Yr 12 Engineering Airport Visit

On Tuesday 8th August the Year 12 Engineering class had an exciting day at Tamworth airport looking at facilities and aircraft that related to our focus area of Aerodynamics.

Our first stop was the Qantas hangar that undertakes deep cyclic maintenance of the Dash 8 aircraft that are used in regional Australia. At this stage it had been fully stripped down, and all hatches were open for structural and electrical inspections.

A few facts; the plane is 32 Metres long, 28 Metres wide and when standing on top of the tail you are over 8 metres above the ground! It is a turboprop with a ceiling height of 25000 Ft and a cruise speed of 500 Kl / Hr.

Fortunate timing enabled us to see the Westpac helicopter take off for Newcastle for its deep maintenance cyle. Once inside the hangar we were able to get a close inspection of the standby aircraft with information provided by the chief pilot and cabin crew. The rescue service flies an Agusta Westland 139. The AW139s surpass all other medium twin-engine helicopters in operational range, performance and power and have greatly improved the Service’s operational capabilities.

The last visit of the day was to AVI Skills which is the hangar that delivers TAFE training in this industry for structural and avionics engineers. A more hands-on approach showed the tools, materials, and project work that trainees do. With many engines and aircraft to inspect the boys were able to sit in a cockpit and operate the controls.

We are very grateful to Qantas, Westpac Rescue and Aviskills for supporting the Engineering class.