On one hand I'm glad it was a simple fix, on the other hand I'm mad I didn't check that spot first because I pulled half the interior out of a Cessna 172 in the hangar in Bakersfield looking for the gremlin, has anyone else had a stupid simple problem eat up an entire shift like that?
I used to think I was hot stuff with my digital schematics on a tablet. Been doing this for about 5 years now. Then this guy who's been fixing planes since the 70s walks over during a lunch break and points out I was ignoring the notes section at the bottom of every page. He said I wasted 2 hours chasing a phantom voltage on a G1000 install because I never checked the rev history on the drawing. I argued at first but he was dead right. Now I start every job by flipping to the last page and reading the revision block and any hand written notes. Anyone else gotten humbled by someone who's been doing this since before most of us were born?
Last month I had a plane throwing intermittent bus failure codes. Checked all the usual suspects, swapped 3 modules, even rewired a connector. Pulled my hair out from 8 AM to 2 PM before I found it. It was a pin in a cannon plug that looked fine but wasn't making contact under vibration. Has anyone else had a ghost fault that took way longer to find than it should have?
I was always one of those guys who thought any old shielding was fine as long as it kept the wires bundled. Then last month I was looking at a bulging harness on a CRJ-200 in our hangar in Phoenix and found a service bulletin from 2019. Turns out a specific type of spiral wrap can trap moisture against the wire bundle, which leads to chafing and eventually shorts. Has anyone else run into a bulletin that totally changed how they do a basic task?
I was working on a King Air 200 at Riverside Airport in Tulsa and the right side NAV display kept flickering. Pulled the panel, reseated all the connectors, checked the wiring diagram twice, and still nothing. Finally noticed a tiny crack in a solder joint on the back of the display connector that only showed up when I flexed the harness. One quick reflow job and it's been solid ever since. Anyone else run into weird intermittent issues that just turn out to be a cold joint hiding in plain sight?
I was always the guy who thought bench testing was just busywork between flights. Then I counted up my logbook and saw 5,000 hours in the air. That number hit me because I realized I've been trusting my own installs and repairs up there the whole time. Now I'm way more careful with my wire splices and connector checks because I know I'll be the one flying with them someday. Anyone else feel different about their ground work after logging a certain number of hours?
He said he just cranks them down by feel, but after finding three loose pins on a nav box last week that caused intermittent failures, has anyone else seen this shortcut cause real problems?
Turned out a ground strap on the number 2 nav unit had a hairline crack from when I swapped out the tray 3 years ago in Tuscaloosa. Has anyone else chased a ghost fault that turned out to be something this dumb?
I got lazy on a D-sub repair last Tuesday and figured I'd add the heatshrink after crimping. Big mistake, had to cut the whole thing off and start over with a fresh pin. Anyone else learn this lesson the hard way or am I the only dummy here?
So last month at the hangar in Miami, my lead walks over and watches me trace a short on a 737 nav unit. He just says "you're putting the test leads on backwards." I've been doing it this way since I started avionics 3 years ago and never had a problem. But I tried it his way and the reading was way cleaner. Anybody else get told they've been doing some basic thing wrong for years?
I mean I spent like 3 years barely touching a real board because my union shop had me doing paperwork and coffee runs. Has anyone else felt like their actual troubleshooting skills didn't kick in until way past the 5,000 hour mark?
Back in 2021 at Piedmont, my lead Frank told me to stop putting anti-seize on spark plugs in the Lycoming engines. I argued with him for like 10 minutes saying it prevents galling and every mechanic I knew used it. He made me torque one dry right in front of him and then we pulled it 50 hours later to check, no issues at all. I learned the hard way that anti-seize messes with your torque readings and can lead to over-torquing in aluminum heads. Has anyone else had a senior tech change their mind on something basic like this?
Back in 2019, a guy named Mike at the Orlando shop told me I was making a mistake using colored tape on harnesses. He swore by a Dymo label maker and said tape gets greasy and falls off. I ignored him for 2 years until I had to trace a bundle on a King Air that had three tape strips all faded to white. Took me 6 hours to sort it out. Mike was right. Does anyone else here still use tape out of habit or have you switched to permanent labels?
I was working on a Cessna 172 at a small airstrip in Texas and this 60 year old mechanic named Pete kept telling me to ignore the multimeter if the pin readings looked borderline. I thought he was being lazy so I replaced a $400 autopilot servo based solely on the meter, and two days later the same fault came back. Turned out there was a corroded ground that the meter couldn't catch because of resistance in the test leads. Has anyone else had a situation where an old school guy was totally right and your fancy tools were wrong?
Had a guy named Pete who's been doing avionics since the 80s tell me last month that 90% of intermittent fault issues are actually bonding or ground problems, not the box itself. I figured he was just being old school and blowing smoke. Then I spent three hours chasing a comm fault on a King KX 155 at the shop near Denver. Replaced antennas, checked wiring, even swapped the radio tray. Nothing worked. Finally gave in and checked the bonding jumper from the tray to the airframe. It was corroded and had like 2 ohms of resistance. Cleaned it up and the problem went away. Now I'm doing a bonding check on every single install before I touch anything else. Has anyone else had a fix that simple that they fought for way too long?
I do a lot of work on older corporate jets here in Wichita, and I keep running into other techs who use those cheap pointed probe tips for everything. The other day a guy was trying to check a connector pin on a Garmin unit and his probe slipped off, shorted two pins, and blew a fuse on the power supply board. Took him an hour to track down the damage. Why are so many guys still using the wrong tips for the job? Has anyone else dealt with this kind of avoidable issue from bad tools?
Pulled the logbook on a slow day and counted 487 successful repairs since my first one, but I still remember that one radio I cooked because I mixed up the pinout on a connector back in 2019 - anyone else keep a running tally in their head of the failures too?
It was a Friday night shift in Chicago, I was exhausted, and swapped a transponder with a similar part number without double-checking the pin layout. The plane flew 12 more legs before someone caught it because it somehow passed all the tests anyway. Has anyone else had one of those "whoops" moments that just worked out?
Was working on a King Air 200 last Tuesday up in Spokane. Got a weird intermittent NAV issue. Pulled every box, checked every breaker, ran my multimeter over every wire I could reach. Finally found it on the last connector I checked. One single pin in a 37 pin cannon plug had green crust all over it. Cleaned it and everything worked. Could have been a 20 minute fix if I checked there first. Anyone else find themselves staring at schematics forever before just looking at the obvious stuff?
Turns out a loose ground wire on the backplane was the culprit, and I spent 45 minutes tracing it with a multimeter before I found the bad crimp - has anyone else run into intermittent power issues on these older glass panels?
I dropped $400 on a nicer DMC crimper set after fighting with cheap ones for years, and it either saved me hours of rework or burned me if the new one doesn't hold up any better in the long run - has anyone else taken that jump and regretted it or felt it was the best money they ever spent?
Honestly, I've been doing avionics for 12 years and I swear by analog signal tracing with a multimeter, but my new partner swears digital analyzers save time. After working on a King Air 350 last month, I saw him catch a wiring fault in 20 minutes that would've taken me an hour. Which method do you all lean on for intermittent issues?
I was up at this mountain-top site doing a routine switch check on the VOR system. Power flickered and went out. Backup generator kicked on fine, then died after about 20 minutes. Turns out the fuel line had a crack from old age and was sucking air. Had to hike down to the truck for a patch kit. Anyone else deal with old fuel lines going bad on standby generators?
I tried saving money with a $15 multimeter to test continuity on a wiring harness. It gave me false readings and I spent 3 hours chasing a problem that wasn't there. Has anyone else had a bad experience using budget test gear?