PS Magazine - TB 43-PS-673
PS, The Preventative Maintenance Monthly
ISSUE 673
DECEMBER 2008
36
PS 673
DEC 08
Make friends with your Feld service rep.
He’s the best friend you and your
Shadow can have. It’s his job to help you, so let him.
Remember the umbilical cord.
It needs to be
connected to power the Shadow for startup. But
often in the hurry to launch, the umbilical cord
is not disconnected after the Shadow engine is
running. When the Shadow takes off, its umbilical
cord connector is ripped out. So double check
that the cord is disconnected before you send the
Shadow down the runway.
Carry the preflight checklist and use it.
There are more than 50 different checks
you need to make on the Shadow before it takes off. No matter how many times
you’ve gone through the checklist, don’t trust your memory to remember them all.
It’s too easy to forget to check something like torque specs or safety wire that could
prove fatal in flight. Use the checklist to ensure you don’t miss anything.
Check the oil.
That’s the
most important of those 50
checks. The Shadow uses
oil during flight and will
often need oil before it flies
again. Without enough oil,
the Shadow may not make it
back on its flight.
Communicate.
The operator and maintainer need to communicate as they prepare
for launch, especially since the operator is doing his job remotely, away from the
plane. As the operator and maintainer go through their separate preflight checklists,
they need to tell each other what they’re doing. What is especially important is
that the operator veriFes with the maintainer that the Shadow is at full throttle for
takeoff. If it’s at idle, that won’t be much of a takeoff.
Keep up with ELAS
(Enhanced Logbook Automation System). If you don’t
carefully record in the ELAS logbook items like what components were replaced or
what failures occurred during flight, your maintainer doesn’t Fnd out and problems
don’t get checked out. Also, if inaccurate flight hours are recorded, scheduled
maintenance won’t be scheduled on time.
Update TM and preflight
checklist.
When you receive
emails or other notices with
changes to the TMs or checklist,
make sure those changes are
entered. The improvements those
changes represent won’t do any
good if they’re not entered in the
TM and checklist.
Carry checklist
and use it…
…so you won’t miss stuff like safety wire
Check oil before every flight
Make very sure to
unplug umbilical
cord before takeoff
Update TM ASAP so it has latest info
hi, I’m peabody
and I’m here to
help you and
your shadow!
hey,
I had
some navigation
problems up
there.
don’t forget
to record
that in elas
so I can get it
checked out!
excellent!
673.36-37.indd
1-2
10/27/08
5:26:53 PM
Back to TopBack to Top
