VMS Fuel Probe Damage

Problem

When Consolidated Freightways delivered my Vision Microsystems fuel probes, it was apparent that the tube the probes were packed in had been crushed. I immediately visually inspected the the probes looking for signs that the either of the probes had been bent or crushed. I did not see any damage, but I did not check the wires carefully.

Weeks later a local Lancair builder was visiting me to look at my fuel probes. We were looking at them very carefully, and found that the wires had been crushed to the extent that the Teflon insulation had been cut so that the inner wires are exposed. The damage is less than 1.5” from the base of the probe, and just beyond the heat-shrink tubing.

I took some very close-up photos of the most severely damaged wire. As depicted in the photo below, the red wire has been damaged to the point that the inner conductive wires were damaged.

The picture below shows that the ends of the probes where the shipping tube was crushed appear to be fine.

The damage is close enough to the base of the probe that I cannot just cut the damaged segment of the wire off, and just use what remains. It does not appear that the base of the probe can be removed to replace the wires.

Resolution

Lancair replaced the fuel probe. The two probes arrived in a 13’ shipping tube. One end of the tube was crushed. Before I signed for the shipment, I got both probes out of the tube, and inspected them for signs of bends or being crushed. I focused on the metal parts, not on the wires. Since I did not spot any damage, I did not bother to document that the tubes were damaged in shipping process. My lesson learned out of this is to document damage to the shipping packages on the bill of lading even if I believe there isn’t any damage to the content. If damage is found later, this will help in making a damage claim to the shipping company. I also learned that a digital camera and the Internet can be a useful combination when trying to “show” something to Lancair support. Although Lancair replaced the probe for me without any problems, I believe that the fact that I had not noted the shipping tube damage on the bill of lading created problems for them.

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