c/avionics-technicians

Spent last Thursday chasing a ghost signal on a CRJ700 at the Seattle hangar

Turns out it was a loose ground strap on the HF coupler that had been rattling for months. Checked every box in the manual but skipped the obvious. Any of you guys ever waste a whole shift on something that dumb?

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cooper.nathan•3d ago

Ditched the Fluke 87V for a Brymen 869S after 15 years

I used Fluke meters my whole career but after my last 87V died I grabbed a Brymen 869S for $180 less and it reads more stable on those noisy 787 power supplies. Has anyone else made the switch or am I just lucky so far?

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the_shane•19d ago

I finally had that talk with a pilot who kept questioning every reading I gave him

There's this one commercial pilot out of Phoenix who always double checks every single reading I give him on the satcom system. Last month he pulled me aside after a preflight and said 'I just don't trust the numbers you guys hand me because one time in 2019 a bad cable messed up my approach.' He told me about a near miss over Denver because a connector was loose. Idk, part of me gets it because lives are on the line, but another part of me thinks if we're doing our job right the numbers are solid. Has anyone else dealt with a pilot who made you question your own work just by how they looked at you?

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roberts.troy•21d ago

Wasted $80 on a fancy coaxial stripper that only worked twice

Saw this premium ratcheting coax stripper online, supposedly the best thing since sliced bread for avionics work. Ordered it for $80 and felt like a pro stripping my first cable with it. On the third use, the blade snapped clean off inside the tool and jammed it up. Tried to warranty it but the company ghosted me. Anyone else get burned by a tool that looked legit but fell apart fast?

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chen.james•22d ago

Spent 4 hours tracing a ghost wire on a Gulfstream G550 last Thursday

Last Thursday I was working on a G550 at our hangar in Miami. There was this intermittent fault in the nav system that kept popping up on post-flight checks. I spent 4 hours chasing a wire that looked fine on the schematic but turned out to be chafed inside a conduit bundle near the bulkhead. The insulation was barely split, just enough to arc when the plane hit turbulence. Has anyone else dealt with hidden chafing like that, or do I just need better inspection habits?

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ben827•24d ago

Old lead avionics tech told me to stop using dielectric grease on all connectors

A guy with 20 years on me at Delta said I was overdoing it with dielectric grease on every pin and plug. Turns out he was right after I spent 4 hours cleaning grease out of a connector that caused intermittent faults on a 737 nav system. How do you tell when grease helps versus when it just makes a mess?

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lunashah•25d ago

Good week: fixed a faulty autopilot servo on a King Air in under 2 hours with just a multimeter and a steady hand

What made it stand out was that the previous guy had swapped the whole unit at $4,000 when it was just a corroded ground wire hidden behind a connector, has anyone else had a job where the easy fix totally saved the day?

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veramartin•29d ago

Just left a regional airline hangar and I'm fuming about the wiring I saw

I visited a small MRO facility outside Orlando last week to help a buddy with an STC install on a CRJ. The stuff they had under the floor panels was a mess - zip ties everywhere, no service loops, and wires rubbing right against sharp edges. In my experience, that kind of work gets you a grounded plane and a big fine from the FAA. Has anyone else noticed corners getting cut like this at smaller shops?

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amyr57•29d ago

Noticed something weird at the Burbank airport hangar visit

I was over at the Burbank airport last Tuesday helping a buddy look at a Cessna 172 that had a bad comm radio. While I was poking around the back of the avionics rack, I noticed the ground strap was bolted to a painted surface instead of bare metal. That little oversight can cause all kinds of noise issues. The plane had been through three radio swaps in the last year and nobody caught it. We cleaned it up and put the strap on bare aluminum. Fixed the noise problem right away. Has anyone else seen something like that on a plane that went through multiple shops without being caught?

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finley_harris5•29d ago

Spent 6 hours chasing a ghost in a King Air 200 avionics rack

Ngl, I was troubleshooting a bad audio panel that kept dropping the right comm. Turned out a ground screw was loose by about a quarter turn, but it took me that long because I pulled half the rack apart first. Has anyone else had a ground issue that made you feel like an idiot after?

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finley_harris5•1mo ago

Lost $150 on a fancy multimeter that couldn't take a drop from 4 feet

I bought this high end Fluke knockoff from a guy on Craigslist last summer. Felt like a steal at the time. First day on the ramp I clipped it to my belt and it fell on the tarmac. Screen went dead and now it just shows a line of pixels. Shoulda just bought the real thing new. Anyone else got burned by a tool that seemed too good to be true?

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davis.ivan•1mo ago

Appreciation post: That jig I built saved me 4 hours today

Working on a Cessna 172 panel upgrade at KAPA last week. Had to drill all new holes for a Garmin G5. First time I used my custom drill jig instead of measuring each time. Lined up perfect on the first try. Anybody else build their own jigs for repetitive panel jobs?

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jennifer_west52•1mo ago

Tried putting a cheap heat gun on a stubborn connector and melted the housing clean off

Was working on a Cessna 172 pitot-static line quick disconnect that wouldn't budge after 5 years of corrosion, figured a little heat would help, but my $20 Harbor Freight gun got way too hot way too fast and now I'm ordering a $90 replacement part - anybody got a better trick for separating seized avionics fittings without wrecking them?

