:

ecsrobin said:

We have air test captains who can sign off any major work after a test flight.

Are they normal captains that do that role or a specific job ?

Normal captains with an extra tick in the box. In the RAF we would nominate an air test captain and crew on a daily basis and their role for that day would be solely for air tests.

[RCBRG]

flight tests are not particularly common. fault diagnostics, maintenance and system testing is so good that its rare to require a flight test. on the occasions it does happen, its often regular flight crew going up with engineering sitting in

[Whitean3]

Something similar that I wondered last week when taking off from Schipol- when aircraft go to the maintenance hangars (taxiing), do they need a pilot, or are there engineering personnel with enough clearance for just taxiing?

[broxie]

Whitean3 said:

Something similar that I wondered last week when taking off from Schipol- when aircraft go to the maintenance hangars (taxiing), do they need a pilot, or are there engineering personnel with enough clearance for just taxiing?

At Heathrow, the aircraft are taken to/from the hangars by normal pushbag tugs.

[RCBRG]

broxie said:

Whitean3 said:

Something similar that I wondered last week when taking off from Schipol- when aircraft go to the maintenance hangars (taxiing), do they need a pilot, or are there engineering personnel with enough clearance for just taxiing?

At Heathrow, the aircraft are taken to/from the hangars by normal pushbag tugs.

thats true for heathrow and others, but at many airports engineers do have taxi clearance

[peter tdci]

broxie said:

At Heathrow, the aircraft are taken to/from the hangars by normal pushbag tugs.

Does the aircraft being towed need to have any systems running? And does anyone need to be on board?

[Ginetta G15 Girl]

It's normal to have a 'Brake Man' in the cockpit.

[Speed 3]

Had an interesting one a couple of weeks ago. I was invited to a hangar opening for a well-known airline at a well-known airport. As the new facility is airside it was easier to transfer all the guests on an aircraft rather than getting airside passes for them all. The tow was treated as a flight with a full flight deck and cabin crew with doors armed and all as we went from the terminal to the hangar !

[Trevatanus]

Whitean3 said:

Something similar that I wondered last week when taking off from Schipol- when aircraft go to the maintenance hangars (taxiing), do they need a pilot, or are there engineering personnel with enough clearance for just taxiing?

That's when you need Joe Petroni!