Never Say INOP!!!
Most of us that fly S-TEC Autopilots or Tec Line Radios are not avionics technicians. However, it is critical to the efficient repair of these systems that we know how to communicate with the technicians. The last thing a tech wants to read on his workorder is the phrase "INOP". It tells him nothing other than there is a problem. As often is the case, some of these gremlins appear "intermittently" (that's another word the tech hates) and it can be very frustrating to repeatedly bring the airplane back to the shop for repair. Even in these times of maximized frustration, avoid the word "INOP".The true topic of this article is "how to save money getting your avionics repaired". A good description of symptoms rather than just saying "It's broke again!" will go a long way to reducing your troubleshooting labor bill.
You don't have to "diagnose" the problem, in fact, unless you are a retired avionics tech, it's better if you don't even try and do that. But it is important that we talk about symptoms of the problem. When you go to the Doctor and tell him you're in pain he'll quickly ask "where does it hurt?", "how badly does it hurt?", "what kind of pain is it, a sharp shooting pain or a dull ache?". What he is really asking you is "what are your symptoms?"
To say an autopilot "porpoises in altitude hold" helps a little, but to say "about 10 minutes after the altitude hold is engaged it begins to oscillate up and down with minor pitch changes. They get larger as time goes on until after about 25 minutes you have to disengage the autopilot and start over", helps a lot. Now you've identified the problem, portrayed the characteristics of it and related it as a function of time as well.
Describe all the symptoms, even though you think the symptom has nothing to do with the problem. Mentioning to the tech that a radio noise seems to have the same frequency as the rotating beacon may point to the source of the problem. If you hadn't mentioned that, it might take the tech hours to isolate the difficulty, with every hour appearing on your bill at $40 an hour or more.
When you take your airplane to the radio shop offer to talk to the tech who will do the repairs. Hearing the symptoms from you directly will help him more than having someone else relate them to him. If that's not possible, offer a phone number where you can be reached during working hours so the tech can call you if the symptoms are not clear to him on the workorder.
One last little piece of advice. When you first notice an anomaly, before it becomes one which will send you into the Avionics Shop hangar, make either a mental or handwritten note as to what it is, when it occurred and the symptoms of the squawk. That, along with the subsequent history of its occurrence will be additional information of value to the tech when you finally do come in to have it repaired.
You won't find INOP in Webster's Dictionary because the word does not exist. If the word doesn't exist, why does anyone use it in the first place?
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