c/avionics-technicians

Caught a guy at the hangar using a flathead screwdriver on a torx fastener again

I had to pull him aside after he stripped the third screw on a nav unit panel and explain that using the right bit saves you an hour of extraction work, has anyone else seen techs ignore basic tool fit on switch panels?

Lost an entire GPS signal in a Cessna 172 over Phoenix last Tuesday

I was doing a routine avionics check at KSDL when the GPS dropped all satellites at 3,500 feet. Turned out a loose coax connector at the antenna base was the culprit after I wasted 30 minutes rethinking the whole install. Anyone else had a bad connector eat up your troubleshooting time?

That old tech who told me to stop being a hero with my multimeter

Back when I was new at a regional outfit in Boise, I had this crusty old guy named Jerry who'd been doing avionics since the 70s. I was trying to trace a weird voltage drop on a King KX 155 nav radio, jumping leads and checking continuity all over the panel. Jerry walked by, watched me for maybe 30 seconds, and said 'put the meter down and look at the connector pins first, kid'. I thought he was full of it, but I checked the D-sub connector on the tray and found a bent pin that was making intermittent contact. Took me 3 minutes to fix what I'd been chasing for nearly an hour. After that I started checking all the physical connections before I even touch a meter. Has anyone else had to learn the hard way that the simplest connection issues can hide behind a perfectly fine wire reading?

Hit exactly 1,000 wire terminations on a single C-130 harness last week

I was working on this avionics harness for a C-130 cargo bay upgrade, and I kept track of every pin and splice out of curiosity. By Friday afternoon, I counted 1,000 terminations on that one harness alone. That number stunned me because I usually lose count after a few hundred on smaller jobs. Has anyone else ever tracked their numbers like that on a big project and got surprised by the total?

Hit 10,000 successful wire terminations today without a single redo

Was just going through my logbook for something else and noticed I crossed the 10k mark on my quality checks. Never thought I'd get there but I've been super careful since I messed up a D-sub pin back in 2019 that caused a 3 hour delay. What milestone numbers do you guys track in your own work?

PSA: I chose the cheap multimeter over Fluke and it bit me hard

Last month on a job at Signature Flight in Dallas, I had to pick between my old Fluke 87V and a cheap $40 meter from Amazon for a quick resistance check on a 737 NG fuel probe. I grabbed the cheap one to save time, but it read 2 ohms when the probe was actually open. That mistake cost me 3 hours of troubleshooting before I grabbed the Fluke. Has anyone else had a cheap tool lead you down the wrong path like that?

Had to choose between two test sets and I think I picked wrong

Last month I was deciding between an IFR 4000 and a Viavi 8800SX for our shop here in Tulsa. I went with the IFR because the price was around $4,500 used, but now I'm fighting with its interface daily while the other techs with Viavis breeze through their checks. Has anyone else made a similar call and regretted it?

That one week in Seattle where every plane had the same weird problem

A few years back I was working a stretch out at Boeing Field, and for like five days straight almost every bird coming through had a bad connection on the same pin in the same connector on the autopilot computer. It was some kind of grounding issue that only showed up when the plane hit a certain vibration frequency. I must have re-pinned ten of those things that week. The weird part was each job took about two hours to track down because the intermittent fault would only pop up during a specific engine run test. My foreman kept saying "it's the same gremlin every time" and he was right. Anyone else ever run into a run of identical failures like that where it felt like the whole fleet had a hidden flaw?

Old timer at the hangar swore by electrical tape for fixing chafed wires

Went to the EAA AirVenture museum in Oshkosh and got stuck staring at a 1950s autopilot system

I was wandering through the vintage avionics display at the EAA museum in Oshkosh last month, and stopped dead in front of this old Sperry A-12 gyropilot unit from a B-17. The thing is basically a box of vacuum tubes and spinning brass weights that somehow kept a bomber stable through flak and wind. Makes me appreciate how easy we have it with modern glass cockpits - you ever try troubleshooting a tube-based gyro that's the size of a microwave?

Swapped my go-to multimeter after 6 years and it messed with my head

Honestly, I was super skeptical about ditching my old Fluke 87 for a Brymen BM235. I thought it was just hype from the EEVblog folks. But after I tested it on a tricky 24V AC circuit in a Cessna 172, the Brymen caught a voltage drop my Fluke missed. Anyone else been burned by brand loyalty and had to eat crow on a tool swap?

