Aircraft Closing! Engine Section! Ilyushin 76 aeroplane door closing memories! Unforgettable!

Aircraft Closing! Engine Section! 

Ilyushin 76 aeroplane door closing memories! Unforgettable!

What is Aircraft Closing Ritual?

Why am Ilyushin 76 Russian Transport Cargo Medical 225++ Passenger aeroplane doors need to be closed everyday?

Who are authorised to do aircraft closing doors ritual/ceremony everyday after working hours?

What are the importance & necessities of closing aeroplane doors?

All above questions have their interesting answers.

8 trades are authorised to work on Russian Ilyushin 76 aeroplane.

Airframe.

Engine.

Electrician.

Instrument.

Radio.

Radar.

Weapon.

Safety Equipment.

All the above tradesmen people are given with their own operations rooms, office, restroom, washing room inside the aircraft hangar.

Hangar means where the big, long, broad Russian aeroplane stands, a cover place to protect the aeroplane and operating crew from sun and rain and other natural vagaries.

All above 8 trades were given order of closing the aircraft doors for the given week of 7 days. The people, tradesmen deployed on aircraft closing doors ritual ceremony will also be given other duties, jobs.

That explains, the aircraft closing doors ritual ceremony is an additional work, extra work at the same time it is a very delicate safety work, to protect the aeroplane from Monkeys, Birds, Insects during long time of unattended aeroplane waiting hours such as night hours, festival holidays, Aircraft on Ground (AOG) situations, Aircraft on Cannibalisation situations.

Ilyushin 76 Russian Transport Cargo aeroplane has many number of doors. 

The crew entry/exit door on the starboard (right) side.

The crew entry/exit door on the port (left) side.

Paratrooper doors 2.

Top door hatch behind the Pilots cockpit, the small manhole door to reach to the Top Surface of the aeroplane wings and fuel tanks, people tradesmen use this manhole door just to reach the Top surface of the aeroplane to do periodical servicings/repair/replacement works on the fuel tanks mounted on the huge long span of Ilyushin 76 aeroplane wings and also many electrical mechanical radio radar instrument items, air conditioning system of the aeroplane etc which are accessible only through the manhole door, just one person, tradesman can enter through this door to the Top surface of the aeroplane, where people can walk on the airframe of the Ilyushin 76 Russian Transport Cargo aeroplane using their right grip of rope sole shoes. Rope sole shoes made by Bata company India. Rope sole means the canvas shoe bottoms have rope design of knurls and churns just to provide strong grip of the feet while the tradesmen are walking on the slippery surface of the aeroplane aluminium alloy skin. 

It's a scary, dangerous thing to walk on the Top surface of the aeroplane. As the whole aircraft is made of light weight aluminium alloy even with or without rain the surface is slippery anytime can cause the imbalance and fall of man, tradesmen. To further enhance the safety 🛟 🦺 of working on top of the aeroplane, Maintenance Manual of Ilyushin 76 Russian Transport Cargo aeroplane provides the use of Monkey Belt, Monkey Ropes, which are tied to the waist of the tradesmen, so as to keep the worker safe even if a slip or miss happened. The monkey chain rope is tied to a clamp on the aeroplane top surface just to catch hold of the tradesmen in case he slipped, imbalanced during his course of maintenance servicing activities.

Therefore the Top door square manhole of the Ilyushin 76 aeroplane is a crucial door, safety door, escape door during emergency, which has its own red handle bar to turn & click which ensures tight licking of the door. It has its own lock and keys too. It has its own locking wire locking mechanism too.

The main crew entry doors also have their own lock and keys set. Numbered just like any house metal lock.

The rear cargo and paratroopers entry doors are operated open and close using hydraulic pump motor systems. Because the doors are very heavy, 3 Lotus 🪷 Petal type opening closing mechanism. Emergency operation by human hands also possible bypassing or ignoring the hydraulic pump motor systems. Which are sparingly used, only to provide emergency escape opportunities.

Other than the listed above doors, Ilyushin 76 Russian Transport Cargo aeroplane also has its own emergency exit doors, Navigator escape chute, Flight Gunner escape chute which are inspected operated very rarely, as per periodical servicings.

So, every week, 7 days, each trade are ordered to handle the opening and closing of those all above doors. A white paper with rubber seal and signature usually by Warranty Officer and above Rank is also pasted on those openings doors just to certify who did the closing. 

I remember the heavy weight hydraulic crew doors closing using my hands and chest because the tradesman has to stand on the yellow 7 step ladder alone, with another tradesman standing below the same ladder. The lonely one person pushes the crew door against its hydraulic pump pressure, inch by inch the door is moved to the closing position. Sometimes the pressure is so high, you need 2 man shoulders/chest thumping on the doors just to press it hard. Finally when the crew doors are aligned and hinged, we have to pull back the spline lever and rotate the red lever 180 degrees to create a "Clink" sound which ensures the red lever is seated firmly on its splines. This work requires special food in the stomachs of tradesmen. Strength. Any mistake done on this closing doors ritual ceremony can cause damage of fingers blood flow etc. So careful energetic work is necessary.

All above doors must be carefully inspected, locked, pasted with rubber seal, stamp, signatures & also locking wire sometimes used for long periods of inactivity such as Aircraft on Ground AOG situations or Aircraft on Cannibalisation situations. 

Locking the all above listed doors of the Ilyushin 76 Russian Transport Cargo aeroplane is just like locking our house. Safety. Avoiding entry of Monkeys, Birds or illegal people.

End of the story.

Post Script:-

Forgot to add the Window Panes closing on the cockpit.

This is also very important work while doing the all door closing ritual ceremony.

The heavy glass, electrical anti icing, de icing, window panes also look so much sophisticated, plush. We must close them too, there are so many knobs & levers available there too. Cockpit of the Pilot must be safe & secure by closing these window panes after work. If we forgot to close it, or left it open casually, results can be loss of money, time loss in doing un expected repairs, servicings because we don't know what damage Monkeys or Birds can do the aeroplane precious interiors. 

Pasupathi Kumarappan.
https://notionpress.com/author/83387