Pressurization Issue Today

Cpt_Kirk

Cpt_Kirk

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Ted Striker
Slow decompression. Got the alarm on the CAWS panel. Donned the masks. Ran through the procedures. Problem persisted. Received clearance down to 8,000. Returned home. LPV approach to 500'. No big deal.

Early day for me. :thumbsup:
 
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Unsettling, to say the least. At what altitude did you start to lose pressurization?
 
What altitude were you at? I guess because it was slow y'all weren't in a hurry to get down to 10K? Not questioning you, just curious.
 
Grace under (lack of) pressure, to poorly paraphrase Hemingway. :):)
 
Glad it worked out well. Go have a beer!

Was it a leak somewhere, or a bleed problem?
 
kayoh190 said:
Glad it worked out well. Go have a beer!

Was it a leak somewhere, or a bleed problem?
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Way ahead of you. :D

I don't believe it was a bleed problem. I'm leaning more towards an outflow valve or controller issue. It's in the shop now and I'll find out soon enough.
 
The only time I've had a pressurization problem (at least one that wasn't <ahem> self induced), it turned out to be an antenna on the belly that tore off. Just plain old plastic fatigue, leading to a small hole where the antenna used to be.
 
"There's nothing wrong with your pressurization system."

Gotta love maintenance.
 
kayoh190 said:
The only time I've had a pressurization problem (at least one that wasn't <ahem> self induced), it turned out to be an antenna on the belly that tore off. Just plain old plastic fatigue, leading to a small hole where the antenna used to be.
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Or Flight Attendent Induced.

Flying along and get a master warning: PACK 2 OVERHEAT

Reason is the flight attendent is hot and thinks full cold setting will solve her issue. This leads to the pack icing up and losing it to an overheat.
 
Weeeellll, they found a crack in the HP line at the firewall. Getting fixed now.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
Much prefer pfffffffffttttttt to: Boom!/fog/pain.
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I agree. I keep running the situation through my head as to what I would have done differently and then with different initial events.

I'm being an armchair quarterback against myself.
 
sferguson524 said:
I'll never get over Macho Grande.
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I love the scene when he gives Elaine all the details of the mission, approach direction, target, altitude to fly under radar etc and she asks when he'll be back..."I can't tell you, it's classified."
 
ARFlyer said:
Or Flight Attendent Induced.

Flying along and get a master warning: PACK 2 OVERHEAT

Reason is the flight attendent is hot and thinks full cold setting will solve her issue. This leads to the pack icing up and losing it to an overheat.
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You guys don't have an over temp/under temp protection on the ERJ? In the summer we have both the cockpit and cabin knobs at full cold and as long as the packs are in auto, they won't freeze or overheat.
 
Happy to hear everything worked out for the better. Even happier the hear that maintenance found the problem.

The only pressurization problem I had was once while climbing through FL200 the CABIN ALTITUDE light came on.

Anyone that has had any time in a pressurized plane knows what I forgot to do.
 
Zeldman said:
Happy to hear everything worked out for the better. Even happier the hear that maintenance found the problem.

The only pressurization problem I had was once while climbing through FL200 the CABIN ALTITUDE light came on.

Anyone that has had any time in a pressurized plane knows what I forgot to do.
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I have no idea what you are speaking of, no pilot has EVER skipped the "pressurization set" item on their checklist, nope never happened! :rolleyes:
After flying pressurized airplanes for 23 years and for the first time having to turn the pressurization off and pull the cabin dump on the ground, it has taken a while so that I don't forget to set it while lined up on the runway for take off. If I forget, I remember at about 800 AGL!! :eek::D
The Conquest I doesn't use an air cycle machine like the II or the Citation, the 414 and 421 use compressed air from the turbos, which aren't producing at low RPMs, so it has taken some getting used to, I am getting much better at it! :D
 
jordane93 said:
You guys don't have an over temp/under temp protection on the ERJ? In the summer we have both the cockpit and cabin knobs at full cold and as long as the packs are in auto, they won't freeze or overheat.
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It has temp protections but the sensor for the cabin is located behind a bulkhead next to the door. So it's always incorrect. The FA will get hot on the ground, push the panel to full cold, while we spool up on takeoff and get multiple pack warnings. The system can't handle full cold on auto while going from idle to full power. The ECIAS message: Pack 1(2) OVHT is that the post pack temp sensor is reading over 250*ish.

It's a crappy A/C system. So most of the time we keep it in manual. The joke is if you like to be hot sit in the back, if you like to be cold sit up front and it rains in the middle.
 
Interesting. Yea it's tough to dial in a good temperature around this time of year. Winter is just full hot and summer is just full cold. We kind of have to keep guessing and monitoring the temps around this time. We'll usually leave it in manual mode until we get roughly what we want then turn it back to auto.
 
N747JB said:
The Conquest I doesn't use an air cycle machine like the II or the Citation, the 414 and 421 use compressed air from the turbos, which aren't producing at low RPMs, so it has taken some getting used to, I am getting much better at it! :D
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That leads me to believe you don't understand the purpose of the ACM, it's for air conditioning, not pressurization.
 
jordane93 said:
Interesting. Yea it's tough to dial in a good temperature around this time of year. Winter is just full hot and summer is just full cold. We kind of have to keep guessing and monitoring the temps around this time. We'll usually leave it in manual mode until we get roughly what we want then turn it back to auto.
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I've never once done it that way on purpose, other than when auto is deferred. It's a great way to freeze the pack up. Not sure who your flying with, but I wouldn't call it common to do it that way.
 
KSCessnaDriver said:
I've never once done it that way on purpose, other than when auto is deferred. It's a great way to freeze the pack up. Not sure who your flying with, but I wouldn't call it common to do it that way.
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I've had a few captains do it that way. We monitor it and we switch it back to auto when we do the after takeoff check.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
how to get it back on, without pax noticing?
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Just set in the altitude like I should have done on the ground.

My passengers were the medical team. So fortunately they were asleep before I took off and never knew any different.
 
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on the one I have forgotten (well, its usually another pilot leaving the switch off and not telling anyone - and its not that easy to see), turning it on at 10K results in popping ears.
 
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