Page 26 - Volume 14 Number 10

A post-maintenance preflight is not doubting your shop but confirming the execution of an extremely complex job.
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 cellphone had went off!
Cellphones – a Distraction on Steroids
Although cellphones have revo- lutionized 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 – cellphones are a menace to safety.
One item on a phase checklist can require many small tasks in succession. When a cellphone goes off it grabs attention away from the job at hand; it destroys focus.
The problem worsened when text messaging became common.
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A short conversation becomes five or six “dings” and each one is an interruption. In my shop I had a zero-tolerance policy on cellphone 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 install these; the four bolts going to the engine case must be safety-wired 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 great when she followed my directions. But on this day, she was going back and forth to her tool box way more than necessary. When I checked her progress,
I found all the rubber blocks in place but the bolts weren’t safety- wired. I asked, “Aren’t you going to safety-wire these?” She said, “Well, I got distracted.” And then I 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 compli- cated enough without cellphone dis- tractions. Many times I have woken up in the middle of the night, unable to remember if I “safetied” every- thing properly. I have even got out of bed, got dressed and drove to the airport at 2 a.m. to double-check myself to 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 preflight 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 I 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.
Dean Benedict is a certified A&P, AI with over 40 years of maintaining King Airs. He’s the founder and former owner of Honest Air Inc., a maintenance shop that specialized in Beech aircraft with an emphasis on King Airs. In his new venture, BeechMedic LLC, Dean consults with King Air owners and operators on maintenance management and supervision, troubleshooting, pre-buys, etc. He can be reached at: dr.dean@beechmedic.com or (702) 773-1800.
OCTOBER 2020