The Previous post would have highlighted that sheer negligence has the potential of creating disaster, of devastating proportions. So what can we do to prevent such a thing from happening? Besides stringent quality audits and the use of technology (again!), most civil aviation regulators have come up with a provision in their civil airworthiness requirements, to have flight control systems checked a second time (duplicate inspection) if they have been disturbed in any way during routine or non-routine maintenance. Essentially this means that once a task associated with flight controls is completed, a different engineer/mechanic/inspector will ensure the systems is rigged correctly, and certify the same in the maintenance log book with his/her signature. Kind of like taking-a-second-opinion.
This ensures that if indeed a person did somehow rig the system incorrectly, it can be caught out by a second (likely more qualified/experienced) ‘set-of-eyes’. As I’ve mentioned earlier, control system rigging is not an easy task. It requires a person working in a sometimes very physically constrained environment, with not the best lighting, not the greatest ventilation, and not the best angles of vision (sometimes inverted!). Add to it a whole bunch of cables with several other teeny-weeny bits of equipment, fluid hoses/tubing and wires surrounding the work area, and you have a readymade curry of errors waiting to happen! Not to mention the humongous degrees of patience required from the person working on the system. Speaking of patience, I have personally had the not-so-good experience of holding onto the lamp illuminating the work area of a cable tension setting job, and shifting a tiny bit to relieve a sore bum, only to have my engineer sit up, grab the lamp, and tell me to get the hell out of there!...and send someone else!!
So, it is a tough job, and I think I have successfully convinced you about that!
That also satisfies the claim that making error’s with the flight control system is not difficult.
Duplicate Inspection does alleviate this possibility to a large extent. But there have still been errors; just like the one pointed out earlier. So why does that happen?
Well, the answer to that may be a simple “complacency” issue to a slightly less-than-simple “complex/advanced/digital technology” which can confuse the daylights out of a slightly older generation person!
Having said that, things are being made “easier-to-grasp” nowadays and there is supplemental training all personnel are provided to cover the latest technologies. However, the complacency factor still exists. One thing, though, that can be completely avoided is inspectors “pencil-whipping” an item without a detailed examination!
More on complacency in the following posts.
This ensures that if indeed a person did somehow rig the system incorrectly, it can be caught out by a second (likely more qualified/experienced) ‘set-of-eyes’. As I’ve mentioned earlier, control system rigging is not an easy task. It requires a person working in a sometimes very physically constrained environment, with not the best lighting, not the greatest ventilation, and not the best angles of vision (sometimes inverted!). Add to it a whole bunch of cables with several other teeny-weeny bits of equipment, fluid hoses/tubing and wires surrounding the work area, and you have a readymade curry of errors waiting to happen! Not to mention the humongous degrees of patience required from the person working on the system. Speaking of patience, I have personally had the not-so-good experience of holding onto the lamp illuminating the work area of a cable tension setting job, and shifting a tiny bit to relieve a sore bum, only to have my engineer sit up, grab the lamp, and tell me to get the hell out of there!...and send someone else!!
So, it is a tough job, and I think I have successfully convinced you about that!
That also satisfies the claim that making error’s with the flight control system is not difficult.
Duplicate Inspection does alleviate this possibility to a large extent. But there have still been errors; just like the one pointed out earlier. So why does that happen?
Well, the answer to that may be a simple “complacency” issue to a slightly less-than-simple “complex/advanced/digital technology” which can confuse the daylights out of a slightly older generation person!
Having said that, things are being made “easier-to-grasp” nowadays and there is supplemental training all personnel are provided to cover the latest technologies. However, the complacency factor still exists. One thing, though, that can be completely avoided is inspectors “pencil-whipping” an item without a detailed examination!
More on complacency in the following posts.
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