787 power safety issue
 

December 1, 2016 at 11:05 am
FAA orders Boeing 787 safety fix: Reboot power once in a while



Boeing & Aerospace | The Seattle Times




The FAA is mandating that operators of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner periodically reset the power on the airplane to avoid a glitch that could cause all three computer modules that manage the jet’s flight control surfaces to briefly stop working while in flight.

Operators must periodically shut off and restart the electrical power on the planes, or the power to the three flight control modules. That will avoid the problem until Boeing comes up with a permanent software fix.
In an airworthiness directive scheduled to be published Friday, the FAA said it is reacting to indications that “all three flight control modules on the 787 might simultaneously reset if continuously powered on for 22 days.”
The FAA said such a simultaneous reset in flight “could result in flight control surfaces not moving in response to flight crew inputs for a short time and consequent temporary loss of controllability.”

What a jeap of hunk.

Sounds a bit like a signed 16-bit minute counter wrapping round (22.75 days). Or something far more obscure, but it's less embarrassing to check the obvious ones first.

I trust they mandate that the module power cycling takes place on the ground.

They had a 32-bit counter overflow previously...

And they are talking about pilotless commercial flights!!

It's happened before (on other aircraft types)... it will happen again. Bloody computers :P

And the old joke used to be re tape recorder explaining the wonders of automatic pilots to the passengers- "please sit back and relax- nothing can possibly go wrong go wrong go wrong go wron . . .

" I'm sorry pilot- I cannot do that now . ."

Nothing has changed- welcome to the microsquish blue screen . . .

Spot on, considering some computerized aircraft need a power down cycle at least once a week, and sometimes more than once per day.

Well, MSFT is just right around the corner...

What a jeap of hunk.
 

Sort of like an Apple computer.

Well, they are down from 248 days (Boeing 787 software bug can shut down planes' generators IN FLIGHT ? The Register). They appear to be getting closer to the problem.:ugh: