Forum: F-16 Procedures

Had a quick question.

Does everybody take off the Pitot Static tube and AOA Covers when they apply power to the aircraft?

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So my question is. Which Job Guide are you using that tells you to take them off? Besides the Launch and Recovery checklists?

Its been a while since I worked Vipers but doesn't safe for maintenance advise you to remove the covers? If not it's a good idea anyway in case someone didn't safe the cockpit and turn off the probe heat switch. Had some bad experiences with melted probe covers. A bad WOW signal can ruin your day!

There is no 10JG direction to tell you to remove the probe covers. The 10JG does tell you to check that the NLG WOW switch roller is not making contact with the thick part of the cam, and that all the switches are in OFF. So it's not required, but not prohibited either. If I had any doubt about the WOW situation (for example, working a problem that might be WOW-related) I would take them off. If you have QA giving you a hard time about this, remove the covers, power up the airplane, make sure the probes aren't heating, and then put them back on. Personally, in my maintenance days, I always removed them after I watched some probe covers burn up in Misawa due to a WOW problem.

Best Regards,

I always was in the habit of removing the covers when I worked Vipers, just could not remember if it was in the 10JG. There were a couple instances, one was a bad nose WOW relay and the other when my buddy pulled the wrong breakers during a RADAR ops check, that I was involved with that caused some serious recreational maintenance. I'm still in the habit of removing the probe covers to this day on Raptors.

An ounce of prevention.....

TEG

If your doing a PE for a power on ops check. And you pull the covers off.

Is that a fail? Since its not in the JG for the task your doing

mc5wes wrote:

So my question is. Which Job Guide are you using that tells you to take them off? Besides the Launch and Recovery checklists?

I would have to say no, unless it’s in a local OI somewhere. No reference no write-up. I looked hard and heavy (including 10JG, 12JG, 91-100, GV, etc) and cant find anything. If you look in the 27FI and 30JG you will find cautions to remove covers only because you are turning on probe heaters. I was trained to remove them prior to putting on power and I would say 100% of F-16 mainters remove covers prior to power application unless they were in a hurry and forgot.

mc5wes wrote:

If your doing a PE for a power on ops check. And you pull the covers off.

Is that a fail? Since its not in the JG for the task your doing

REALLY

Is this a ficticious senario or did some bonehead QA actually write that up on a PE?

the probes heat up regardless of wow. or at least the light comes on after a bit in the eor

deadseal wrote:

or at least the light comes on after a bit in the eor

That's because the probe heat switch was in the probe heat position and the probes got hot enough to shut off the heaters and turn the light on. Unless there is a failure, the probes don't heat on the ground with the switch in off.

Off topic, but …
AOA probes are a very critical component to safety of flight. Make sure you look at them real hard during your inspections. I’ve found them binding ever so lightly when you rotate them real slow. Also I’ve seen them bent after a bird strike to the front of the aircraft, or after someone dragged a C-1 stand into them while cleaning the canopy.

http://pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML0302/ML030290533.pdf

VarkVet wrote:

mc5wes wrote:

If your doing a PE for a power on ops check. And you pull the covers off.

Is that a fail? Since its not in the JG for the task your doing

REALLY

Is this a ficticious senario or did some bonehead QA actually write that up on a PE?

I'd believe it...

I've seen some pretty lame fail/write-ups during ORIs; and it seems to be getting worse!

Bang Head

TEG

mc5wes wrote:

If your doing a PE for a power on ops check. And you pull the covers off.

Is that a fail? Since its not in the JG for the task your doing

Remember, the 10JG steps are the MINIMUM steps required for a Safe for Maintenance. If you take personal initiative to perform additional steps, as long as they don't violate the intent of the job guide steps or introduce a safety concern, they are okay in my book.

Case in point: when we transmitted RF energy, in addition to putting out the cones, we would turn on the anti-collision light to let people know when we were actually transmitting. Would QA write you up for that increased bit of safety because it's not in the Job Guide to do so?

If you have one of those QA guys whose mission in life is to make yours miserable, this will not help however.

Best Regards,

Forum: F-16 Procedures

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