Page 16 - Volume 11 Number 6

passengers and took off for a weekend retreat only to lose oil pressure on one side a short while later. After some very tense moments, he got on the ground safely and found the oil dipstick on that side exactly where he laid it when the fuel truck came by. That shocked him. He was absolutely certain he had replaced that dipstick.
My late father-in-law was the epitome of a thorough and deliberate pre-flighter. My wife remembers many hours of cooling her heels in an FBO while her dad did his pre-flight routine. He kept laminated checklists handy and read each item out loud as he performed the task. When she was old enough, he had her read the item out loud and he repeated it back to her as he checked it. But despite his best efforts, after 50 years of flying, he left an oil cap latch open and lost oil pressure right after takeoff. Fortunately, he circled back around and landed safely, but he was embarrassed beyond imagination. Chances are, he was distracted when he was checking the oil on that side – I’ll bet his cell went off.
Cell Phones – A Distraction on Steroids
Although cell phones have revolutionized our lives in many ways, these devilish devices have their downside. Distracted driving is just the tip of the iceberg. In the workplace – aircraft maintenance hangars in particular – cell phones are a menace to safety. One item on a phase checklist can require many small tasks in succession.
When a cell phone goes off, it grabs attention away from the job at hand. Cell phones destroy focus. The problem worsened when text messaging became common. A short conversation becomes five or six “dings” and each one is an interruption.
In my shop, I had a zero-tolerance policy on cell phone usage that required mechanics to keep their phones turned off and stowed in their toolbox, not in their pocket on “vibrate.” I fired two perfectly good A&Ps for violation of this policy. In one case, we were changing the engine mounts on a B200 before installing new engines. The metal portion of the mount assembly attaches to the engine case with four bolts. Two rubber blocks (isolators) sandwich around the mount. A large bolt runs through the center of this “isolator sandwich” to the engine truss.
There is a sequence of tasks to installing these. The four bolts going to the engine case must be safetied before the isolators go on. Otherwise it is next to impossible to safety them later. On a 200, with four engine mounts per side, there are 16 bolts to safety per engine. The mechanic assigned to the left engine was a great wrench when she followed my directions. But on this day, she was going back and forth to her toolbox way more than necessary. When I checked her progress, I found all the rubber blocks in place but the bolts weren’t safetied. I asked, “Aren’t you going to safety-wire these?” She replied, “Well, I got distracted.” I then heard the soft “ding” of her phone, in her pocket. She went back to her toolbox where she surreptitiously texted while appearing to search for her safety-wire pliers.
Aircraft maintenance is complicated enough without cell phone distractions. Many times I woke up in the middle of the night, unable to remember if I safetied everything properly. I got out of bed, got dressed and drove to the airport at 2:00 in the morning to double- check myself and put my mind at rest.
I know of larger shops where the managers use text messaging to communicate with mechanics in the hangar. I vehemently disagree with this practice. First, the mechanics don’t need more distractions and second, the use of cell phones on the job should be discouraged, not encouraged. Thirdly, the desk drivers might benefit from some firsthand hangar observation to keep their finger on the pulse of things.
In my opinion, you don’t need your own phone going off during your pre-flight routine, any more than you need cell phones distracting mechanics while they work on your aircraft. You could just as easily be sidetracked like the pilots mentioned above. It could be the line guy, the fuel guy, or an impatient passenger. Why add to the chaos? Your phone can be turned off.
On a side note: I was honored to participate in the first King Air Gathering (KAG) this past April. One of the highlights was having a King Air on jacks in an adjacent hangar so I could give a live demonstration. We
14 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
JUNE 2017