After every flight, UPS pilots fill out a form, called a ‘gripe sheet, which tells mechanics about problems with the aircraft. The mechanics correct the problems, document their repairs on the form, and then pilots review the gripe sheets before the next flight. Here are some actual maintenance complaints submitted by UPS pilots (“P”) and the solutions by maintenance engineers (“S”).

By the way, UPS is the only major airline that has never had a flight crash.

P: Left inside main tire almost needs replacement.
S: Almost replaced left inside main tire.

P: Test flight OK, except auto-land very rough.
S: Auto-land not installed on this aircraft.

P: Something loose in cockpit
S: Something tightened in cockpit

P: Dead bugs on windshield.
S: Live bugs on back-order.

P: Autopilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200 feet per minute descent
S: Cannot reproduce problem on ground.

P: Evidence of leak on right main landing gear.
S: Evidence removed.

P: DME volume unbelievably loud.
S: DME volume set to more believable level.

P: Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick.
S: That’s what friction locks are for.

P: IFF inoperative in OFF mode.
S: IFF always inoperative in OFF mode.

P: Suspected crack in windshield.
S: Suspect you’re right.

P: Number 3 engine missing.
S: Engine found on right wing after brief search.

P: Aircraft handles funny.
S: Aircraft warned to: straighten up, fly right, and be serious.

P: Target radar hums.
S: Reprogrammed target radar with lyrics.

P: Mouse in cockpit.
S: Cat installed.

P: Noise coming from under instrument panel. Sounds like a midget pounding on something with a hammer.
S: Took hammer away from midget


COMMENTS / 13 COMMENTS

[...] list of UPS pilots’ problem reports posted at Coming Anarchy is the funniest thing I’ve read in a long [...]

The Glittering Eye » Blog Archive » Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One (UPS Edition) added these pithy words on Jul 12 08 at 12:29 am

[...] to clean your monitors Posted on July 12, 2008 by Joe Tobacco via Dave Schuler, this list of pilots complaints about UPS aircraft, and the accompanying maintenance crews responses is an instant classic. Keep [...]

Prepare to clean your monitors « Cadillac Tight added these pithy words on Jul 13 08 at 2:43 am

[...] finally, for all of you pilots out there, some hilarious examples of a failure in communication between pilot and maintenance, taken from [...]

Failure Links | Schaefer's Blog added these pithy words on Jul 18 08 at 5:13 am

Classic. The pilot-mechanic relationship is like this at every airline, I think. They’re the two best-trained employee groups and they naturally like to bounce their problems off of each other. My father is a retired aircraft mechanic and there was never any shortage of “stupid pilot stories” at the dinner table when I was growing up.

Joe Jones added these pithy words on 12 Jul 08 at 12:30 am

I saw a similar sheet at work attributing these to Qantas. Ah, the joys of the internets . . .

Michael added these pithy words on 12 Jul 08 at 12:30 am

It’s such innocent humour – I love it!!

Alfred Russel Wallace added these pithy words on 12 Jul 08 at 1:47 am

Very funny! :-)

Dan tdaxp added these pithy words on 12 Jul 08 at 3:48 am

Wow. I literally laughed out loud at almost every one. Great find!

kende added these pithy words on 12 Jul 08 at 4:37 am

This is one of many versions of this that has been going around for the past decade or so.

Arcane added these pithy words on 12 Jul 08 at 5:02 am

Well, Arcane, good to know that UPS mechanics don’t have to fix the same problems over and over. Maybe that’s why they never crash! They fix it, it stays fixed.

jay added these pithy words on 13 Jul 08 at 12:11 am

LOL

Adrian added these pithy words on 14 Jul 08 at 8:17 pm

Jay,
Have you ever considered the fact that maybe, just maybe, UPS has never had a crash is because the average age of their fleet is 12.1 years, less than half the national average for commercial aircraft? I’m an aircraft maintenance officer in the military and, having worked on a fleet of aircraft where the newest was 42 years old, I can assure you that age is absolutely key.

Arcane added these pithy words on 15 Jul 08 at 6:56 am

Haha a few of my friends work at Air NZ they will love this!

James added these pithy words on 18 Jul 08 at 11:58 am

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UPS Pilots & Mechanics

Posted on 11 Jul 08 by Curzon. Subscribe to follow comments on this post. 13 comments. Add your thoughts or trackback from your own site.

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