Inertial Separator
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I certainly want to protect against FOD and have experience with several aircraft that use Inertial Separators. Also, the tablet engine pages are certainly indicating some FOD is getting through (even on what appears to be clean pavement).
However, when I went to activate the Inertial Separators I could find no such control - nothing with that label or marking and nothing in the manual. All the manual says is to be sure to activate the the inertial separator vanes.
OK... I finally found a listing that described: The inertial separators are controlled via switches located on the pilot’s right subpanel, marked “ENGINE” among the “ICE PROTECTION” switches. The nearby locking toggle switches marked “ACTUATORS” control whether the ice vanes are positioned by the “MAIN” actuator motors, or the “STBY” motors.
2 things
- What should I use.. Main or Standby?
- Since I'm seeing FOD evidence on almost all surfaces, should I run the Separators on all ground operations through TO?
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I see you found the "Inertial Separators (Ice Vanes)" section of the manual later. You can also find more discussion about them in the "Deicing and Anti-Icing Systems" section, the "Foreign Object Debris Damage" section, and the "Starting Engine" and "Running Engine" tablet page sections.
Which sounds like the normal position for the actuator? Main, or Standby? The two positions select between independent power supplies for the same actuators, so they function exactly the same in normal conditions. Standby should only be used when the main power supply is not responding.
FOD will be reduced in the next update to reflect the engine's position above the wing. Deploying the inertial separators for all ground operations cannot hurt, though retracting them for takeoff will ensure maximum power is available. Although FOD may always be present in some quantity, the cumulative effect of hours of FOD exposure at those trace levels is negligible to the health of the engines.
Always happy to answer more questions!
