Narrative:

I was the captain. We were scheduled to pick the plane out of maintenance and ferry it. After starting up I noticed that on my left pfd there was a red boxed dcp displayed and my display control panel was not working. I shut down the left engine and called maintenance control. I told him my problem and that I still had an engine running and avionics on if he wanted to see if local maintenance had an avionics technician that could come out before I shut down and turned off avionics. He immediately started asking if we could MEL it. I told him no; that none of my dcp buttons worked such as altimeter. He then asked if we were still running. I told him yes and did he want to see if local maintenance had someone to come out and look at it before I shut down. He said he couldn't get someone. He then asked that I shutdown and unplug the battery for ten minutes and see if that would clear it up. I asked if that was an approved procedure to clear up this issue and if so would he please fax me the information. He said no; they have issue like this and that this was like a 'control-altitude-delete' and they do it all the time. I then again asked for an approved procedure and for that information to be sent to me. He said he didn't have that. I told him I would be sending in the write up. Shortly after getting off the phone with assistant chief pilot; maintenance called and asked me what was going on. I told him the story and reaffirmed that I was not going to 'control-altitude-delete' the plane and hope that this fixes the problem. He then asked me to unplug battery and told me a story about one time in the encore plus he had an avionics issue and that maintenance was unable to duplicate. I told him there was an issue and I wasn't going to do an undocumented procedure to clear it. He tried to make the argument that we pull the battery every night and so thus was a documented procedure. I countered with yes we do pull the battery every night but not because we are trying to clear a maintenance issue. I told him I was writing it up but I would go out and turn the plane back on and see if the issue was still there; which it was. The next day we picked up the plane out of maintenance and the problem was found to be a chafed wire in the dash. I feel both the maintenance controller and assistant chief pilot were putting pressure on me to find a way for the problem to fix itself so we could ferry out instead of trying to find the real issue with the plane. Pressuring crews to 'control-altitude-delete' a problem away should be stopped unless there is a FAA approved documented procedure. All maintenance controllers and assistant chief pilots need to be trained.

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: After engine start; a C-560 PFD indicated a fault and the pilot discovered the Display Control Panel was not functional. Maintenance asked that he shutdown and pull the battery but he refused and learned the following day that a chafed wire was discovered.

Narrative: I was the Captain. We were scheduled to pick the plane out of Maintenance and ferry it. After starting up I noticed that on my left PFD there was a red boxed DCP displayed and my display control panel was not working. I shut down the left engine and called Maintenance Control. I told him my problem and that I still had an engine running and avionics on if he wanted to see if Local Maintenance had an avionics technician that could come out before I shut down and turned off avionics. He immediately started asking if we could MEL it. I told him no; that none of my DCP buttons worked such as altimeter. He then asked if we were still running. I told him yes and did he want to see if Local Maintenance had someone to come out and look at it before I shut down. He said he couldn't get someone. He then asked that I shutdown and unplug the battery for ten minutes and see if that would clear it up. I asked if that was an approved procedure to clear up this issue and if so would he please fax me the information. He said no; they have issue like this and that this was like a 'CTL-ALT-DELETE' and they do it all the time. I then again asked for an approved procedure and for that information to be sent to me. He said he didn't have that. I told him I would be sending in the write up. Shortly after getting off the phone with Assistant Chief Pilot; Maintenance called and asked me what was going on. I told him the story and reaffirmed that I was not going to 'CTL-ALT-DELETE' the plane and hope that this fixes the problem. He then asked me to unplug battery and told me a story about one time in the Encore Plus he had an avionics issue and that Maintenance was unable to duplicate. I told him there was an issue and I wasn't going to do an undocumented procedure to clear it. He tried to make the argument that we pull the battery every night and so thus was a documented procedure. I countered with yes we do pull the battery every night but not because we are trying to clear a maintenance issue. I told him I was writing it up but I would go out and turn the plane back on and see if the issue was still there; which it was. The next day we picked up the plane out of maintenance and the problem was found to be a chafed wire in the dash. I feel both the Maintenance Controller and Assistant Chief Pilot were putting pressure on me to find a way for the problem to fix itself so we could ferry out instead of trying to find the real issue with the plane. Pressuring crews to 'CTL-ALT-DELETE' a problem away should be stopped unless there is a FAA approved documented procedure. All Maintenance controllers and assistant chief pilots need to be trained.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.