You guys need to make more of these, PLEASE! They are incredibly useful in a world where they want us to pay $600-$2800 for training as specific as this. When you're a small GA Municipally owned airport 2½ hours from the nearest Interstate in Maine, the city that owns and operates the airport can't afford to do much of that! I've learned more in the safety video and this video than with any other video on RU-vid! Thanks for making them, please do more!
I just started as the airport maintenance operator at palmer airport and airfield lighting repair is in my job description, i am not an electrician. These videos have been a great help thanks beav! My friend does airfield lighting for DOT in the MatSu valley so i do have someone to call with question so dont get the smoke let outta me.
@@dennisdeering7010hey Dennis wanted to ask you a question with a problem we’re having in our airfield if you can maybe give me some trouble shooting tips lmk
The ADB Cut-Outs that we use do not short the input and output when the Cut-Out is pulled - it creates an open circuit. You are correct that some Cut-Outs automatically short the input and output when pulled. If this is the case you will have to put an insulator under the output shorting clip or remove the output wires to create an open.
I think he was referring to rotating the cover 90° and 270° and reinstalling them. The first grounds the outbound line and the second shorts the CCR to use in testing and troubleshooting. They apparently also have separate blue and gray maintenance SCO covers, one grounding the outbound line side of the primary like rotating the standard cover, but the other one grounds the inbound side of the primary. I'm trying to see if ADB still offers them to purchase because you don't need them until you need them, and tada! I need them. Unfortunately I don't have a full circuit of elevated light posts to widdle down the location of the issue like he showed us here. We have two class 1 L-829 CCRs, one which powers the AGL circuit at 4.8 amps and one which powers our two single channel L-881 PAPI systems, both normally set to Remote and activated by an L-854 RCE through pilot controlled lighting. Of course it's the PAPI CCR and/or circuit which is giving us the issue, the ACE3 system spitting out an OpenCircuit fault code, which seems like it would be straight forward. Unfortunately, this comment section doesn't offer enough room to truly breakdown how this fault started, progressed, and ultimately ended up, but suffice to say it doesn't really care about logic. That said, a quick impedance measurement of the primary line made it clear that whatever is going on is very likely somewhere in the CCR cabinet. If I were a betting man, I'd put my money on a bad relay, somewhere stuck in the open position, confusing our poor CCR ACE3 system!
Very informative. You are wrong about the double fault lighting through a ground. It lights from both ends through the regulator. We also don't use the cutout anymore because it can create more problems. It's better to find the actual problem in the field with a megger with the block out.
To answer @159jakelong"s question: Airfield lighting is a constant current AC series circuit and basically a big loop. There is no neutral and no ground. That's confusing if you are used to working with standard constant voltage parallel systems. If you would like a more thorough explanation of this I'd suggest looking at another You Tube video called TSAIA - Airfield Lighting Safety Program.
I got shocked from what I can only figure was the primary side of a circuit once. I had just changed the light and was grabbing at the bolts as I was also standing up. At that moment, I heard a *crack* and I felt my muscles convulse and for a brief moment I felt a 60Hz electric shock. Would I have not been in the process of standing up, I suspect I'd have fallen down and gotten possibly locked onto the can and wouldn't be writing this now. It didn't stop me from relamping hot though. I didn't sit through the whole video, but when troubleshooting remember that cans can explode. I saw this once. That white atmosphere inside of the can is vaporized wire insulation with nowhere to go--and it's flammable. We found a fault that was still arcing and thankfully everyone had wandered away from it before it exploded in a 4-5 foot fireball when oxygen got down low enough it reached the arc. Fixtures can be blown up in faults too, the water in the can boils and creates enough pressure it can blow the fixture into your face when the bolts are taken loose. If you're troubleshooting, either turn it off before you open the can or just loosen the bolts and use a pry bar to get the fixture just off the ground so you can see if steam and smoke start billowing out from it. And remember to clamp everything before you disconnect it. I left my airfield job thinking I';d be getting more money but instead found less money and a job I don't like. I miss getting paid to play frogger with airplanes.
Doesn't pulling the S-1 cutout cause both sides of cutout to short together? If so, then when checking for a fault you would need to disconnect the wires at the S-1 cutout not just remove the cutout switch.