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gavinross•1mo ago

Hit 1,000 pin repairs on circuit boards last week and it got me thinking about standards

So I was going through my logbook and noticed I've done over 1,000 pin repairs on avionics boards in the last 3 years. That number surprised me because I started out dreading those tiny traces. Some guys swear by the epoxy method for lifted pads, others say just jumper wire everything and move on. I've had better luck with the conductive pen approach on older Collins gear, but on newer boxes it feels like a gamble every time. What's your go-to method for pin repairs that actually holds up long term?

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brookef73•1mo ago

DAE notice new guys keep using the wrong crimper for D-sub pins?

I was training a fresh hire last week and he grabbed the insulated terminal crimper for a DB9 connector instead of the ratcheting one, which ruined three pins before I caught it. It's a small thing but that loose connection can fail on a bumpy flight, and I've seen it ground planes twice in my 8 years at the shop. Am I the only one who still keeps an old stamped ratcheting crimper from 2007 in their toolbox just for these jobs?

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ray_carr•1mo ago

Just caught a shop cutting corners on connector crimps

I overheard a lead tech at a depot last week telling his junior to just tin the wires and shove them in, skip the crimp entirely... That's a fire waiting to happen on a 737. Anyone else run into shops trying to rush through terminations like this?

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averym82•1mo ago

Figured out I was grounding straps wrong after 5 years on the job

I work at a regional airline in Memphis and last month we had a 737 with a weird static discharge issue. I been checking the grounding straps the same way since I started, just making sure they looked tight and clean. My lead came over and pointed out I was installing them with the wrong orientation. He said the strands need to fan out in a specific direction to actually work right. I had been flipping them around and probably causing more problems than I fixed on a dozen planes. It was a simple thing but nobody ever corrected me before. Anyone else have a basic skill they messed up for years without knowing?

2 comments

hall.alex•1mo ago

Fixed a finicky transponder with a wire tie trick

Had a KT76 that would drop its reply on cold mornings at the hangar in Anchorage. Chased ground loops for two hours before an old tech told me to zip tie the coax tight to the tray. Anyone ever seen vibration kill signal like that in a piston single?

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lilys81•1mo ago

Shoutout to the old timer who talked me through a fried autopilot servo on the ramp in Tucson

Last month I was working a Cessna 172 at KRYN and the autopilot kept dropping out on approach. I was ready to just swap the whole servo assembly and call it a day. This 60 year old mechanic who was fueling next to me walked over and asked if I checked the clutch voltage first. I hadn't lol. He showed me how to adjust it with a multimeter and a tiny screwdriver. Fixed it in 15 minutes. Saved the shop over $600 on a new servo. Has anyone else had a simple fix like that save your butt on an expensive part?

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kair65•1mo ago

Spent 8 hours on a comms fault that was just a bad crimp

Had a plane in for a radio check, kept getting static and dropouts. Ran full tests on the box, the antenna, even pulled the coax. Everything looked fine on the meter. Finally, on a hunch, I re-did the connector crimp on the cockpit end. The old one looked okay but must have had a tiny crack. Whole job took a full shift when it should have been an hour. How do you guys test for those sneaky bad crimps that don't show up right away?

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dakotal16•1mo ago

Shoutout to the old guy at the hangar who told me to use a heat gun on a stubborn cannon plug

I was fighting a jammed connector for an hour, and his trick to gently warm the housing worked in under 2 minutes. Anyone else have a weird but effective trick that goes against the book?

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averym82•1mo ago

A guy in a hangar in Phoenix showed me a trick with a zip tie and a flashlight

I was working on a stubborn comms antenna connector on a King Air, couldn't get my head in the right spot to see the locking collar. This old guy, name was Frank, walks over from the next bay. He doesn't say a word, just takes a zip tie and threads it through the loop on a small flashlight. He cinches it down so the light points straight out, then hooks the zip tie over the edge of the avionics bay. He said, 'Now you got two hands free and the light stays put.' It was so simple, but I'd been fighting with holding a light in my mouth for years. I've used that trick on probably a dozen jobs since. Anyone else have a simple tool hack for tight spaces?

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thomas.piper•1mo ago

Just realized my old boss in Tulsa was right about the manuals

Had a beer with a guy who used to work on F-16s and he said, 'The book is faster than your brain after 2am.' Blew a whole Friday night on a 737 comms fault because I was sure I'd seen it before. How do you fight the urge to skip the first step?

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anna_carter53•1mo ago

A bad batch of solder paste cost me a full day on a repair job

I grabbed a new jar of generic solder paste for a quick antenna coax repair last Tuesday. The stuff just would not flow right, it kept beading up and leaving cold joints. I spent about six hours reworking the same connection, checking my iron temp and flux over and over. Turns out the paste was way past its shelf life and had separated. Has anyone else had this happen with off-brand supplies? What's your go-to brand for paste that you trust?

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margaret99•1mo ago

A job in Phoenix made me rethink my wire crimping routine

I was working on a Citation's autopilot system and a senior tech saw me using my old hand tool. He said, 'That's a 50/50 shot at a good crimp under vibration.' I switched to a calibrated ratcheting crimper the next day. Has anyone else had a specific tool habit they changed after a similar wake-up call?

2 comments