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Upskill / Aircraft Maintenance / Troubleshooting intermittent avionics faults

Troubleshooting intermittent avionics faults

Connectors, data buses, built-in test, fault history, no-fault-found removals, configuration control and the MEL, for line and shop practitioners

By Aerospace Garage Desk · Practitioner · 45 minutes · 24 narrated pages

What you will be able to do

  • ✓ Explain why avionics faults come and go, from connectors, wiring, vibration and moisture to temperature, power quality and software.
  • ✓ Decode ARINC 429 words and explain how AFDX and CAN networks affect fault isolation.
  • ✓ Use built-in test, the central maintenance computer and fault history, correlating timestamps with flight phase and aircraft events.
  • ✓ Apply environmental testing, ESD handling and software configuration control so that troubleshooting does not create new faults.
  • ✓ Quantify no-fault-found rates and costs and decide, with evidence, whether to swap a unit or keep diagnosing, using the lessons of Qantas Flight 72.
  • ✓ Close the loop through shop findings, reliability data and correct use of the MEL and its rectification intervals.

Course content

Session 1 · Why intermittent faults happen

1.1

  1. What makes a fault intermittent · free preview
  2. Connectors, wiring, vibration and moisture
  3. Temperature, power quality and software
  4. Worked example: sorting a repeat defect by pattern
Session 2 · Data buses: ARINC 429, AFDX and CAN

1.2

  1. ARINC 429: the workhorse bus
  2. Inside a 429 word
  3. AFDX and CAN in brief
  4. Worked example: decoding a 429 word
Session 3 · Built-in test, central maintenance and fault history

1.3

  1. Built-in test: what it can and cannot see
  2. The central maintenance computer
  3. Fault history and flight-phase correlation
  4. Worked example: fault times against flight phase
Session 4 · Environmental stress, ESD and software configuration

1.4

  1. Heat soak, cold soak and recreating the conditions
  2. Electrostatic discharge: handling sensitive units
  3. Loadable software and configuration control
  4. From the investigation file: Qantas Flight 72, the unit that tested clean
Session 5 · No-fault-found removals and the swap decision

1.5

  1. No fault found: what it means and why it happens
  2. Rogue units and the real cost of no fault found
  3. Swap or diagnose: choosing with evidence
  4. Worked example: what no fault found costs
Session 6 · Closing the loop: shop findings, reliability and the MEL

1.6

  1. Shop findings: the feedback loop
  2. Reliability data and alert levels
  3. The MEL and intermittent faults
  4. Worked example: the swap-or-diagnose decision

Who this course is for

Upskill courses are for professional development and are not approved by any aviation authority. Learner Terms

Course content © Aerospace Garage Limited. All rights reserved.