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My A&P instructor said something 8 years ago in Tulsa that finally clicked last week
Had a kid come up to me in the hangar last week asking how I know when a torque wrench is actually done. I started explaining click types and beam types and calibration stickers, all that stuff. Then I heard my old instructor's voice in my head, clear as day, from a class in Tulsa back in 2016. He put down a wrench and told us 'the tool ain't the one that says it's right, you are.' I brushed it off back then like everyone else did. But standing there with this kid, 20 years old and holding a wrench like it might bite him, I got it. He wanted a rule. A number. A sticker that says done. Same way I did at his age. So I told him to snug two bolts on a scrap bracket and feel it. Then feel one that's 5 ft-lbs light. He looked at me weird for a second, then spent 40 minutes at that bench. Anyone else have a moment where an old saying from school finally made sense way later?
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harris.james17d ago
Man, that hits home. I had the same thing happen with an old carpenter telling me "measure twice cut once" and I rolled my eyes for years until I started building a deck and realized he wasn't talking about measuring at all. He was talking about slowing down your brain before it runs off on you. That torque wrench story is the same lesson dressed up different. We all want the tool, the sticker, the app, the little green checkmark to tell us we did it right, but knowing comes from your hands and your gut and you only get that from doing it a hundred times. The kid spent 40 minutes at that bench and he probably learned more there than in a whole week of class.
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