MIKE BRODERICK | CONTRIBUTING WRITER


AND THERE I WAS — PART 2 A LESSON ON COMPLACENCY


“And There I Was” Part II? Yup and this time we talk about complacency. In the previous “And There I Was…,” I led you on a nostalgic accounting of my first endeavor as a mechanic working on my parent’s unsuspecting 55 Chevy. That mechanical episode was the launch event to my ultimate profession as an A&P. It was also the lessons of that maintenance saga which was the foundation for my “KAPT” (Knowledge, Attitude, Procedure and Technique) philosophy which, I am embarrassed to say, had I applied in this “And there I Was” tale, there would have been no tale to tell here. Although not one of my finest moments, the following narrative was one of the more beneficial and indelible lessons in my continuing education as an A&P. This career lesson was delivered via the school of hard knocks and was served with a generous dollop humility. I strayed from my own mechanical philosophy of KAPT. I had become complacent! And as I was reminded by this incident, complacency is an insidious, treacherous and omnipresent opponent to KAPT and to safe maintenance! So, let’s get started! “And there I was, upside down, air metals in my face,


oil pressure dropping, bandits all around me, almost out of ammunition……” Pilots get the coolest “And there I was stories” don’t


they? We A&P technicians, however, are into fixing rather than flying, thus have a rather mundane career when compared to the pilot. After all, our mechanical stuff is designed to work with no surprises, which conveniently allows pilots plenty of opportunity to involve themselves in some exciting flight mischief thus producing those cool “And there I was” stories. However, as the maintainer, all we need to do is follow the KAPT formula and our “And there I was” stories are usually uneventful. But, should we deviate (either by omission or commission) from that recipe, our “there I was” story can go from, at the minimum, embarrassing and chaotic, to the maximum of totally catastrophic. With that being said, I would qualify the following “And there I was” story as embarrassing and chaotic, but thankfully not catastrophic!


And there I was — standing next to the Bell 206 B3 on its first start after a 100 / 300 hour inspection, watching partly in fascination but mainly in horror as a bright orange flame that seemed to be about 100 ft long was escaping from the exhaust stack and streaking aft, parallel to the tail boom. Combined with this pyrotechnic show was a mist of hot turbine oil drizzling on me and the other technician stationed on the opposite side of the aircraft “What the F#$K?” was my first thought. The engine was about 20 seconds or so into its start sequence, close to reaching N1 idle speed of 64%. I was on the right side of the aircraft so it was a quick dash to the pilot, frantically waving my hands across my throat in the “cut the engine” gesture. While the engine was decelerating the flames quickly receded. Now the pilot of course was also expressing that “What the….?” question as well. I opened the door and asked two critical questions: Did we have oil pressure? What was the TOT? “YES, in the green!!” to question #1 and about 770 TOT to question #2…Whew!! “Ok, Now” I said. “Engage the starter again but with no ignition or fuel this time….. He did and this time a far less exciting cloud of white smoke swirled from the exhaust stack accompanied by that persistent drizzle of oil. Hmmmmm!! Next, it was obvious that somehow oil had been mixing with the igniting or ignited fuel. The level of the oil tank was lower than it should have been… .”Hmmmm” again I mused. “Self,” I said “We are not scavenging oil.” (Ya think?)


Ok, so why not and which area was not scavenging and what had we done during the just completed inspection that was interfering with the oil scavenge process?! Keeping with my reliable “KIS” (keep it simple) plan for troubleshooting, my technical comrade in arms and I reviewed our previous work, methodically narrowing our search to the offending area. First, we checked the compressor diffuser vent orifice — no oil residue. Good! The oil system within the compressor section was ok.


14


HelicopterMaintenanceMagazine.com December 2019 | January 2020


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44