At 11:36 AM 4/4/2003 -0800, Mark wrote: >Anyone who caught this week's episode of The West Wing would have seen >that Hollywood has been up to their old tricks again. My personal favorite nit was that they were at the end of an 18-hour flight when this occurred, I think coming back from Australia or New Zealand. AFAIK, the President often stops over in Hawaii or the West Coast on such return trips to avoid excessive jet lag. I'm sure a 747-200 could do an 18 hour leg without aerial refueling under the right conditions, but why would they? >Later in the show, under the auspices of briefing the press secretary they >provided some maintenance information about Air Force One. They said that >every 152 days the aircraft is completely taken apart and put back >together. I am assuming they were referring to a D-Check. If that is >true and a D-Check is preformed on Air Force One twice a year, what is the >standard for airlines? >How often are they required to peform D-Checks? Again AFAIK, maintenance cycles are functions of hours in flight and possibly take-off/landing cycles, not time on the calendar, at least for commercial and general aviation. The USAF does have two VC-25s (presidential 747s), but I wonder how often they really "take it apart and put it back together again." That process, while I'm sure beneficial, is neither quick nor inexpensive. One of the plot points was Andrews allegedly shutting down due to a fuel spill. The VC-25s sometimes use Dulles, especially when fully fueled for a really long flight (All of IAD's runways are longer than KADW's runways). They wouldn't circle after an 18 hour flight for a ground closure; they'd land at Dulles, or BWI, or Langley down in the Tidewater region, or.... But that would have ruined the plot if someone had thought of that. Sigh, Nick