Citation V/Ultra/Encore (C560)
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Troubleshooting; Distraction; Training / Qualification; Communication Breakdown
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Flight Crew Took Evasive Action; General Maintenance Action; General Release Refused / Aircraft Not Accepted; General Flight Cancelled / Delayed
Company Policy; Procedure; Aircraft
I was the Captain. We were scheduled to pick the plane out of Maintenance and ferry it. After starting up I noticed that on my left PFD there was a red boxed DCP displayed and my display control panel was not working. I shut down the left engine and called Maintenance Control. I told him my problem and that I still had an engine running and avionics on if he wanted to see if Local Maintenance had an avionics technician that could come out before I shut down and turned off avionics. He immediately started asking if we could MEL it. I told him no; that none of my DCP buttons worked such as altimeter. He then asked if we were still running. I told him yes and did he want to see if Local Maintenance had someone to come out and look at it before I shut down. He said he couldn't get someone. He then asked that I shutdown and unplug the battery for ten minutes and see if that would clear it up. I asked if that was an approved procedure to clear up this issue and if so would he please fax me the information. He said no; they have issue like this and that this was like a 'CTL-ALT-DELETE' and they do it all the time. I then again asked for an approved procedure and for that information to be sent to me. He said he didn't have that. I told him I would be sending in the write up. Shortly after getting off the phone with Assistant Chief Pilot; Maintenance called and asked me what was going on. I told him the story and reaffirmed that I was not going to 'CTL-ALT-DELETE' the plane and hope that this fixes the problem. He then asked me to unplug battery and told me a story about one time in the Encore Plus he had an avionics issue and that Maintenance was unable to duplicate. I told him there was an issue and I wasn't going to do an undocumented procedure to clear it. He tried to make the argument that we pull the battery every night and so thus was a documented procedure. I countered with yes we do pull the battery every night but not because we are trying to clear a maintenance issue. I told him I was writing it up but I would go out and turn the plane back on and see if the issue was still there; which it was. The next day we picked up the plane out of maintenance and the problem was found to be a chafed wire in the dash. I feel both the Maintenance Controller and Assistant Chief Pilot were putting pressure on me to find a way for the problem to fix itself so we could ferry out instead of trying to find the real issue with the plane. Pressuring crews to 'CTL-ALT-DELETE' a problem away should be stopped unless there is a FAA approved documented procedure. All Maintenance controllers and assistant chief pilots need to be trained.
After engine start; a C-560 PFD indicated a fault and the pilot discovered the Display Control Panel was not functional. Maintenance asked that he shutdown and pull the battery but he refused and learned the following day that a chafed wire was discovered.