Turboprop captain becomes aware at the end of four legs that he has been operating under an incorrec...

Narrative:

When we first picked up the aircraft in the morning it had a fuel gauge MEL. I looked quickly at the write up and the MEL and they seemed to match up. We flew the plane four legs. At the end of the trip I had become aware that the other main fuel gauge was not reading correctly. I contacted maintenance control and we decided to MEL the other fuel gauge. Unfortunately the previous MEL was placed under a MEL for both the main and aux tank gauges; which was technically the wrong MEL as it was just affecting the main fuel gauge. I did not notice this before.I think the main confusion came from the initial write up of 'left fuel gauge inoperative'. This seemed very ambiguous and could be interpreted differently. Had the maintenance discrepancy been more clearly written I think it would have been easier to decipher the different MEL's.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Turboprop Captain becomes aware at the end of four legs that he has been operating under an incorrect MEL for the left fuel gauge. An ambiguous log entry may have confused Maintenance causing the wrong MEL number to be used.

Narrative: When we first picked up the aircraft in the morning it had a fuel gauge MEL. I looked quickly at the write up and the MEL and they seemed to match up. We flew the plane four legs. At the end of the trip I had become aware that the other main fuel gauge was not reading correctly. I contacted Maintenance Control and we decided to MEL the other fuel gauge. Unfortunately the previous MEL was placed under a MEL for both the main and aux tank gauges; which was technically the wrong MEL as it was just affecting the main fuel gauge. I did not notice this before.I think the main confusion came from the initial write up of 'left fuel gauge inoperative'. This seemed very ambiguous and could be interpreted differently. Had the maintenance discrepancy been more clearly written I think it would have been easier to decipher the different MEL's.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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	881201
Time
Date	201003
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Beechcraft Twin Turboprop or Jet Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 119
Flight Phase	Parked
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Fuel Quantity-Pressure Indication
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural MEL

Turboprop captain becomes aware at the end of four legs that he has been operating under an incorrect MEL for the left fuel gauge. An ambiguous log entry may have confused maintenance causing the wrong MEL number to be used.