Citation Excel (C560XL)
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Communication Breakdown; Troubleshooting; Confusion
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Maintenance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Flight Crew Took Evasive Action; General Maintenance Action
Aircraft; Procedure; Company Policy
Upon post flight I found water streaking along the outside skin of the tail cone; in between the strakes. Upon further inspection of the tail cone compartment; I found excessive water and condensation on the water separator and all adjacent and associated pipes; and lines. It was following a fairly short flight at 8;000 FT. On ground OAT was 26C and the dew point was 19C. No flight through precipitation was conducted the entire day. Please see attached pictures of the tail cone compartment. Maintenance Control did not want me to send in the discrepancy as they considered it as only condensation. An A&P that replenished oil into the aircraft's engine mentioned it seemed excessive to him as well. I chose to send Maintenance Control the attached pictures and they still believed I shouldn't write-up the discrepancy.I chose to contact the on duty Chief Pilot who was thankfully very helpful. He agreed that I should write-up the discrepancy as an AOG write-up. I wanted the a review of the maintenance discrepancy and the associated pictures so as to provide me with the education to know whether such amounts of water and condensation is safe to continue the operation. Particularly; in light of the numerous flight control malfunctions in the XL/XLS fleet; allegedly due to excess water in the tail cone compartment.Does an excessive amount of condensation potentially indicate a bleed air leak? It seems that the XL/XLS fleet has had more than a few of those lately. Though; it would be nice to know which systemic issues truly exist in each fleet; rather then; rely on the words exchanged around the 'water cooler.'
A CE-560XLS Captain found what he considered excessive moisture on the underside of the tail cone; but was told by Maintenance not to enter a maintenance log entry. In light of previous flight control issues with tail cone ice; a log entry was made.