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The purpose of this paper is to describe the operation of a review into service user involvement within mental health services, which was led by service users using appreciative enquiry (AE).

The paper gives a descriptive account of the operation of the project and highlights the barriers to its success and how these were addressed. The project itself used AE methods to overcome some of the challenges to engaging service users around improvement activity. The approach was different to the conventional application of AE as people were engaged individually through interviews and their views generalised collectively by the service user team conducting the interviews.

The project findings are reported through considering the recommendations made as a result of the work but the wider aims of challenging power relationships and developing service user leadership are also discussed.

The paper suggests that replicating and developing the use of AE driven by service users is a positive tool in empowering recipients of mental health services.

The author suggests that this method could be a valuable tool in meeting the current UK Government policy of empowering local communities to take greater control of public service provision.

This project is an example of enabling leadership to arise from the grassroots of an organisation, turning the conventional concept of leadership on its head and challenges senior staff as to who might know best about how to improve services. It represents a novel approach to taking forward the empowerment agenda widely supported in Western democracies.

The aim of the paper is to provide an economically viable solution for the blade repair process. There is a continual increase in the repair market, which requires an increased level of specialised technology to reduce the repair cost and to increase productivity of the process.Design/methodology/approach – This paper introduces the aerospace component defects to be repaired. Current repair technologies including building‐up and machining technology are reviewed. Through the analysis of these available technologies, this paper proposes an integrated repair strategy through information integration and processes concentration.Findings – Provides detailed description and discussion for the repair system, including 3D digitising system, repair inspection, reverse engineering‐based polygonal modelling, and adaptive laser cladding and adaptive machining process.Originality/value – This paper describes a 3D non‐contact measurement‐based repair integration system, and provides a solution to create an individual blade‐oriented nominal model to achieve adaptive repair process (laser cladding/machining) and automated inspection.

Inspection is an activity that controls the outgoing product quality and involves search, detection and measurement or diagnosis. Traditionally, inspection tasks have been allocated to humans. Attempts to automate industrial inspection in order to eliminate errors and alleviate monotony have faced difficulties due to technological limitations and/or prohibitive implementation costs. An occasional compromise is partial automation (hybrid inspection). Reviews published research in manual, hybrid and automated inspection to understand the current research status.

Special probes were developed to test rotor blades for fatigue cracks. These probes utilize ultrasonic surface waves which are highly sensitive to fatigue cracks. The dimensions of the probes were kept small to make possible the testing of blades without the necessity of dismounting. The probes are built up from conventional commercial probes by attaching some small auxiliary equipment to them, which is very easy to manufacture. Searching blades with these probes is more reliable and less time‐consuming than with previously available methods.

ANYONE ENGAGED in aircraft engineering who has visited the Air Canada maintenance base at Montreal to observe the layout, equipment and operating system will have bound to come away greatly impressed with the facilities and efficiency of the plant. In the writer's opinion it is one of the most advanced airline maintenance bases in the world.

Duralumin airscrews are giving splendid service on aircraft operating in all parts of the world, and particularly in U.S.A. and Canada, but in some cases operators are not securing maximum efficiency from them owing to neglect on their part in properly assembling them after they have been removed from the engine. Each large operator should be provided with a first‐class checking plate, protractor and balancing stand in order to service airscrews satisfactorily. The following points are often overlooked by users of detachable blade airscrews.

EC-135P2+ helicopters operated by Polish Medical Air Rescue are highly exposed to environmental particles entering engines when performing helicopter emergency medical services. This paper aims to assess the effectiveness of inlet barrier filters installed to protect the engines, including their impact on maintenance.

The organisation adopted a comprehensive set of measures to predict and limit the impact of dust ingestion including visual inspections, health management and engine trend monitoring based on ground power checks’ (GPC) results. Three alternative particle separation solutions were considered. Finally, helicopter inlets were modified to allow the selected filter system to be installed, which reduced the number of particles ingested by the engine and prevented from premature overhauls.

The analyses carried out enabled not only the selection of the optimal filtration solution and its seamless implementation into the fleet but also confirmed its efficiency. After installing the filters, engines’ lifetime is extended from 500 to 4,500 flight hours while operating costs and the number of maintenance tasks was reduced significantly.

Lessons learned from operational experience show that a well-matched particle separation system can mitigate accelerated engine deterioration even if the platform is continuously exposed to environmental particles. The remaining useful life of engines can be predicted using performance models and data from GPC.