Unbelievable Offduty Delta Mechanic notices GA Maintenance Issue from the Ground

I don't think this is an uncommon issue. One evening at my airport I was watching a Bonanza taxi out for takeoff and something just didn't seem right. Took me a second to realize it was because his red wingtip light was on the right.
 
I now have a new thing to check next time I'm at the hangar.
 
Unless of course you're in that large majority of the world (Region A) where it's the other way around. If I remember correctly it's only the Americas and sundry other places (all in Region B) that your rule will work. After decades of sailing in both Australia and Britain, it was difficult at first for me to adapt to the very strange colour reversal while sailing the Chesapeake back in the 1990's…
This explains all of those boaters I supposed to be idiots while navigating channels and the Intracoastal.

:p
 
I saw the same thing once on a boat a few years ago. I was Officer of the Deck entering Port Aransas, Texas and it was that time of morning that all the charter boats were headed out and it was before sunrise. This one pair of lights just didn't make sense in all the noise and as he passed me port-to-port I realized the problem. His sidelights were reversed. I called him up on the radio and he was surprised to confirm the lights were indeed wrong and nobody had noticed up to that point. His boat had been renewed after Hurricane Harvey which was a little over a year prior to that. It's certainly an easy-to-make mistake that can turn into a much larger problem...but it seems to go unnoticed when it happens.
When I first started reading your post, I thought you were talking about us. 10 years ago, I helped move a friend's sailboat from Clear Lake to Corpus Christi. We checked the lights the night before we did the overnight offshore leg from Freeport to Corpus and they worked. Next evening, offshore the bow light did not work. Two of us clipped onto the jack lines and went to the bow to investigate. Light bulb was good but had to disassemble the light to clean corrosion. Light was out over the water and we were very careful not to drop anything. A month later someone at the dock told the owner that his red and green light were wrong. We put it back together wrong!

When we first left Freeport we had a nice breeze and sailed until close to sunset and the wind died. When we went to start the engine it would not start. I got a hammer and banged on the starter solenoid while someone else was trying to crank it, and it started! I came up and said we were not shutting it down until we were tied up in Corpus. Then the alternator belt started slipping so back down to the engine and I tightened the belt with the engine running. We had a few other issues and should have stayed in the intercoastal but that would have added two more days to the trip. I don't think the owner ever changed out the solenoid, he just hit it with the hammer when it would not start.
 
Last night I had the most unbelievable and unique exchange on Facebook Messenger. I had just flown home to KLZU from KPNS, where I and two friends had just flown down for the day to watch the Blue Angels Homecoming Airshow. I crossed the KATL Bravo at 4500 feet, where I passed over this gentleman's house. Around 9pm I got the first message.

BEGINNING
Delta: If you own N868US, your plane flew over my house at roughly 19:45 tonight and your red and green nav lights are backwards. Please double check them.

Me: Where do you live, how did you assess that, how did you get my contact information?

Delta: Ok I live in Fayetteville ga
I was looking for a usps package on my porch when I saw the plane
I looked up the plane on flightradar24 to get the N number. I looked up N number on FAA website gave me the company that owned the plane. I look up the llc and your name was the agent. Looked the name up on fb and I saw you flying an airplane and hoped it might be you. I'm a mechanic at Delta airlines.

Me: Wow, that’s some great detective work. Please forgive my questions, we have been victims of identity fraud multiple times so I am cautious with any anonymous contact. You are exactly right. I had LED lights installed last year at my annual and it looks like they put them on backwards. The year before they reinstalled my nose gear wheel backwards. I’m sure as a Delta mechanic you perform at a much higher level than my shop. Incredibly perceptive of you to catch that. BTW, I actually had a Delta pilot on board with me tonight. We were returning from Pensacola where we saw the Blue Angels today. Thanks for reaching out.

Delta: I'm glad I could help. As an aviation enthusiast my whole life and second generation delta mechanic, I'm always looking to the sky. Fly safe.

Me: Thanks. I just texted my Delta pilot friend and told him Delta has some great mechanics.
END

I've been flying with the lights on the wrong sides for over a year! Needless to say, I will be thanking Delta for employing some fantastic A&P's with incredible attention to detail.


