Cockpit Clutter
by Ron Levy, Safety Director
The proliferation of electronic cockpit gadgetry over the last ten years has been quite amazing. We now have portable electronic devices capable of providing GPS navigational assistance, taxi diagrams, airport directories, traffic information, data-linked near-real-time weather, VFR and IFR charts (enroute and approach), checklists, flight logs – you name it, it’s available. I've seen planes where the glare shield looked like the display shelf of a "pilot toys" shop. I’ve seen Grumman pilots with pads and tablets with enough wires so they appeared wired into the plane like a NASA astronaut into an Apollo capsule with all the communication, physiological monitoring, and environmental plumbing they had.
For some time, I’ve wondered about the possible problems arising from all that loose gear up there. To be honest, I've been more concerned by being hit in the head by one of those things in turbulence or getting tied in a knot by all the cords while trying to get out (possibly during an emergency ground egress) than the possibility of setting the windshield on fire. In May the FAA sent out a Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin (SAIB) about just that happening recently:
During recent flight on a Mitsubishi MU-2B, thick black smoke filled the cockpit and the crew was forced to make an emergency landing. It was discovered that a hand-held GPS receiver and antenna had been set on the glare shield. A metallic portion of the GPS antenna inadvertently made contact across the windshield heater terminal strips, resulting in an electrical short circuit. The resulting current flow caused the loose equipment to burn, resulting in smoke in the cockpit.
The FAA reminds owners and operators of aircraft that loose equipment on the glare shield or in the cockpit can present a hazard, particularly for aircraft with a windshield heater system installed where electrical terminal strips may be exposed and subject to short circuit. Owners and operators should recognize the potential for exposed terminal strips to be attached to high current windshield heating systems and refrain from placing any loose items on the glare shield that might cause an electrical short and subsequent electrical fire. If possible, these terminal strips should also be insulated or covered to mitigate such an occurrence.
The FAA also reminds owners and operators that loose or portable equipment on the glare shield can obscure the field of view of the crew, can potentially influence the magnetic compass accuracy, and can become a hazard in turbulence. Owners and operators should secure loose or portable items and equipment properly prior to and during the flight, should isolate portable or loose equipment from other equipment installed, and should ensure the magnetic compass is not affected by any magnetic or electrical influence from portable or loose equipment.
While we in our Grummans don’t have to worry about shorting the electric windshield heater, the issues of everything from missile hazards in turbulence to wiring tangles to scratching up the inside of our windshields (at least getting those are probably all things we should be thinking about before we put 27 little (and some not so little, like a laptop computer) electronic devices loose in the cockpit. There are many devices available to help keep your portable electronic devices in place and help manage the wires, ranging from the AirGizmo panel-mounted docking station for the x96-series Garmin portable GPS’s to Bob Dillon’s Grumman-specific brackets for a wide range of devices.
However, even if you address the issues of collision avoidance (device vs. head collisions, that is) or getting strangled in your own wires, the FAA properly points out that unless you have the device(s) in place and operating when you swing your magnetic compass, you have no way of knowing whether they will affect its accuracy. Of course, for VFR navigation with the ground in sight, you have a lot of other clues to tell you if your magnetic compass is not working, especially with those GPS devices providing most of your navigation assistance. But for IFR operations, where you rely on the magnetic compass to set your heading indicator (or “DG”) for vectors, interception, and tracking, you could be entering seriously inaccurate data into your IFR navigation routine if your magnetic compass is being driven off by the devices you toss up there on the glare shield.
For these reasons, it is probably a good idea for those of us with non-installed portable electronic devices in the cockpit to check the following:
· Secure the devices well enough that they won’t fly around in turbulence or scratch against the inside of the windshield.
· Consider how the wiring running around the cockpit affects entry/egress and passenger freedom to move in flight, especially in an emergency situation.
· Try checking the effect on the magnetic compass of turning the devices on and off, at least on the four cardinal directions, if not every 45 or even 30 degrees of heading. Do this on the ground at a certified compass rose or other location where local magnetic disturbances are known to be minimal.
For those unfamiliar, SAIB’s are issued by the FAA when they see something of potential safety concern that is worthy of mention but not significant enough to merit an Airworthiness Directive mandating compliance. For the full SAIB on this issue (CE-10-35), go to http://rgl.faa.gov/Regulatory_and_Guidance_Library/rgSAIB.nsf/(LookupSAIBs)/CE-10-35?OpenDocument. You can view other SAIB’s in the FAA Regulatory and Guidance library at http://rgl.faa.gov/Regulatory_and_Guidance_Library/rgSAIB.nsf/MainFrame?OpenFrameSet.