Monday, December 23, 2013

                I am now finishing up the last few squawks with this Cessna Citation. I removed the pilot panel and all of the connectors that held it together and tried to locate a fault within the electroluminescent panel circuit. I found that the wires that provide voltage are in fact producing a variable voltage as I rotate the dimming control knob for the electroluminescent panel or EL panel.

                I am starting the think that the EL panels themselves may be the fault in the circuit. I found that they do not illuminate even if I connect them to a verified working source from the other EL panels. Just for my own peace of mind I decided to create an adapter plug from on the working panels and attached the suspect panel to the plug. As I expected they did not illuminate, the next thing for us to do now is send the malfunctioning EL panels out for repair next time this aircraft comes in for maintenance.

               I small issue that could potentially cause a lot of trouble, these panels let the pilot know what each switch does while he is flying at night. Without a flashlight he will have no way of knowing what each switch does during night time flight. This will be corrected as soon as possible.
        We are working on a flap position indicator on a Cessna 182. The Owner has been reporting erratic flap indication and has asked us to repair it.

            This aircraft has one flap position indicator located on the right wing, the flap gauge is on the co-pilot panel. This is a typical avionics troubleshooting adventure.We removed the original position indicator and measured the resistance using a multimeter. The unit was not providing any resistance. At this point all we could do was try to find a repaired or replacement unit.

         We located an exchange and decided have one sent to us. When the rebuilt unit arrived we determined that is was not the correct model number and decided to stick with our first plan and have the original unit repaired. Now we are sending both units back and in a few days we will receive the original back and repaired.