You might want to see if he has his A&P. Sounds like you need to replace your current one.
:)
 
Isn't it great to know that there are conscientious mechanics working for one of the major airlines who, when off duty, are still thinking about safety? And isn't it great to know that those who take that safety to such a level of concern that they would take the time while away from work to reach out to someone they did not know, and frankly may never meet, to let them know of a simple yet possibly tragic mistake?

How many other people both on the line and while flying, have seen these lights and never said a thing - because they were not thinking about safety?

Delta Airlines should be proud to have this person representing their operations and maintenance.
Agreed - With the help of my Delta pilot friend, I notified Delta's director of maintenance operations.

For all of the sanctimonious comments about missing this reversal, tell me you've never missed something simple. Anyone would assume the shop would get such a simple task correct. People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. I'll argue the better pilot is the one that admits they are not 100% perfect.
 
I'll argue the better pilot is the one that admits they are not 100% perfect.
Yeah, I agree. In the risk management side of things, this isn't much to worry about. I don't think I've ever really cared about checking it for placement. Most people flying around at night are going to have more sophisticated threat detection than reliance on wingtip lighting color. The rotating beacon gives me all the info I really need, but even that is barely helpful with ADS-b coupled with Flight Following providing more accurate information.
 
I've just always thought that I was red, hot pilot thus red on my side. Silly but it's worked for 52 years of flying.
 
Years ago (circa 1988), there was an old Lockheed Constellation flying out of MIA running cargo back and forth to the Dominican Republic. One evening, right at dusk, I was standing at the departure end of 09L when this Connie took off. At first, I couldn't believe my eyes, but I noticed that the red and green navigation lights had been reversed. I drove over to the freight facility and told the manager about the lights and he promised that he'd call ahead to the DR to have the lights fixed while the airplane was on the ground there. Sure enough, as I watched the plane take off the next evening, I noticed that the nav lights were correct.
How could that even happen? It wasn't colored LEDs back then; you'd have to remove the colored lens, climb down the ladder, and carry it 126' to the opposite wingtip, and bring the other one back.
 
So you preflight your plane and you never noticed the lights where wrong?
 
Agreed - With the help of my Delta pilot friend, I notified Delta's director of maintenance operations.

For all of the sanctimonious comments about missing this reversal, tell me you've never missed something simple. Anyone would assume the shop would get such a simple task correct. People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. I'll argue the better pilot is the one that admits they are not 100% perfect.
Hubris is easy. Especially when we think ****s figured out. I work with pilots so I’m used to dealing with sanctimonious behavior. I’m told by family/fiends outside of aviation it’s not just pilots. I don’t believe them because I know pilots are special.
 
How could that even happen? It wasn't colored LEDs back then; you'd have to remove the colored lens, climb down the ladder, and carry it 126' to the opposite wingtip, and bring the other one back.
Easy. Bob takes the lights off on Monday. Steve replaces the lights on Wednesday.
 
For all of the sanctimonious comments about missing this reversal, tell me you've never missed something simple. Anyone would assume the shop would get such a simple task correct. People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. I'll argue the better pilot is the one that admits they are not 100% perfect.
Anyone who’s never been taught to check light colors are correct might want to change instructor as well.

if you’d given the impression that this isn’t something you should have caught at some point over the last year, you probably wouldn’t feel the need to defend your lack of attention.
 
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How could that even happen? It wasn't colored LEDs back then; you'd have to remove the colored lens, climb down the ladder, and carry it 126' to the opposite wingtip, and bring the other one back.
I’ve forgotten what I had started and engaged in at least 3 other tasks in that time/distance. I’m not going judgy on this one!

Bravo to that guy!
 
When I first started reading your post, I thought you were talking about us. 10 years ago, I helped move a friend's sailboat from Clear Lake to Corpus Christi. We checked the lights the night before we did the overnight offshore leg from Freeport to Corpus and they worked. Next evening, offshore the bow light did not work. Two of us clipped onto the jack lines and went to the bow to investigate. Light bulb was good but had to disassemble the light to clean corrosion. Light was out over the water and we were very careful not to drop anything. A month later someone at the dock told the owner that his red and green light were wrong. We put it back together wrong!

When we first left Freeport we had a nice breeze and sailed until close to sunset and the wind died. When we went to start the engine it would not start. I got a hammer and banged on the starter solenoid while someone else was trying to crank it, and it started! I came up and said we were not shutting it down until we were tied up in Corpus. Then the alternator belt started slipping so back down to the engine and I tightened the belt with the engine running. We had a few other issues and should have stayed in the intercoastal but that would have added two more days to the trip. I don't think the owner ever changed out the solenoid, he just hit it with the hammer when it would not start.
Nothing works quite like percussive maintenance! haha Glad you made it home! I was stationed at Port Aransas in 2011-2014 and was on a Corpus Christi-based patrol boat from '09-'11 so we probably passed each other once or twice.
 
