Trying to study.. With a crappy POH

J

JordanD

Here so I don’t get fined
I'm trying to study for some airline interviews down the road, and I know at least a few of them want you to be able to draw the systems of the aircraft you currently fly. The problem is, the airplane I fly was built in Europe 30 something years ago, so quite honestly the POH sucks. The ones that I've found online don't even have a systems section (don't they have to to be certified in the US?). The next best thing I've found is the maintenance manual, but for example the electrical system section doesn't have a diagram of the whole system, just separate wiring diagrams for literally every little thing in the airplane. So...where does that leave me for interview prep? And if somebody has a not crappy manual for a Partenavia P68 that'd be cool too. :P
 
JordanD said:
I'm trying to study for some airline interviews down the road, and I know at least a few of them want you to be able to draw the systems of the aircraft you currently fly. The problem is, the airplane I fly was built in Europe 30 something years ago, so quite honestly the POH sucks. The ones that I've found online don't even have a systems section (don't they have to to be certified in the US?). The next best thing I've found is the maintenance manual, but for example the electrical system section doesn't have a diagram of the whole system, just separate wiring diagrams for literally every little thing in the airplane. So...where does that leave me for interview prep? And if somebody has a not crappy manual for a Partenavia P68 that'd be cool too. :P
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If you are flying the plane and can't find full diagrams, the interviewer will have no idea. Just study a duchess electrical system and pretend they're the same.
 
If you're boning up for drawing at a SkyWest interview, they're not really looking for an engineering-level drawing.
 
Hacker15e said:
If you're boning up for drawing at a SkyWest interview, they're not really looking for an engineering-level drawing.
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Hell, I wish I could even find a crappy diagram for this thing. I might have to be the guy saying "well in the 172" in an airline interview.
 
JordanD said:
Hell, I wish I could even find a crappy diagram for this thing. I might have to be the guy saying "well in the 172" in an airline interview.
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Not the end of the world. I had a friend who was instructing in 172's get asked to diagram the 172 fuel system. He could not, and they as well as a few others did not take him. He went to the last choice airline, and became a captain in just over a year while we're all still chasing upgrades.
 
Adler said:
Not the end of the world. I had a friend who was instructing in 172's get asked to diagram the 172 fuel system. He could not, and they as well as a few others did not take him. He went to the last choice airline, and became a captain in just over a year while we're all still chasing upgrades.
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I'm chasing that living in base!
 
And I went and looked in the actual POH in the airplane thinking maybe I had 2 crappy PDF copies. Literally no mention of systems in the table of contents. Aren't POHs required to have pretty much the same format if the plane is certified here? Pretty much follows the format for the rest of the sections but just skips systems.
 
JordanD said:
And I went and looked in the actual POH in the airplane thinking maybe I had 2 crappy PDF copies. Literally no mention of systems in the table of contents. Aren't POHs required to have pretty much the same format if the plane is certified here? Pretty much follows the format for the rest of the sections but just skips systems.
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Not entirely sure, but I don't believe there is any official requirement for the structure of a POH. Today's familiar arrangement stems from GAMA Specification #1.

FAR 23.1581-1589 covers what must be included in an AFM, but it only specifically calls out Limitations, Operating Procedures, Performance, and Loading.
 
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Just a thought... do you have access to the plane's mechanic? You could try asking him/her, or you could see if they have a maintenance manual you could look through.
 
Clint H said:
Just a thought... do you have access to the plane's mechanic? You could try asking him/her, or you could see if they have a maintenance manual you could look through.
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I have the maintenance manual but even then the diagrams look like kind of a mess in comparison to what I'm used to seeing.
 
JordanD said:
I have the maintenance manual but even then the diagrams look like kind of a mess in comparison to what I'm used to seeing.
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Don't overthink the process. A block diagram of the main bits of the system is all the knowledge you need to display. As long as the system you draw works, you're doing well.
Nearly every light aircraft electrical system is the same. It will have a battery, master switch, alternator/generator and wiring that goes to service things such as lights, avionics, the starter, flaps (as appropriate), maybe a fuel pump or two and these circuits will be protected by fuses or CBs etc. just make sure your battery has a ground!
I was a nuc in a former life and we had to draw various ship's systems - we were always taught to break it down and simplify it where possible into block diagram form.
What they're looking for is if you can visualize and reproduce where the electricity comes from and goes to and the "stops" it makes on the way, but not wire for wire.
Throw in some specs in your presentation like battery capacity, system voltage etc and you can put together a nice, easy to understand talk that lasts about 5 minutes.

Bp244
 
@Adler I would have loved to see you blow their minds drawing the 727 electrical system system including the standby system and tr's. then rattle off everything that is available on standby.

The looks on their face would have been priceless..
 
You didn't build the airplane, you were just hired to fly it.

If you can verbally explain how the system works, you should be able to do a rough sketch on a whiteboard. That is all.
Any interviewer, instructor or examiner who expects more than that is a complete asshat and probably spends more time flying a desk (or SIM) than a real aircraft.
 
Baronpilot244 said:
Nearly every light aircraft electrical system is the same. It will have a battery, master switch, alternator/generator and wiring that goes to service things such as lights, avionics, the starter, flaps (as appropriate), maybe a fuel pump or two and these circuits will be protected by fuses or CBs etc. just make sure your battery has a ground!
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Well, everything should have a path to ground if it is ever going to work ;)
 
If you asked me to draw a system on an interview, it'd be a pretty short interview. I finished UPT back in 2001, that was the last place that would even remotely be an acceptable request. Thankfully I've never had to walk out of an interview or checkride yet for such stupidity.
 
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