I'll preface this by stating I've run some searches on this forum and looked through Intro doc and FCOM. 

 

I'm curious about the maintenance schedule on the Queen. Specifically, when to refill engine oil. So far I've logged about 22 hours on N127UA, and I haven't done any maintenance... Is it time for me to turn in my wings? 

 

 

Specifically, when to refill engine oil.

 

I add oil when the shut down level gets to about 80% of full.  And 22 hours without maintenance is nothing, I don't know the specifics but these birds are on a progressive maintenance schedule.  Probably a quick check on the line every 100 hr followed by less frequent and more intense maintenance activity.

I would expect the oils to be checked by the maintenance department after every flight on the EICAS and physically, at the engine, at least once a day. The pilots, of course, check it before each flight on EICAS.

 

RR's tend to use a lot of oil (2~3 quarts/litres per engine), GEs slightly less, but PWs use hardly any. Thankfully, APU's don't need to be topped up too often, but levels are checked every day on EICAS.

 

Engine oil usage greater than 0.5 quarts an hour is a cause for concern.

 

Cheers

John H Watson

 

P.S. Don't hire Dan to do your maintenance 

I'll preface this by stating I've run some searches on this forum and looked through Intro doc and FCOM.

 

I'm curious about the maintenance schedule on the Queen. Specifically, when to refill engine oil. So far I've logged about 22 hours on N127UA, and I haven't done any maintenance... Is it time for me to turn in my wings?

Me too. No, keep your wings, you need them to fly

 

I've done a few long trips without having to top the oil. This is unrealistic. We'll see what can be done.

 

If you want to help "fix" this, record the oil quantity during pre flt, and then record it after the shutdown and secure checklists are complete. Also note your block time (gate to gate - assuming normal pushback procedures). Come back to this thread and post your results.

If you want to help "fix" this, record the oil quantity during pre flt, and then record it after the shutdown and secure checklists are complete. 

 

Note that oil levels may change depending on how long the engines have been shut down. We used to check oil levels 5~10 minutes after shutdown and then top them up as required. If you checked them an hour later, you'd notice that the levels had dropped... but you wouldn't  put more in. If you did that, the engine would have too much oil when it was running. Oil does all kinds of crazy stuff. Sometimes it hides*, but depending on the engine type, it might not be of concern.

 

*indicated oil level lower than what's actually in the engine

 

Cheers

John H Watson

Well, I ruined a perfectly good engine. I don't know how accurate the data is for engine oil dip. But just after top of descent, oil quantities dropped to 7/7/5/6. Engine 3 oil quantity went to magenta, and eng 3 oil temp started to increase. It got to 187 when I last looked at the indication before finding and completing the qrh non-normal checklist 7.32 - eng 1,2,3,4 oil temp. 18secs elapsed between seeing the 187 indication and shutting eng 3 down.

 

Anyway, moral of the story, Total flight time since the oil was full (QotS2 installation) has been roughly 37 hours. Expect a failure around that amount of flight time with the remember oil quantity option on. I don't recommend not filling them up regularly; I was worried about losing the others for the same reason.

 

On the plus side, how great it was to see what happens if... It was 29mins between the IFSD of #3 before landing, and the PMDG 747 handled the 3 eng approach magnificently!!!!!

I was told by an NZ engineer I know that they usually add a few litres / cans to each engine of a 777-300ER after the transpacific crossing from AKL-LAX. Older engines are probably worse. The CFM56-5 on the A340 for example, actually uses more oil than fuel!  :smile: