Line Maintenance Communication

[Dahai]

I would appreciate some assistance from flight crew, retired crew or Line Maintenence people. I am managing a team of Chinese instructors who are teaching English in the aviation industry. Communication between flight crew and Chinese Line Maintenance staff is often difficult due to their oral English language skills. We have a Line Maintenance Communication course which we have taught and covers aircraft arrival and departure communication with or without a tow. I would like to enhance the course by adding communication between the ground/flight deck or vice versa for some "unusual or out of the normal" situations, i.e. tailpipe fire, a vehicle approaching the aircraft during push back which I have covered, but I would like additional problems.
What I would appreciate your asssistance with, is:
What are some possible scenarios
What would the likely communication be (what would be said by each party).
The attendees on the course may not be licensed, so the scenarios need to be those that an unlicensed engineer could handle.
Best Regards
Dahai

[ptbodale]

Are you with a University or a College? Are the major airlines in China able to assist you?

[Dahai]

Thank you for your question. I am in China with a major aircraft engineering company. The local airlines are not able to assist, as unless they fy international, they do not have the need to communicate in English between flight crew and line maintenance.

The course is for our own line maintenance people as well as our 3rd party airline clients. Problems occur with the lack of English ability. The more 'unusual' situations I can provide the course with, the better equiped the line staff will be to assist flight crew. A problem also is in the Chinese language not having clear definitions for Chinese words. Hence many defects are reported as something is "damaged", inlieu of a more precise meaning such as corroded, cracked etc.

[Dmmoore]

The most important items concern fire, fuel leakage and towing problems.

A tail pipe fire is usually not a cause for any type of emergency communication however the flight crew should be told the event is in progress.

A fire external to an engine is cause for emergency communication. The flight crew must secure the engines (if they are running) and evacuate the aircraft. Knowing which portion of the aircraft is involved in a fire can help the crew evacuate the aircraft safely.

A fuel leak needs to be communicated quickly. A fuel leak on an engine during start can turn into a disaster very quickly. The results of the crews actions after being informed of the leak need to be communicated.

Communicating where a problem is located is critical. Do not use left or right unless another defining word is used such as referring to the engine number or "Left Hand Wing" or "Right Hand Stabilizer" as a locator. Insure the information can not be misunderstood due to the view of the person on the ground being different than the flight crew.

Tow bar and or tug problems can quickly cause problems where personnel are endangered or aircraft damage is eminent. A request for the cockpit to apply the brakes while the aircraft is still in motion is unusual and if the aircraft is moving backwards, the sudden application of the brakes will cause the aircraft to tip back. Knowing the way to communicate the urgency of brake application is helpful.

[Dahai]

Don thank you for your reply. I have some conversation that I can use for role play with the tail pipe fire. I was thinking about an engine fire (apart from the tail pipe), but then the flight crew would probably know about it before the ground, as I imagine that all "bells and whistles" would be going off. So I might forget that one.

However the fuel leak is probablem. Would the conversation be something like -Ground to flt deck: We have a fuel leak from the left hand wing. Fuelling has been stopped. We have alerted the fire dept (or alternate department according to local procedures).
Flt crew: OK take care. Keep us advised.

Tow bar problem. I have covered in some role play.

Can you think of anything that the flt crew might request the line maintenance person to check on, which would require a conversation, such as, "would you check on.......", or "we are experiencing a problem with..... would you look at it?"
I need to have the students practice their oral English and using situations in role play is ideal. By using unusual, but probable situations, they can hopefully expand their language and from some expressions, then use them in a number of scenarios.

[MCM]

A tailpipe fire, as Don says, must be communicated to the flight deck in an efficient manner... why? Because many aircraft have checklists the crew do to help extinguish a tailpipe fire.

One of the other important things (and even airlines where everyone has English as a native languange have some trouble here) is that Smoke and Fire are two distinct things, and must be stated accurately so that the correct decision is made.

"There is smoke coming from the left main landing gear" could create a different response than "There is fire in your left main landing gear"... important difference.

As to your role play for the fuel leak... what you say might be good in an ideal world, but I can't think of many flight crews that would say take care and keep us advised... they'd probably be asking questions. Is it a fuel leak (like a leak from the engine or the aircraft) or is it a SPILLAGE where the tanker has thrown fuel all over the apron? Thats something you'd want to know.

[Dahai]

MCM I appreciate your comments. What you have suggested is extremely helpful. If I could take one at a time, could you expand on how the conversation might go. I realise that each line maint person or member of the flt crew would not use the same words, but I want to provide students with a number of expressions or ideas that would by used.

For instance, the smoke from the landing gear. If the aircraft is arriving or on push back, would the ground tell the flt crew about the smoke, then ask them to set the parking brakes, what typically would the flt crew ask?

Excellent comments about the fuel leak. I had not thought along those lines. That provides me with extra words to use for practice, such as fuel tanker, and the word spillage. The possible need to differentiate between leak from the engine or aircraft provides me with options to provide to the students.

Is it possible for you to provide some type of role play converstaion to the two scenarios? Again I realise that there are no "standard" phrases used.