Emb-175 check airman is instructed to fly a revenue trip with an aircraft that had been written up f...

Narrative:

We were to fly this aircraft on a revenue flight. The previous captain reported a dmi [deferred maintenance instruction] on the aircraft for high lp vibrations. The procedure via maintenance was to follow the QRH and keep the lp out of the amber range. He was flight planned at FL350. Following the procedure he was unable to climb above FL290. This was a N1 of 78%. I asked dispatch if we had any degraded performance for the aircraft with this dmi. He responded no. I asked maintenance if there was any special performance to confirm dispatch. They also reported no. I departed and was flight planned at FL350. We were only able to reach FL270 and an N1 of 75% following the QRH. I was very uncomfortable flying the aircraft with an engine that had unknown performance. What was my single engine performance if the good engine failed? What was my drift down? What is my performance period? I asked everyone I could. The best answer that I got was it was an FAA approved dmi and the aircraft could be flown for 50 hours. There where no added restrictions. The aircraft should be lubed properly to not have high lp vibs. The aircraft should not be flown with an unknown level of degraded engine performance. We are flying to airports with high MEA's out west. How do you fly a normal flight using the QRH? How could this be our procedure?

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: EMB-175 Check Airman is instructed to fly a revenue trip with an aircraft that had been written up for high LP vibrations; with maintenance deferred and told to comply with QRH procedures which results in only 75% N1 in cruise.

Narrative: We were to fly this aircraft on a revenue flight. The previous Captain reported a DMI [Deferred Maintenance Instruction] on the aircraft for high LP vibrations. The procedure via Maintenance was to follow the QRH and keep the LP out of the amber range. He was flight planned at FL350. Following the procedure he was unable to climb above FL290. This was a N1 of 78%. I asked Dispatch if we had any degraded performance for the aircraft with this DMI. He responded no. I asked Maintenance if there was any special performance to confirm Dispatch. They also reported no. I departed and was flight planned at FL350. We were only able to reach FL270 and an N1 of 75% following the QRH. I was very uncomfortable flying the aircraft with an engine that had unknown performance. What was my single engine performance if the good engine failed? What was my drift down? What is my performance period? I asked everyone I could. The best answer that I got was it was an FAA approved DMI and the aircraft could be flown for 50 hours. There where no added restrictions. The aircraft should be lubed properly to not have high LP vibs. The aircraft should not be flown with an unknown level of degraded engine performance. We are flying to airports with high MEA's out west. How do you fly a normal flight using the QRH? How could this be our procedure?

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1112268
Time
Date	201308
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZDC.ARTCC
State Reference	VA
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	EMB ERJ 170/175 ER/LR
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Climb
Component
Aircraft Component	Compressor
Person 1
Function	Captain Check Pilot
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Deviation - Procedural MEL Deviation - Procedural FAR Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

Emb-175 check airman is instructed to fly a revenue trip with an aircraft that had been written up for high lp vibrations; with maintenance deferred and told to comply with QRH procedures which results in only 75% N1 in cruise.