Working on a whole airplane

Nine procedures. Several cannot be done alone, and that is a property of the work rather than of the assessment (GEN-F Concepts §4).

Every procedure here happens near a propeller. PP-A §2: treat every propeller as live, regardless of switch position.

Procedure 1 — Foreign object damage control (S1, with K12)

1. Inventory your tools before you start, against a shadow board or a list.
2. Work with a contained tool area — a mat or a tray, not the ramp.
3. Secure loose items: hats, badges, pens, phones. They go into the engine or under a control.
4. Cap or plug every line, port and opening as it is disturbed (K14).
5. Inventory the tools again at the end, and account for every one.
6. Walk the area before the aircraft moves or runs.

Check — count them out and count them back, and say the number out loud. "It's all there" is not a count.

Failure — a missing tool discovered later, or never. The aircraft does not fly until it is found or its absence is properly accounted for.

Procedure 2 — Connect external power (S2, R2)

1. Confirm the unit's voltage and polarity against the aircraft's requirement.
2. Confirm aircraft electrical load is off before connecting.
3. Inspect the connector and cable for damage.
4. Connect at the aircraft first, then energize the unit.
5. On removal, de-energize the unit first, then disconnect.

Check — state the voltage and polarity you are about to apply. A reversed or wrong-voltage supply damages avionics instantly and expensively.

Failure — connecting a live unit. The arc at the connector pits the pins and the surge reaches the aircraft's systems.

Procedure 3 — Prepare an aircraft for towing (S3, R1)

A multi-person operation.

1. Brief everyone first: the route, who is in charge, who calls stop, where the wing walkers are.
2. Confirm someone is at the controls with brakes available, and that they know it.
3. Fit the correct tow bar for the aircraft, attached to the correct points.
4. Check nose gear steering limits and know them. Exceeding them damages the gear, and the damage is not always obvious.
5. Remove chocks last, after the tow bar is attached.
6. Walk the route first — clearances, ground equipment, wingtip paths, slope.

Check — anyone may call stop, and everyone must stop. Confirm out loud that everybody knows this before the aircraft moves.

Failure — exceeding the steering limit on a turn. It is easy to do, it damages the gear, and the aircraft looks fine afterwards.

Procedure 4 — Hand signals (S4)

1. Agree the signals and the marshaller before starting, and confirm the pilot or operator has seen and acknowledged the marshaller.
2. Stand where you can be seen and where you are safe — clear of propellers, jet blast and the aircraft's path.
3. Give signals clearly, one at a time, and hold them.
4. Maintain eye contact. If you lose it, signal stop.

Check — the person you are signaling must acknowledge you before the aircraft moves. A signal nobody received has not been given.

Failure — signaling from a position where you are invisible past the nose, or unsafe.

Procedure 5 — Prepare for and conduct fueling (S8, R3, R4)

1. Establish the approved grade from the aircraft's placard and TCDS (S7).
2. Confirm what is in the truck — its markings, and the nozzle.
3. Bond: truck to aircraft, and nozzle to filler, before opening the tank (GEN-F Concepts §3).
4. Have the correct fire extinguisher to hand.
5. Fuel, watching the process. Do not leave it.
6. Secure the cap and check it is properly seated and locked.
7. Sump after fueling where practice requires it, and after the fuel has had time to settle.

Check — say the grade out loud and confirm it against the placard before the nozzle goes in. Misfueling is preventable at exactly this moment and at no later one.

Failure — bonding after opening the tank, or not at all. The static is generated by the flow, and the vapor is at the filler neck.

Procedure 6 — Inspect a fuel system for water and contamination (S5)

1. Sump every drain point — tanks, gascolator, low points. Not just the convenient one.
2. Use a clear sampler and hold it against a light background.
3. Look for water — it sits at the bottom, with a visible meniscus — and for sediment or color change.
4. Confirm the fuel is the right grade by color and smell.
5. Continue sumping until the sample is clean.
6. Dispose of the sample properly. It is not poured on the ramp.

Check — a clear sample is not automatically a water-free sample. Water and jet fuel can be hard to distinguish by eye; a water-detecting paste or capsule confirms it, and a drop of water in a clear sampler moves differently from fuel when you tilt it.

Failure — sumping one drain and declaring the system clear.

Procedure 7 — Start and shut down using the checklist (S9, R6, R7)

Read the aircraft's checklist. Use it. Do not recite it from memory.

1. Brief the area: nobody in the propeller arc, nobody in front, chocks in or brakes held.
2. Call clear and get an acknowledgment before turning anything.
3. Work the checklist item by item, touching each control as you read it.
4. Start per the procedure. Monitor oil pressure immediately — no pressure within the specified time means shut down at once.
5. Run only as long as required, watching temperatures and pressures.
6. Shut down per the checklist.
7. Confirm the magnetos are off by the specified check, and treat the propeller as live afterwards regardless.

Check — the checklist is complete when every item has been touched, not when it has been read. Reading is how items get skipped.

Failure — a start with someone in the propeller arc who you assumed had moved.

If a fire occurs during start, keep cranking to draw it through the induction system. If it does not clear, cut the fuel and use the extinguisher (GEN-F Concepts §2).

Procedure 8 — Secure an aircraft (S11, K2)

1. Position into wind where possible.
2. Chock the wheels.
3. Tie down at the designated points — wings and tail — with the specified rope or strap and with the specified slack. Too tight is a fault: the aircraft must be able to move on its gear as the airframe flexes and the ropes shrink when wet.
4. Fit control locks or secure the controls by the approved method.
5. Fit pitot covers, static port covers, inlet and exhaust plugs — and use covers with streamers.
6. Close and secure doors and windows.

Check — every cover and plug must carry a streamer, and the streamers must be visible from the front of the aircraft. That is the entire defense against a covered pitot at takeoff.

Failure — a cover fitted without a streamer, or with the streamer tucked away tidily.

Procedure 9 — Service oil, hydraulic and pneumatic systems (K7)

1. Identify the fluid required, from the placard and the maintenance manual, and confirm what is in the container in your hand.
2. Check the level in the condition the manual specifies — some are checked hot, some cold, some with the system in a stated configuration.
3. Clean around the filler before opening it.
4. Add to the specified level, not to the top.
5. Secure the cap, check for leaks, record the servicing.

Check — name the fluid and its specification before the cap comes off. Cross-contamination of hydraulic fluids is a delayed failure that destroys seals (AF-F §3).

Failure — topping up from an unlabeled container.

The checks, collected

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