B767-200
Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Communication Breakdown; Distraction; Troubleshooting
ATC Issue All Types; Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Flight Crew Returned To Clearance; Flight Crew Overcame Equipment Problem; Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification; General Maintenance Action
Aircraft
Departed runway XX in ZZZ with no issues. During our climb out everything was normal and we retracted flaps on schedule. After bringing the flaps to the UP position and indicating UP we received a takeoff config warning for flaps. This was confusing and alarming seeing how we were receiving a takeoff configuration warning while in flight: CONFIGURATION discrete light; FLAPS EICAS; and aural warning horn. I was the PM (Pilot Monitoring) so I ran the QRH for the issue. The QRH gave no guidance for this alarm while in flight. I directed my FO (First Officer) to stay below 240 knots and we leveled off at 14;000 ft. while with ZZZ center. I advised ATC of our situation and decided to remain on our flight plan route but would be staying low and at 230 knots while working our issue. We eventually climbed to FL200 and stayed at 230 knots to protect the flap max altitude and flap speeds in case we had flaps out that were not indicating properly. Attempting to silence the takeoff configuration warning horn we brought the flaps to 1 and the alarm turned off. When we brought the flaps back to zero eventually the takeoff configuration warning came back on and could not be silenced. At this time I had my FO fly the airplane and talk to ATC while I contacted the company. Being on a 767-200 with no satcom or ACARS I used ARINC (Aeronautical Radio; Inc.) to get a phone patch to dispatch. Once I was communicating with Dispatch I advised them of our situation and got patched in with maintenance control. I explained the situation to maintenance control and then it took a few minutes for them to get back to me. They had us troubleshoot the alarm by reducing the thrust lever position. With the thrust lever reduced the alarm turned off. With this information maintenance control confirmed that there was a sensor issue causing the takeoff configuration warning to activate in flight. Communicating with maintenance control was difficult due to the horn and a weak and almost unreadable phone patch. After we determined this was a sensor issue; I was trying to ask if there was any way we could silence the alarm and got no response from maintenance. This whole process took until we were around the ZZZ2 area; about halfway to ZZZ1. At this time I heard a phone ringing sound over the radio and radio advised us that our phone patch had dropped. I advised them we needed to switch [frequencies] to stay in their radio coverage. Next; I requested to be patched back to Dispatch but after multiple attempts we were never able to be patched back to company. I tried two or three more times and never got the phone patch back. During the flight I was monitoring fuel. We were planned to land with 15;000lbs of fuel. Halfway in to the flight with us re-cruised to FL200 and 230 kts we were showing landing fuel of 17.8. I made the decision to continue to ZZZ1. At this point with our issue being confirmed as a sensor issue and plenty of fuel to make it to ZZZ1 and the takeoff configuration warning light; EICAS and horn were still on. The warning horn is very loud and very distracting. After talking with my FO we decided for the safety of the flight and our ability to communicate effectively to pull the aural warning circuit breakers to silence the aural warning horn. After doing this the horn stopped. I briefed my FO that we would not have altitude call outs on our approach. My FO had the idea and briefed me that once we had flaps deployed and the CONFIGURATION warning extinguished to reset the left aural warning circuit breaker so we would get normal aural alerts on approach and landing. This breaker is directly above the Captain's seat so it was easy to push back in. We landed uneventfully and with 17;000 some pounds of fuel in ZZZ1. Upon parking and talking with maintenance; they advised me that right nose wheel was showing cord down the middle of the tire. Their theory was that the tire was wearing too much on the scrubber after gear retraction and it was possible part ofthe tire destroyed the nosewheel air-ground sensor. Having this odd takeoff warning issue in flight was quite confusing and distracting with the warning horn blaring for 30 minutes while we were trying to fly; communicate and troubleshoot. This was an odd maintenance issue. Our plane was airworthy when we left ZZZ and the nosewheel tire was fine my FO and maintenance did exterior walk arounds and no defects were found. This weird situation took a lot of communication and troubleshooting. I think my FO and myself worked well and had good CRM during this event. I kept my FO in the loop with maintenance control and my FO kept me up with ATC. I think we made a good decision to stay low and slow to protect the flaps just in case there was some issue with a flap or slat hanging out that shouldn't have been. Being on a 767-200 with no SATCOM or ACARS makes communicating with the company difficult. Our VHF phone patch to the company was hard to understand and communicate. Multiple times I had to repeat myself; speaking slowly and deliberately. I had to tell maintenance control multiple times to speak up and slow down. When on with maintenance control I could hear multiple people in the background while we were talking. It seemed like they were using their phone on speaker phone; making it hard to understand them. Also I don't know why we lost the connection with them when I heard a phone ringing sound. ZZZ radio advised me that they hung up on us. This obviously was not good because I was unable to reestablish communication with the company and I don't understand why they would hang up on an airplane in flight. I would advise maintenance control to use their hand set or a head set while communicating with an aircraft in flight to help with communication clarity. SATCOM would have made communicating much easier than a VHF phone patch. I considered [requesting priority handling] but decided against it after troubleshooting with the company and determining this was just a sensor problem. Our flaps worked properly; we had plenty of fuel but we were distracted by the takeoff configuration horn blaring at us. In hindsight; [requesting priority handling] might have helped us get better communication with the company using ATC to help us communicate with them.
While climbing out from ZZZ we started to get a takeoff configuration warning. We consulted the QRH then contacted MX and determined it was a sensor issue. However; we were unable to silence the alarm while the flaps were up; so in the interest of safety and reducing distractions; we pulled the aural warning circuit breakers while we were in cruise. As we configuration for the approach we pushed a circuit breaker back in to get the RA callouts for our approach and landing phase of flight. We also monitored fuel quality while flying at a different altitude and airspeed than planned.
B767-200 flight crew reported malfunctioning flap sensor after flap retraction.