Aviation Fuel Filtration Specialists
"Quality guarantees Safety" - FAUDI Aviation GmbH is specialised in the field of civil and military aviation fuel filtration, using the most modern technologies for the research, testing and manufacturing of our products. We operate world wide with one focus: “We want you to feel safe in the air!”
FAUDI Aviation recently celebrated 70 years of experience and superior quality. We are well known in the field of aviation fuel filtration. Our experience and unique production methods ensure highly efficient and cost effective solutions to a range of filtration and separation problems. Our products comply with national and international API/EI standards, including the latest editions of API / EI 1581, 1583 and 1590.
We are proud of having the largest, most modern aviation fuel test rig of its' kind, enabling continued product development and dynamic testing of filter elements and systems, under controlled conditions, to meet customer needs.
Our filtration and separation products make flying safer. The main markets are aviation, military, marine and industrial fuel filtration solutions.
Aviation Fuel Filtration Specialists - 06/12/2011
FAUDI Aviation's DPGUARD - Pilots safely land Airbus after engine failure Two pilots saved the lives of more than 300 passengers by safely landing an Airbus after experiencing engine failure upon its descent to Hong Kong.
Eight people were injured after Cathay Pacific flight CX780 from Surabaya in Indonesia made its emergency landing at Hong Kong International Airport.
The two pilots, both Australian, lost the use of the left hand engine shortly after the Cathay Pacific flight CX780 from Indonesia reached cruising altitude after taking off for the four hour 40 minute flight.
As an Airbus is able to fly and land safely on one engine provided if in range of an alternative airport, it continued towards Hong Kong with 322 passengers and crew.
However upon descent, the second engine repeatedly cut out, meaning the plane effectively glided at high speed towards the airport as the pilots struggled to keep it on course. As the plane was making its final approach over the sea, they managed to get enough thrust in the right hand engine to carry it safely to the runway.
Landing at a high speed, the pilots then managed to employ reverse thrust as well as other braking devices to bring the plane to a stop, setting the tyres on fire as they did so but bringing the aircraft to a safe standstill. Eight people were injured during the incident, but the majority were caused by people hurting themselves as they jumped down the emergency slides to the ground.
„It was an amazing piece of piloting in extremely testing circumstances,“ a pilot colleague said. „One engine was shut down completely and the other was going on and off. They effectively landed the plane on half an engine.
at 10:19PM BST 13 Apr 2010 by Simon Parry in Hong Kong for “The Telegraph“ (Text shortened)
Fortunately no victims were reported on this incident because the crew could make a successfull emergency landing on the airport of Hong Kong. Nevertheless some people were injured when they left the aircraft on the emergency evacuating. The investigation reveiled that on the refueling on the airport of Surabaya a monitor element has collapsed unnoticed and thus Super Absorbent Material was released into the fuel system of the airbus. This contamination effected both engines so that the thrust decreased to 74% of engine no. 1 and 17% of engine no. 2.
To see the complete investigation report please click the following link or copy/paste it in your browser.
http://www.unpl.eu/upload/pdf/A330%20Cathay%20Accident%20Bulletin%201%202011.pdf
For us, as manufacturer of filter systems for aircraft refueling we ask ourselves the question, how can this happen? Usually refueling vehicles and dispensers are not equipped with a sensor system, which is able to recognises such cases. Thus also no automatic interruption of the refueling procedure can take place. Our experience shows that often the refueling crew do not have the necessary knowledge. In addition, small payments and often a high fluctuation do not boost the motivation of the staff in many countries. It is clear to us that these circumstances can be changed but not immediately. It remains for us to use automations which interrupts the refueling procedure in emergency immediately. In this case the flow rate was much less the maximum possible flow rate of the monitor vessel during refueling. A well known piston differential pressure gauge between entrance and exit of the vessel does not indicate the actual differential pressure dependent to the actual flow rate. Therefore an immediate rise of the (real) differential pressure cannot be noticed by the service people.
As mentioned in the investigation report:
“The recording and monitoring of the weekly differential pressure of the dispensers was not performed properly. The differential pressure reading, which was taken under low flow rates during refuelling operation, may not have correctly indicated the condition of the filter monitors“.
In such case the monitor elements can reachs very soon their maximum capacity and block. This, the real differential pressure cannot seen on the piston differential pressure gauge. For this reason, a collapsing of the elements due the exceeding defined bursting pressure is quite possible. In order to prevent such cases in the future, FAUDI Aviation developed a control unit named DPGUARD® which is able to monitor the real differential pressure depending of the actual flow rate and switch-off the refueling if necessary.