TROUBLESHOOTING
classmates in my class – one an A&P right out of school who was attending the course thanks to an AWAM scholarship, and the other an Army mechanic who has been turning wrenches for a few years. We all learned a lot during the course of the 2 ½ days we were there!
What is Troubleshooting? If you look at Wikipedia, troubleshooting is defi ned as: “a form of problem solving, often applied to repair failed products or processes. It is a logical, systematic search for the source of a problem in order to solve it, and make the product or process operational again. Troubleshooting is needed to identify the symptoms. Determining the most likely cause is a process of elimination—eliminating potential causes of a problem. Finally, troubleshooting requires confi rmation that the solution restores the product or process to its working state.” That is basically what we are looking at when we
are troubleshooting a helicopter system. We have a malfunction. We want to take a logical, systematic approach to fi nd the source of the problem and take the necessary steps to fi x the problem. But where do we begin? There are four basic steps we need to use when troubleshooting any system: 1) Defi ne the situation 2) Find the paths of infl uence 3) Test 4) Take corrective action
Defi ne the Situation To eff ectively troubleshoot a system, it is important that we completely understand what the situation is. The discrepancy written up in the logbook is a good place to start. Unfortunately, sometimes pilots don’t accurately defi ne what the situation is. “Widget is not working” is an example. This is where communicating with the pilot can help us better understand the situation. When did the discrepancy occur? Did the widget fail in fl ight? Was it the pilot or copilot widget? Were there any additional faults (did a circuit breaker pop)? Once we have completely
defi ned the situation, we can fi nd the paths of infl uence.
Paths of Infl uence This is where many mechanics get in trouble. They have defi ned the situation, and decide to go out to the aircraft and “fi x” it. “I’ve seen that widget system fail before,” they might think. “It’s got to be the whatyamacallit that’s broken. I’ll go change it.” So they change out the whatyamacallit, and lo and behold, the widget system is still inoperative. This is like a crap shoot. If there are eight diff erent components that are paths of infl uence to the widget system, he or she might get lucky every now and then by going straight to the whatyamacallit and replacing it. But chances are high it can be something else. Then what? Go change another component because that could be the problem? Using this type of “shotgun” approach is an easy way to waste both time and money. And our employers and/or customers aren’t happy when we waste their time and money. This is why determining the paths of infl uence is an
important second step to good troubleshooting skills. In fact, I would say it is THE most important step of the troubleshooting process. Notice how our lead photo doesn’t show a mechanic testing wires or components? Before he goes to the helicopter, he digs into the manuals to understand the
Barfield
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www.barfieldinc.com June | July 2016
HelicopterMaintenanceMagazine.com 21
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