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 Savvy
Owner Notebook:
Mechanicals On The Road
Nothing is more exasperating to an aircraft owner than
encountering a mechanical problem while far from home base. Here are
some tips for dealing with such problems, and preparing for them
ahead of time.
by Mike Busch (mike.busch@savvyaviator.com)
 Aircraft problems are never fun, but they're ten times more frustrating when
they occur while you're on a trip, far from the security of your mechanic,
toolbox and hangar. That goes double if you use your airplane for serious
business transportation the way I do. I've flown at least several
transcontinental trips a year in small planes for the past 35 years, so I've had
a fair share of mechanical glitches away from home.
For some reason that I've never been able to explain, my on-the-road mechanicals
always seem to occur in out-of-the-way places between Friday night and Sunday
afternoon when parts and mechanics are difficult or impossible to find. I'm not
sure whether I'm just unlucky in this regard, or whether there's some
all-pervasive scientific law at work here. In any case, I've learned over the
years that the difference between minor disruption and major trauma can hinge on
being prepared to deal with such problems.
Service Information
Perhaps the single most important preparation you can make is to have ready
access to the information you'll need to deal with a mechanical problem. Even if
you're lucky enough to find a mechanic to help you on Saturday night or Sunday
morning, but what's the chance he'll have the parts and service manuals for your
make and model? I've found that those two binders are the most important
"tools" you can bring with you on away trips, and have regretted it
when I've neglected to carry them. Nowadays, some aircraft manufacturers and
third-party publishers make these manuals available on CDROM, and that's a whole
lot more convenient than lugging the binders around with you. If you can get the
manuals for your aircraft on CDROM, consider burning a copy and leaving it in
the aircraft permanently it'll always be there when you need it.
What about the aircraft maintenance logbooks? Although having them along might
prove useful if the aircraft requires unscheduled maintenance away from home, I
personally avoid carrying them in the aircraft for several reasons. For one
thing, I don't want to risk them getting lost. For another, I'd really rather
not have them with me in case I'm ramp-checked by the FAA. Finally, in the event
of an accident, the NTSB would much prefer the aircraft maintenance records to
be kept in a nice safe place.
Another important thing to carry with you is a list of important who-ya-gonna-call
telephone numbers. My list includes a bunch of favorite parts suppliers, the
home and work numbers of several trusted A&Ps, and the tech support hotline
of my type club. I keep these numbers in three places: in the 200-number memory
of my cell phone, in the PDA I carry in my flight bag, and on the notebook
computer I never leave home without. But if you're not a computer junkie like I
am, a paper list also works just fine. It's also not a bad idea to carry a copy
of Trade-A-Plane, because it has ads and phone numbers for a ton of parts
vendors and specialty shops that you might need to call.
Survival Toolkit
If you can't find a mechanic to help you out, at least you should have access to
some tools so you can help yourself. A decent aircraft mechanic's toolbox weighs
at least 400 pounds and stands five feet tall, and obviously you can't carry
that much stuff around in the airplane. What you need is a small "survival
toolkit" containing only what you really might need to get your crippled
bird patched together enough to get home. Everything in your survival toolkit
should be small, lightweight and essential.
For example, the big roll-around toolbox I keep in my hangar contains 30
different screwdrivers plus a cordless Makita power-driver with two battery
packs and a quick charger. The survival toolkit I carry in the airplane has only
two screwdrivers: a ratcheting screwdriver handle with multiple replaceable
tips, and a stubby #2 Phillips for working in tight quarters. Likewise, my
roll-around has four entire drawers devoted to wrenches and sockets, while my
survival toolkit makes do with a small socket set, a small set of combination
wrenches, and (most important) a pair of Vice-Grip pliers.
In addition to basic tools, the survival toolkit should contain hard-to-find
aircraft stuff that would be difficult to buy at the local hardware store. Mine
has such things as safety-wire pliers, an aircraft spark plug socket, and a
special 7/16" offset wrench designed for removing and installing vacuum
pumps. For dealing with electrical problems, I carry a crimp tool, an assortment
of crimp splices and terminals, some aircraft-grade hookup wire, and a small
Radio Shack digital multimeter. I also carry a roll of high-quality duct tape,
and that's saved my bacon more times than I care to recount.
