B747-400
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 165; Flight Crew Total 15374; Flight Crew Type 1746
Time Pressure
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Flight Crew Overcame Equipment Problem; General Maintenance Action
Aircraft; Human Factors
Crew Desk called [before sunrise] to notify us our pick up was pushed one hour later due to late inbound flight. Found out inbound flight was late due to a flaps issue on the ZZZZ-ZZZ flight. Our pick up was midday. We arrived at Operations 1.5 hours prior to departure. Were told our inbound plane on ZZZ-ZZZZ1 had the same flap issue and had to [have priority handling]. We knew we were going to be close to duty day time limits. Checked our times and noted Crew Scheduling had arbitrarily changed our show time to 30 minutes later than actual (an issue I've had before with scheduling). We notified Dispatch of this issue to be sure our duty day wouldn't be broken to remain legal.Station personal told us we would be flying to ZZZ1 if we couldn't get out of town before our local duty time. Maintenance determined the part which needed replacing. It took quite a while to get company approval to get the part appropriated. Flight attendants went illegal and were shuffled to the ZZZ2 flight. ZZZ2 flight attendant crew got assigned to our plane (ZZZ1). Part was installed and checked ok. Our duty time still wasn't changed by Crew Scheduling. Captain called on duty Chief Pilot who didn't really have a grasp on International operations and gave us the run around. Chief Pilot finally agreed to change our duty start time at Captain's insistence. Loading took quite a while. We took off to ZZZ1 three minutes before critical duty time.Due to the chronic issue with the flaps; we elected to configure the aircraft early into ZZZ1. I was hand flying. Called for flaps 10. While going from flaps 5 to flaps 10; we got an EICAS message 'Flaps Primary'. We notified ATC and went around. Captain and Relief pilot worked the checklist while I flew the aircraft. We completed the checklist; asked ATC for the longest runway; and returned for landing. We notified the cabin. The EICAS message went away when going from flaps 10 to flaps 20. We had an uneventful landing at ZZZ1.I've been on this aircraft for a little more than two years. This is the second time I've had to run this checklist. I've seen five different B747 aircraft with same or similar flaps issues. To improve dispatch reliability and customer experience; it would behoove us to take preventative maintenance to address these common issues. Kudos to the Captain who ensured we had the correct duty times. He also demonstrated good leadership skills by tackling our irregular operation in a safe; logical; and SOP manner. Aircraft system malfunction.
Reporter stated a flap sensor was replaced after the squawk for a similar no flap movement discrepancy. The previous flight crew had to land high speed without functioning flaps. He flew the same B747-400 outbound back to the States and experienced flaps stuck at 10. Using their Checklist; they went to Alternate Electric Flaps and as the flaps started to move electrically from 10 to 20 flap position; the flaps hydraulic drive system came back on and the EICAS FLAPS PRIMARY message went away. No further problems. No information on subsequent flap repairs regarding their incident.
First Officer (FO) reported a chronic issue of no flap movement when commanded on this and other company B747-400 aircraft. While going from Flaps 5 to Flaps 10; they observed an EICAS message 'FLAPS PRIMARY'. Flaps stopped and would not move until they used the Alternate Flaps Electric. As the flaps moved electrically from 10 to 20; the flaps hydraulic drive system came back on and the EICAS FLAPS PRIMARY message went away.