Advance GSE Blog

The Aircraft Towbar: Is It Time for Replacement?

Posted: 09/25/16
The aircraft towing personnel is the one to pay attention to the importance of high quality Towbar products. The same can go for the purchasing agents and the manager ops. The purchaser is often very sensitive towards the equipments and its price. The buyers will find eachand every option and alternative for the cheapest price in the market. A cost of around 50 million dollar jet will always seem skipping on the heads of many intelligent people in our industry. And that is until they find it is too late.The aforesaid lack of appreciation for a quality Towbar will also often find its way into the safeguarding department. If you are one of the pilots you might have seen thousands of Towbars which have expired a long time ago and they are still being in use. The reason can be the restoration. Towbars bars are often neglected as a step child in the GSE world and often maltreated by the owners or may be the caretakers. A proper (PM) or the Preventive maintenance which can secure the jet to the tug should never be neglected. A Proper schedule should always be maintained on an aircraft including handling heads, equipments and Towbars as they are subject to wear and tear. Towbar and Head: Service of Commercial and Airline: There is a 10 year cycle which has been recommended by the AERO Specialists for the replacement of Towbar and Towbar heads for any airline and related operations. Towbar systems rated at 200,000 lbs are applicable for the recommendation. Rx system and larger towbars or MTOW capacity and greater. This is something important while talking about GSE. The corporate GA & FBO Towbar Head service Life: AERO Specialist recommends for the Corporate, General Aviation or the FBO that their must be a replacement of Head Towbars in every 10 year cycle. The corporate GA & FBO Towbar service Life: It is recommended by the AERO specialists that all the Towbars bars which are used in corporate, GA (General aviation) or FBO should have a replacement in cycle of every 5 years. This is applicable to all Towbar systems which are rated up to 150,000 lbs. Towbar series (TB4, TB2.5, TB125, TB3 and TB1). The recommendations which have been stated above have been on the basis of preventive maintenance program (PM) and the proper periodic inspection (PPI). The completed information and the details are provided by the AERO Specialist equipments and its manual. There are certain applications, such as private hangars which have lower frequency in the movement of the aircraft and thus there is a lesser usage of the Towbar. On the other hand talking about the busy air terminal gates or FBOs has a high frequency of using Towbars. It is very important for an Operator to have a proper documentation of their scheduled preventive maintenance inspection and the repairs included. There is a Standard Operating procedure (SOP) which supports in reviewing the wear and tears, the records of past repairs and the frequency of the use and this is necessary to help the organization develop and grow.