Naturally, you'll want to tailor the contents of your survival toolkit to
confirm with your own mechanical aptitude and ambition, not to mention the
useful load of your airplane. Because I fly a twin and do my own maintenance, my
kit is probably bigger than what most owner/pilots would want or need to carry
along.
I carry my kit in a pair of lightweight plastic "Stack-On" toolboxes
(like the red one pictured above),
one for tools and the other for spare parts and supplies. My friend and hangar
neighbor Chris carries his in a canvas "fish mouth" tool bag (pictured
at right).
Avoid metal boxes; they're heavy and can dent or scratch the airplane.
In addition to the survival toolkit I carry in the left-hand wing locker of my
Cessna 310, I also carry a mini-toolkit in the airplane glove box for dealing
with in-flight cockpit emergencies. This contains a small Vice-Grip pliers
(invaluable if a fuel selector handle or panel knob breaks off in your hand at
an inopportune moment), a small jeweler's screwdriver (for tightening loose
setscrews), and a few hex wrenches (for removing panel-mount radios from their
slide-in racks). My cockpit toolkit also contains a small adjustable wrench, a
folding pocket knife, a miniature flashlight, and a supply of AA- and 9-volt
alkaline batteries.
Spare Parts
My first airplane was a 1968 Cessna Skylane. It was a great airplane and a
marvel of simplicity compared to the turbocharged known-ice-equipped twin that I
now fly. But the Skylane used an old-fashioned vibrating-contact voltage
regulator, and had the nasty habit of "eating" regulators on a fairly
regular basis, always at the most inopportune possible moment, resulting in a
complete charging system failure. I recall the time the Skylane decided to do
this during a nighttime IFR departure from South Lake Tahoe airport, causing me
to beat a hasty retreat back to the airport and to spend a most uncomfortable
night on a hard wooden bench in the terminal building. The next morning, the
mechanic on the field said he didn't have a replacement regulator and had to
order one to be overnighted in, so I wound up stuck for another night.
After that unpleasant experience, I decided to buy an extra regulator and carry
it in the aircraft. It cost a few hundred bucks, didn't weigh much, didn't take
up much space, and was something I could change quickly using just a
screwdriver. (Not legally, since I wasn't an A&P back then, but you do what
you have to do.) I carried that spare regulator around in the baggage
compartment for several years (until I ultimately sold the airplane and bought a
retractable), but never actually used it because the airplane never
"ate" another regulator after that.
After the Skylane threw an alternator belt, I started carrying a spare one of
those, too. As it happened, I never actually needed that, either. I subsequently
learned that there is a all-pervasive general principle at work here: If you
carry a spare, you'll probably never need it. But if you don't, you'll surely
wish you did. (I don't fully understand why, but I think it has something to do
with General Relativity and string theory.)
The Cessna 310 I now fly uses solid-state regulators and doesn't seem to have an
appetite for eating them. It also has gear-driven alternators so there's no need
to carry spare belts. The 310 does have its own idiosyncrasies, however, so I do
carry a fair collection of spare parts with me when I travel. Most important
among these is a spare 442CW vacuum pump, since the plane seems to enjoy
snacking on those from time to time. (It once ate a vacuum pump when I was
flying into Sitka Island, Alaska, and ate another one the day before I was to
make a two-hour overwater flight across Cuba to Grand Cayman Island.) My
airplane uses the big 400-series pumps (needed to inflate the deice boots) and
few shops keep those in stock, so I think it's worth carrying a spare. I also
carry spare landing and taxi light lamps, an assortment of other 24-volt bulbs,
an RHB32E spark plug, an exhaust gasket, a few AN900-10 crush washers, and a box
of spare 3AG fuses.
I still don't look forward to mechanicals on the road. But now that I carry my
parts and service manuals, my who-ya-gonna-call telephone directory, a survival
toolkit, a few key spare parts and a big roll of duct tape, these incidents seem
to happen less often and be much easier to cope with when they do.
| Do you have a maintenance-related
"war story" that you'd like to share with fellow
aircraft owners? If you do, I'd
love to hear from you. The most interesting stories
I receive each month will be rewarded with highly prized Savvy
Aviator coffee mugs, so please include your
shipping address. Also be sure to let me know if you'd like
me to "change the names to protect the innocent"
when sharing your story. |
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