Problem Reports

When I worked at McDonnell Aircraft in St. Louis in the mid 70's there was a department of around 80 people consisting mostly of engineers responsible for corrective action on the F-4, F-15, F-18, AV-8B and subassenblies for the DC-9 and DC-10. Every Scrap Tag and Material Review Record from the Material Review Board (MRB), and field trouble reports were reviewed and tracked for problem trends at arms length from the individual events but full access to every facility, every department and all personnel and vendors was available. All suspicious items were investigated on the production floor, in the labs, the engineering departments, at the vendor facilities, etc. On the F-15 and F-18 and elite set of engineers were assigned to most critical systems RADAR, Engines, etc. This system and organization was very effective in bringing about corrective action in a timely manner.

The reason I mention this is the recent thread about engine cylinders not processed properly which was emotionally debated with support for customer service etc. The fact that this company had these cylinders in the field seemed to get lost. I had several defective items provided by Van's, Aircraft Spruce and other vendors as I built and flew my RV-6A. It seems to me that a place for posting defective hardware and software problem experience would be a valuable resource for builders. I think this would have to be managed by an objective individual rather than the current forum format.

What do you think?

Bob Axsom

A Wiki is ideal for this. Several moderators would have to scan every couple of weeks to clean things up.

http://wiki.matronics.com/wiki/index.php/RV ??

Edit: I have actually thought of doing something similar like this for my own purposes; that is organized by topic, rather than threaded. Microslush has trended towards this also with their Sharepoint stuff. I run my own servers here so could set a test system up but might have to assess the work load.

I can see the cooling drag section already!