September 23

Hamish - This ones for you....
(My oh My.....You are in for a treat!)

This has to be one of the most extensively rotted out pieces of Aircraft Structure I have witnessed in the past 9 years of my aviation induced delirium.....



A Dirty specimen.... sludgy-slime and ancient toilet water sloshing up and down the Stringer channels, marinating deep inside the rivet holes, leaching into the grains of the once light but strong aluminum extrusion.
Exfoliating from the inside out underneath rows of hot avionics equipment and air conditioning ducts this section was left dark and dank, sweating and freezing, lightly stinking of an acidic ammonia-ish smell that can only be aluminum corrosion.



My pupils dilate, my heart races.....
A blowout of such epic proportions it could make an inspector weak at the knees....



- Lying in a soft bed of white dust....
it's large gaping hole, flakes of dissolution like petals of a flower...

- A True Blowout - as beautiful as it is frightening.



The only thing left to do is warm up the rivet guns and drill her out. A complete stringer replacement is the only remedy to this sick bit of festering non-ferrous metal.

You see, it's not "Rust" my friends... Rust Never Sleeps.......




.....And neither does Aluminum Exfoliation Corrosion.