You might want to see if he has his A&P. Sounds like you need to replace your current one.
:)

I'd have also made the mistake of, when asking my mechanic for his credentials, not noticing that he presented me with a P&A certificate.
 
Agreed - With the help of my Delta pilot friend, I notified Delta's director of maintenance operations.

For all of the sanctimonious comments about missing this reversal, tell me you've never missed something simple. Anyone would assume the shop would get such a simple task correct. People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. I'll argue the better pilot is the one that admits they are not 100% perfect.
 
Because you were inverted!

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk
 
My last assignment was on Security Hill at what was then Kelly AFB. In the parking lot of the Air Intelligence Command there is a C-47 on permanent static display. It had the red navigation light lens on the right wing and the green lens on the left the last time I saw it up close. I wonder how many people pass that airplane every day and never noticed the error.
 
I only work on lowly CRJs so I may not be one of them there edumakated Delta AMTs but he's wrong as are you. The lamps are all the same: CLEAR/WHITE. The LENS is colored.

LAMPS are covered in ATA 33
The LENS is ATA 57

So if you swap your lamps you have not fixed anything.
 
I only work on lowly CRJs so I may not be one of them there edumakated Delta AMTs but he's wrong as are you. The lamps are all the same: CLEAR/WHITE. The LENS is colored.

LAMPS are covered in ATA 33
The LENS is ATA 57

So if you swap your lamps you have not fixed anything.
He said they were new LEDs lights he had installed. He didn't say what model of lights, but many (most?) LED nav lights ARE actually colored, not the lenses, which are clear.

For example,
https://aeroleds.com/product-categories/wingtip-tail-lights/
 
I only work on lowly CRJs so I may not be one of them there edumakated Delta AMTs but he's wrong as are you. The lamps are all the same: CLEAR/WHITE. The LENS is colored.

LAMPS are covered in ATA 33
The LENS is ATA 57

So if you swap your lamps you have not fixed anything.
More edumacasion needed? ;)
 
A man walks into a bar and asks for some red port. The bartender says "I'm sorry sir, we have no RED PORT LEFT". Heard that decades ago, now that's the only way I remember it.
I don't know if it was from you or somebody else, but I saw that on PoA a while back and now I'll never forget it. I don't drink and never have, but the pneumonic works!
 
The incandescent gets the colour from the lens, not the lamp. An LED gets the colour from the LED itself and not the lens.

A coloured lens with a coloured LED' even the same colour, is not desirable. I don't recall exactly what aspect gets degraded (colour, brightness, general happiness).

This what I was told a long while ago by a tech rep.

The LED position lights on the aircraft I look after are all coloured with clear lenses.
 
I only work on lowly CRJs so I may not be one of them there edumakated Delta AMTs but he's wrong as are you.

i have yet to see any red or green leds at my base or any of the Delta stations


post a photo of lets say a 737 with these colored leds
It seems once again you missed the context of the OPs post. It was not a Delta aircraft but a Delta mechanic that noted a GA aircraft in flight with reversed positions lights.

So why would a Delta CRJ or 737 position light be relevant to the discussion?

But since you brought it up, which General Aviation position LED light assembly below is the RED one and which is the GREEN one?

1703609522606.png
 
A man walks into a bar and asks for some red port. The bartender says "I'm sorry sir, we have no RED PORT LEFT". Heard that decades ago, now that's the only way I remember it.
Funny, my brain teaser for nav lights is similar; back in the ‘80s my dad was whipping up an evening cocktail that was sorta crazy bright green. He said it was called a ”Starboard Light”... so yep, that’s how I remember!

 
But since you brought it up, which General Aviation position LED light assembly below is the RED one and which is the GREEN one?

1703609522606.png
The one with an 'R' in the part number is red and the one with 'G' in the part number is green? :)
 
The one with an 'R' in the part number is red and the one with 'G' in the part number is green? :)
I'm guessing the part #'s have "L" and "R" rather than red and green - which could be how it got reversed if the installer thought R was for Red vs Right.
 
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