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A malfunctioning flight director; for which maintenance had no immediate resolution; ultimately resulted in multiple MEL deferrals that were intended to be resolved at a subsequent stop. After two uneventful legs maintenance was unable to resolve the problem at the planned repair station. Instead; they found another item they believed was required to be deferred. A subsequent in depth investigation; including emailed pictures of the original write-up; uncovered the source of the confusion; it was the incorrect interpretation of the letter 'a' instead of 'D'; thus changing 'AC' to 'dc'.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 1241583 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201502 |
| Local Time Of Day | 0601-1200 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | ZZZ.Airport |
| State Reference | US |
| Environment | |
| Flight Conditions | VMC |
| Light | Daylight |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | B737-700 |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 121 |
| Flight Phase | Parked |
| Route In Use | None |
| Flight Plan | IFR |
| Component | |
| Aircraft Component | Flight Director |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | First Officer |
| Qualification | Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) |
| Experience | Flight Crew Last 90 Days 180 |
| Person 2 | |
| Function | Captain |
| Qualification | Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) |
| Experience | Flight Crew Last 90 Days 163 |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe Deviation - Procedural MEL Deviation - Procedural Maintenance |
Narrative:
The aircraft arrived early with a flight director problem. Maintenance meled the write-up. In the process they discovered the afcs exc AC circuit breaker popped and would not reset. This led to the addition of six more inter-related mels that had to be addressed; to include collaring several circuit breakers. After verifying the appropriate application of each of the seven mels; we pushed about an hour late. The plan was to have the repairs done in ZZZ after passing through ZZZ1. The flights from ZZZ to ZZZ1 and ZZZ2 were uneventful. In ZZZ1; maintenance attempted to repair the aircraft; they were unable to repair it and returned it back to its originally meled status. In the process they collared an additional circuit breaker that was not collared in the first instance. Additionally; one of the circuit breakers previously noted as collared does not actually exist (B afcs sensor exc dc circuit breaker). The captain had a lengthy discussion with maintenance control (including a picture of the actual write-up in denver sent via cell phone). It was determined the 'D' in dc was actually an 'a'; making it AC. We continued on and terminated the aircraft.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: A malfunctioning Flight Director; for which maintenance had no immediate resolution; ultimately resulted in multiple MEL deferrals that were intended to be resolved at a subsequent stop. After two uneventful legs maintenance was unable to resolve the problem at the planned repair station. Instead; they found another item they believed was required to be deferred. A subsequent in depth investigation; including emailed pictures of the original write-up; uncovered the source of the confusion; it was the incorrect interpretation of the letter 'A' instead of 'D'; thus changing 'AC' to 'DC'.
Narrative: The aircraft arrived early with a flight director problem. Maintenance MELed the write-up. In the process they discovered the AFCS EXC AC circuit breaker popped and would not reset. This led to the addition of six more inter-related MELs that had to be addressed; to include collaring several circuit breakers. After verifying the appropriate application of each of the seven MELs; we pushed about an hour late. The plan was to have the repairs done in ZZZ after passing through ZZZ1. The flights from ZZZ to ZZZ1 and ZZZ2 were uneventful. In ZZZ1; Maintenance attempted to repair the aircraft; they were unable to repair it and returned it back to its originally MELed status. In the process they collared an additional circuit breaker that was not collared in the first instance. Additionally; one of the circuit breakers previously noted as collared does not actually exist (B AFCS sensor exc DC circuit breaker). The Captain had a lengthy discussion with Maintenance Control (including a picture of the actual write-up in Denver sent via cell phone). It was determined the 'D' in DC was actually an 'A'; making it AC. We continued on and terminated the aircraft.
Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.