Engineering Texts or Documents for Liaison Training

[WKTaylor]

Folks... Help!!!

I'm helping to develop a liaison and field service-support engineering training program for military/DoD oriented engineers. I am looking for additional training and reference materials to incorporate, reference or plagiarize [a peek is worth a thousand words and many war-stories]. Texts, documents, papers, newsletters, etc on the following topics...

Existing liaison engineering or field support engineering training courses/curricula.

Aircraft maintenance/overhaul [depot-level and field level]... especially with references to engineering support [OEM or local].

Aircraft damage assessment and repair. Corrosion, impact, maintenance-caused, flight, weather, etc

Mishap/accident/incident investigation concepts, methods, techniques, etc.

Etc...

Note: I have a fair amount of material already available... but found it to still be "sparse" bolstered only by my ~30-Yrs experience: however, my poor writing and document organization skills are coming back to haunt me.

Regards, Wil Taylor

 

[bf109g]

Wil,

I have a few Boeing course texts and some repair handbooks.

If this is what you're after, maybe we could do some horse trading.

 

[WKTaylor]

bf109g...

Hmmm I suspect we may have similar material.

Anything for other manufacturers or any of the MIL depots?

Also going to have a section in the training called (roughly): "what no one thought was important but ate my lunch and stole my sanity", ie: human factors for engineers, mechanics and aircrew. Any contributions???

Regards, Wil Taylor

 

[bf109g]

Wil -

I have Airbus, Douglas and composite material as well.

As for human factors, I can't stress (no pun intended) the importance of communication between the line and the engineer. Verbal descriptions from the line ALWAYS got my butt chapped when I issued paper based on a verbal description. Insist on a sketch and, if possible, have that sketch overlayed on the corresponding manual figure or the production drawing.

Be clear in documenting the damage location (BS, BL, WL etc) and clearly state what the damage is. Include steps to verify no hidden damage (delam or internal structure/systems).

Understand the function of the area you are in and how it may affect other systems. The protruding head bolts may be great for holding the repair on the flap, but can the flap still retract? Yes, the dent in the skin is very minor, but is it near a static port?

You need decent hand drafting skills if you are going to submit anything to an OEM or for internal approval. Cartoons will be treated as such - lots of ping pong to get the OEM/DER to understand your sit.

Clearly define in your mind that you are the engineer and not the mission planner. Don't let the schedule or other pressures lead you into issuing authorization that you can't defend with engineering data. PBA (probably be alright) is not acceptable. We've spent lots of money on the aircraft and the people flying it. BE SAFE.

 

[MikeHalloran]

How about adding a modern twist in communication?

Given the price of decent digital cameras these days, and the incremental cost of one more digital image (zero), line people shouldn't need great sketching skills.





Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[bf109g]

Mike-

Digital pics are great, but have limitations. I've been given pictures as the sole description of the damage. No idea where I am on the airplane, how deep, wide, high or in some cases, I don't even know what kind of airplane I'm on.

Pictures are great, but they should not replace good descriptive data. I would use them only to supplement a good sketch.

 

[FieldTeam]

Another consideration (if you haven't already done so) is to reference the general airforce technical orders. These TO's have information that someone in the field can use, together with the aircraft specific SRM's, to direct and reference repairs.
The specific airframe -01 T.O. should state what is applicable to that aircraft, but always useful include:
1-1-3, 1-1-24, 1-1-691, 1-1A-1/-8/-9/-12/-14, 1-1H-39 (BDR), 4S-1-182, 4T-1-3, 15X-1-1, 44H1-1-117......

I carry all of these manuals (and every manual referenced in our -01 book), flight manuals, engine manuals and airframe/system drawings electronically in support of field operations.

IHS is another good tool and anyone going out into the field should know how and when to use it.

 

[WKTaylor]

Field Team, all...

These T.O.s, and a lot more as You alluded to, are core to a basic USAF knowledge list I am gathering.

The purpose of this thread is to identify references of significant training value that are easily procured or down loaded for free, such as:

FAA documents [Tom Swift's presentation on fatigue durable acft repair, etc], ACs [lots of very valuable aero wisdom/experience], human factors studies and pod casts etc...

Company, FAA, or DoD Liaison and/or repair engineering training handouts.

Acft manufacturing/repair texts/handouts/articles, etc.

The Idea is to have a virtual tool-bag of hard-to-find-great-to-know knowledge for new engineers... so that 20--20 hindsight will accentuate their basic skills and become "forward looking fast/faster". The knowledge would be presented as an outline that says... this is why these documents are small pieces building the basic picture.

Note: I have a box of touch-feel exhibits [hardware, broken stuff, etc] to go along with this…, and challenge observation/reasoning skills… plus lots of war/horror stories from the “pit”.



Regards, Wil Taylor