PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Convair 340 (C-131D) ZS-BRV crash Pretoria, South Africa
Old 13th Aug 2018, 09:54
  #305 (permalink)  
Chris Scott
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Blighty (Nth. Downs)
Age: 77
Posts: 2,107
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Thanks for the superb cockpit photos, megan, although an even closer shot of the engine instruments would be even better. I'm going to try and describe them in case it helps anyone and, perhaps, prompts a discussion on the problem of failure identification.

As expected, on the L/H side of the centre panel, the design and layout of the primary engine instruments - typical of the period - is an ergonomic nightmare.
There seems to be one BMEP gauge per engine (a parameter with which I',m not familiar), side by side.
Underneath the left BMEP gauge is a single manifold-pressure gauge, employing two concentric needles; one for each engine.
Underneath the right BMEP gauge is a single RPM gauge, employing two concentric needles; one for each engine.
All these gauges would be difficult to read from the co-pilot's seat, and subject to parallax error (particularly on the twin-needle gauges).

Further right on the centre panel, the gauges for the other engine parameters are of a similar size. Being for piston engines, they cover a far greater range of parameters than pilots have to deal with on modern turbine engines. Although a gauge - such as the one for cylinder-head temperature - covers both engines on one gauge, the twin needles are in most cases separate - typical of the period. This reduces the sweep of the needle, but reduces the chance of misidentifying which engine is which.
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