MD-83
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Troubleshooting; Human-Machine Interface; Distraction; Workload
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical
Flight Crew Returned To Departure Airport; General Maintenance Action; General Declared Emergency
Aircraft; Human Factors
Climbing through approximately 9;000 FT both PFDs and NDs started to flicker. About 15 seconds later; we both lost our PFDs and NDs. We then lost both of our airspeed indicators; altimeters; IVSIs; heading indicators; and clocks. We then got an AC crosstie lockout message. We went through our Emergency QRH procedures and nothing helped. I then contacted Dispatch; advised we had a critical situation and agreed to declare an emergency and return to our departure airport. We asked for vectors and an altitude block since we had lost everything. We landed without further complications. This aircraft has an extensive history of electrical failures and several test flights were completed. Our flight was the first revenue flight to be conducted after the last test flight was done. After landing we returned to the gate and were given another aircraft at another gate which we flew to our destination. After we pushed back from the gate and had been de-iced for our return flight we never got a spool-up on the right engine. I waited five or six minutes to let the engine idle trying to accelerate the engine but was unsuccessful. We called Maintenance Control who advised us to shut this engine down; wait for it to cool down and then restart it; which we did. We waited about 9 to 10 minutes and then attempted to advance the throttle forward. It took a couple of minutes but we finally got a normal spool. Maintenance advised this particular engine had history with this issue. We took over an hour delay on the ground. I asked Maintenance Control if they considered this engine safe for operation and they said yes. I also did run-ups to make sure I was comfortable with this engine. Both my First Officer and I agreed along with Maintenance Control that it was safe to continue our return flight. We had no other complications on this leg. After landing I was met by two mechanics. I spent approximately 35 minutes going over all the issues we had on both aircraft; mostly the first one. I do know Maintenance is trying to get the electrical issue solved as the logbook documents all the troubleshooting they have done; along with all the test flights. I do believe that these delays could have been avoided if several more test flights could have been conducted to help solve these irregularities. It was great to see Maintenance waiting for me at the gate to discuss what actually happened. I know that this will help in getting these issues solved in a timelier manner.
An air carrier flight crew dealt with multiple failures with both their initially assigned MD-83 and the second aircraft provided after their return with the first.