All four skills in this unit are Locate and explain. The procedure below is the same for each, and the skill being assessed is finding the right document and reading it correctly — which is GEN-I applied to an unfamiliar aircraft type.
The general procedure (S1–S4)
- Identify the aircraft — make, model, serial number, and any STC-modified configuration.
- Find the applicable manual — maintenance manual, component manual, or the manufacturer's published procedure.
- Confirm it applies: model, effectivity, revision (GEN-B Procedures Procedure 1).
- Locate the specific procedure by chapter and section.
- Read it through before explaining it, including the warnings, cautions and notes (GEN-I Concepts §7).
- Explain: what the procedure does, what equipment it requires, what the limits are, and who is qualified to perform it.
Check — can you state the manual, the revision and the section? That is what a Locate element assesses. "It's in the maintenance manual" is not a located procedure.
The four elements
S1 — locate components of a helicopter rotor system. Identify by name and function from the
illustrated parts data: hub, hinges or flexures, dampers, pitch links, swashplate, blade grips.
S2 — locate rotor blade track and balance procedures. Note the equipment required and
that the procedure is performed with the rotor turning.
S3 — locate and explain procedures needed to rig helicopter controls. Note the rigging
sequence, the rig pins or fixtures required, and the checks at the end.
S4 — locate and explain procedures to track and balance a rotor system. Note the
distinction between track — the path each blade follows — and balance — mass
distribution — and that they are corrected differently.
Before you go near a rotorcraft to do any of this
R1 applies whether you are working or looking (AF-N Concepts §3):
- Approach and leave in the pilot's view, never toward the tail rotor.
- Crouch, and carry nothing above head height.
- Downhill on a slope, never uphill.
- Never approach a coasting rotor unless directed.
Check — before walking toward any helicopter, say where the tail rotor is. It is the component that most often kills people on ramps, and it is nearly invisible when turning.
License
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