A2A Simulations BONANZA ACCU-SIM V35B, Manual

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www.a2asimulations.com ACCU-SIM V35B BONANZA ::: A2A SIMULATIONS
109
FOR SIMULATION USE ONLY
Maintenance Hangar (Shift 7)
The maintenance hangar is where you can review the cur-
rent state of your aircraft and its major systems. It is one of
the core elements to visualizing Accusim at work.
With the invaluable assistance of your local aircraft mainte-
nance engineer/technician, a.k.a. “grease monkey”, you will
be able to see a full and in-depth report stating the following:
• A summary of your airframe, engine
and propeller installed.
• Total airframe hours, and engine hours
since the last major overhaul.
• General condition of the engine.
• Important notes provided by the ground crew.
From the maintenance hangar, you can also carry out a
complete overhaul, by clicking the COMPLETE OVERHAUL
button in the bottom right corner. This will overhaul the
engine and replace any parts that are showing signs of
wear or damage, with new or re-conditioned parts.
In order to fix any issues the mechanic has flagged up, we
need to inspect the engine in greater detail. By left clicking
the “CHECK ENGINE” text on the engine cover, it will open
the following window.
COLOR CODES:
• GREEN: OK
• YELLOW: WATCH
• RED: MUST FIX OR REPLACE
Heavy wear or a component failure will be shown in red,
and these components must be replaced.
We can choose to continue flying with the worn compo-
nents, but extra care should be used and a close eye kept on
those systems/components.
Any component with a yellow highlight is worn, but not
unserviceable, so do not have to be replaced.
Compression Test
At the lower right hand corner is a “COMPRESSION TEST”
button, which will tell your mechanic to run a high pressure
differential compression test on the engine cylinders.
This is done by compressed air being applied through
a regulator gauge to the tester in the cylinder. The gauge
would show the total pressure being applied to the cylinder.
The compressed air would then pass through a calibrated
restrictor and to the cylinder pressure gauge. This gauge would
show the actual air pressure within the cylinder.
Any difference in pressure between the two gauges would
indicate a leak of air past the engine components, whether
that is the valves, piston rings, or even a crack in the cyl-
inder wall itself.
The readings that your mechanic presents to you in the
“Compression Test Results” in the notes section, will be
annotated with the actual amount of pressure read in the cyl-
inder over the actual pressure that was applied to the cylinder
through the regulator.
Low compression on a cylinder isn’t nec essarily a ter-
rible thing, because as the en gine picks up in speed, the
worn cylinder becomes productive. It is mostly noticed at
lower RPM’s where the cylinder may have trouble firing,
and also a marked increase in oil consumption may also
occur (sometimes with an accompanying blue smoke out of
that cylinder during flight).
However, note that this is a reading of the general condi-
tion of the cylinders, and lower condition does bring addi-
tional risks of failure, or even engine fires.