Observations and proposed site changes

[TechRep]

I would like to thank this web site for the great community service it provides to my fellow stick actuators (pilots). This site is very focused on the pilot and for that I commend Flightinfo.com.

I am employed on the maintenance side of the house, you know those guys with high school educations that fix it. I would like to see at least some emphasis on the aircraft mechanic. I think it would be of great service to include someplace on this forum for aircraft mechanics to call home.

I think an area that allowed mechanics and maintenance support staff to give their feedback about layoffs, openings and general conversation about the industry would be well served.

The pilot and aircraft mechanic have a long history of a close but turbulent relationship. I think the community here should vote on such a drastic change but it would be much appreciated by your fellow brethren.

There are very few forums on the web that allow the aircraft mechanic to post industry feedback. Those forums that do are so inundated with union bickering that that’s just what they are union forums. I'm not negative against unions but it's important to have somewhere just to get away and bull**CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED**.


TechRep

 

[Mogus]

There are a few dormant areas on the site. This is a good idea, but I wonder if it too would just be another neglected area.

 

[TechRep]

One section added to the Aviation message Board call "Aircraft Maintenance". That way even people talking about doing maintenance on there private plane can join in.

In the description information pertaining to aircraft mechanics and the like would be nice.

The General Discussion area has seemed to evolve into a non-aviation board, it's not fitting to discuss technical matters. My vision for "aircraft maintenance" is a technical and industry discussion arena.

People like me find talk about CFI, fuel burn and medical rather boring. Wouldn't it be great to find out what we aircraft mechanics think? What makes our minds tick?

Maybe just maybe you pilots could learn something about what goes on under the hood. There is more to life than cockpit porn hidden in those little secret places. Wink Wink. Nudge Nudge

BTW this is not April Fools joke, for the record.

TechRep

 

[TechRep]

Based on the response with 119 views, I'll take the silence as a resounding no!

TechRep

 

[Smoking Man]

Usually you have to send mark a pm to get a rapid response.

Also I'll take you up on the Dornier quiz. Luvs the 1ve pannel.

 

[TechRep]

So a Pilot wants to test his prowess againt my Dornier knowledge?

TechRep

 

[Smoking Man]

didn't say I'd win.

 

[Diesel]

Don't hold your breath. I'm still waiting on a Aviation only forum. The webmaster although quick to ask for money has no interest in actually responding to what the membership wants.

Oh and the moderators. well they are just in cruise control. I've never seen them actually redirect a thread. Or copy/move a thread.

 

[gslope2004]

I guess asking for a dispatch...

Dispatchers would like a special area as well but would this request fall on def ears as well? I guess we get what we pay for!

 

[TechRep]

Concerning the 1VE issue, this was my post from a previous thread. The 1VE is problematic but fixable, read on grasshopper.


The operators of the Do328-300 can’t solve the 1VE problem but are left with an end result equation. Common fault isolation can be achieved using the DC Breakout box. The Breakout Box will not address problems upstream of the Generator Control Unit nor will it tell you anything if the system is not hard failed. A Breakout box is simply a series of clearly identified jumpers where voltage readings can be taken without opening the system.

The heart of the "todays" problem in the DC Generation and Control System is not the 1VE per say but the Hall Effect Sensor.
http://www.micronas.com/products/ov...nsors/index.php

The Heart Corporation originally manufactured the 1VE, if you look at some of the Dornier wiring manuals, you will sometimes see it referred to as the Heart Panel or 1VE. The 1VE gets its name from the first engineered component within the VE (electrical) system and 2VE, A/C Generation and Control was next, etc.

The Heart Corporation was offered engineering plans from Dornier and told to build the unit. Heart told them they were smoking crack and the units would not hold up under real-time operational loads. The Germans are very bullheaded you see and insisted this was a perfect design, sound familiar? Now begins the sticky part.

I visited with Barfield in Miami and made them demonstrate to me proper tear down of the 1VE and what did I find, over temped Hall Effect Sensors (HECS) on APU side. HECS are $2800 each. Thermal tape is now being applied directly to HECS to monitor heat ranges.

The HECS can only take about 65C (149 Degrees) of temperature variance and become unstable or smoke check beyond that range. Sometimes when the units drop below 65C they will become functional again. Each time they are over temped they become more erratic and failure prone. INTERMITTENT the scurge of every mechanic or electricain.

The problem with the 1VE is the design plain and simple. The HECS are being over temped from improper design. You see this German engineered beauty supports; DC Generator System, Battery System, Emergency DC Power System, APU/DC Starter/Generator System and External Power. If you’re Turbo Prop add engine starting to that equation.

The real problem can be traced to circuit share. The Right/APU systems share the same path logic but the left side is left independent. Had the Germans sectioned the box into three independent control schemes, instead of two, there would be no problem. Since the RH/APU shares the same circuits the heat becomes transferred to the what? That's right the HECS. Ever wonder why you have 10 to 1 in squawks between the LH DC systems as opposed to the R/H/APU DC System. Ever wonder why aircraft with no APU do not experience the same 1VE troubles.

I know because Great Plains operated the only Part 121 mixed fleet, Props and Jets, in the USA, ever. Talk about a glution for punishment huh? The entire time we operated the 328-100 (Prop) we changed only one 1VE and it went into parts saver and the GCU was found at fault.

There is apparently an answer on the horizon, with the advent of a new HECS sensor to be released sometime in summer. The new "MOD D" Sensor will be completely redesigned with thermal dissipation in mind. The new sensors will include components more suited to thermal protection and provide working architecture past the 65C barrier.

So the next time you see residual Amperage on your electrical system page and your pulling up that center floorboard remember the average repair of a 1VE is $20K.

Thanks Dornier for making a brilliant aircraft but f.ucking it up with inferior support, dragging your feat for so many years with poorly designed systems and then blaming the customers. The following statement is why this company failed.


TechRep

 

[Smoking Man]

I have seen MX put the 1VE in the freezer, and then it would work, of course it did not return to operation in the AC I guess it was just a trouble shooting thing.

A solution to the problem, it would figure about the time the Dork departs PSA's company, there would be a fix to keep the APU/ Aircond, working during the warm season.

Great post!

 

[banned username 2]

Oh and the moderators. well they are just in cruise control. I've never seen them actually redirect a thread. Or copy/move a thread.

Excuse me???

I have done plenty of this, as well as deleted a LOT of crap... As moderators, we only have so much control over the site... basically we can delete, edit or redirect threads... Beyond that it is up to the Webmaster...

 

[Eagleflip]

Diesel Gets His Wish

There ya go, Diesel..Check out YGBSM.

 

[mar]

Disappointed

For a second there, I thought we got a new forum. A political one.

I checked out YGTBSM and found this thread copied.

That's not very useful.

But before I got there I had already decided that a new forum for politics wouldn't be very useful either unless the moderators enforced it by moving discussions there.

So it's more of the same, I guess.

 

[Timebuilder]

I'd check out a section for maintenance.

Can't take the grease out of an old hot rodder, I guess...