RAT Probe....
Hi guys,
I'm 6 hours behind on your guys, so I'm always behind on answers.
To the poster whom asked about exactly what probe they were referring to.
If the captian indeed mentioned that a light came on, it would indeed be the RAT probe as no other temp probe malfunction is indicated by caution lights. The PITOT/STALL HEATER OFF caution light may be a possible light.
But, this caution light would not come on if the plane thought it was in airborne mode and started heating the plane on the ground. The light does not illuminate either if after the plane is airborne the RAT heating fails to illuminate. coincidentally a year or 2 ago, we focused on this system as it's circuitry is very complex, causing this light to illuminate in situations where the systems manuals would lead you to beleive it wouldn't. But the whole point of checking the current to the probe in the after TO checklist is that the system will not trigger the caution light if it fails to heat.
So with the current info I can't even suspect that the plane was in air mode. If it was, there would have been clues to that from earlier on. BUT !....if it was, if memeory serves me correctly they could also have problems in retracting the gear. This explains their decision to abort the N-1 takeoff. Max weight, engine failure and a gear that fails to retract???
In that case, we are talking about the wrong probe. Because the caution light DOES illuminate if the rudder limiter, pitot/static heats and AOA vanves fail to work. But on the other hand, it has nothing to do with being on the ground or airborne.
So you understand that I find this situation VERY vague. As someone also mentioned I find it unreasonably vague. In 2 days' time someone must know what light it was and what system it was. These explanations just don't make sense to me. In other words "I smell a rat". If it's there or net remains to be seen.
So being in airborne can make the crew decide to come back down, but I don't see any evidence that they could have been in airborne mode.
Xander