Hit 200 harness repairs this month and it finally clicked why my wrists ache

I counted up my shop tickets yesterday and realized I've been doing almost 10 harnesses a week for the last 6 months, which explains the constant soreness in my hands. Has anyone found a good way to reduce repetitive strain when you're doing that many pin repairs and splice jobs in a row?

Spent 8 hours chasing a bad ground on a Garmin G5000 install in Orlando last month

Turns out the issue was a tiny bit of paint under a star washer that I missed on the first 3 checks, has anyone else had a phantom ground problem that made them want to toss a multimeter across the hangar?

Old tech at my last shop swore by analog testers, I laughed at him

Back in 2019 I had this guy named Dave who had been doing avionics since the 80s. He told me to keep a basic analog multimeter on my bench for chasing intermittent faults on old wiring. I thought he was crazy, digital stuff is faster and more precise right? Fast forward to last month, I spent 4 hours on a Cessna 172 with a flickering nav light using my Fluke. Finally broke out Dave's old Simpson 260 and found a corroded pin on a connector in about 10 minutes because the needle showed the voltage drop. Anyone else keep old gear around for those weird gremlins?

Spent $150 on a fancy circuit tester that couldnt handle a simple 12v line

Picked up one of those auto-ranging multimeters from a tool truck last month. Said it was rated for aircraft systems and all that. Hooked it up to a Cessna 172 alternator line and it gave me a reading that was off by 2 whole volts. Spent 4 hours chasing a problem that didnt exist. Anyone else had a high end tester lie to them like that?

Warning: 1000 hours of bench testing taught me a hard lesson about connector pins

I hit 1000 hours of bench time last month and realized over half my callbacks were from bent pins on MIL-spec connectors I rushed. A cheap 10x loupe from Amazon caught 3 bad pins before install yesterday. How many hours did it take you to get religious about magnification checks?

Laughed at a coworker's multiplexing trick on a 737 until I tried it myself

Swore I'd never use those expensive Deutsch connectors for a simple repair, but after chasing a flickering nav light for three days in Atlanta, I get why the manuals push them. Anyone else eat crow on a tool or method they thought was overkill?

Spent 6 hours tracking a bad ground on a G1000 install in Tulsa last month

I was pulling my hair out over a random GPWS fault on a King Air at Riverside hangar. Turns out it was a single ground screw on the P1001 connector that wasn't torqued right. The schematics showed it fine but the pin wasn't making contact. Has anyone else burned a whole day on something this small?

Switched from D-sub to Molex connectors on our last Cessna 172 panel job

I've been doing avionics for about 8 years now and always used D-subs for everything. Last month we had a 1978 Cessna 172 come in with a rat's nest behind the panel from three different upgrades. I decided to try Molex Mini-Fit Jr. connectors for all the power and ground runs instead. Shoved 12 circuits into one housing and it took half the time to crimp vs soldering pins on D-subs. Pulled the whole harness out three times for testing and it clicked in and out easy every time. What's your go-to connector for tight spaces behind a panel?

Had a convo with a 30 year avionics vet at the hangar in Nashville last Friday

He told me to stop chasing bad grounds on the bench and start checking the aircraft bonding straps first, and after 6 months of wasting hours on dead ends, it hit me how much I overcomplicate simple stuff - anyone else get humbled by an old timer like that?

Switched my view on using torque wrenches for every connector after a senior tech chewed me out

I used to just hand-tighten BNC and N-type connectors on antennas cause it felt fine. Then Roger at the hangar in Atlanta showed me a crushed dielectric from an overtightened LMR-400 and said I was costing the shop signal loss. Now I torque every RF connector to spec, no exceptions. Anyone else have a coworker who changed your whole approach to something basic?

Took me 5 years to admit soldering is better than crimping

I was all about crimp connectors on avionics harnesses until a senior tech showed me the cold solder joints I was missing on my last install. He said 'crimps are fast but soldering lasts the life of the plane' and I had to eat my pride. Has anyone else switched back to soldering after swearing it off?

TIL a simple trick from a Gulfstream mechanic saved me 4 hours on a harness repair

I was struggling with a broken wire in a LRU connector on a Cessna 441 last Thursday. An old school guy, Dave, walked over and showed me how to use a dental pick to wiggle the pins free without damaging the socket. He just said 'Stop yanking on it like you're pulling a weed, use the tool right.' After that I finished the repair in 20 minutes instead of guessing for hours. Any of you have a go-to tool that an old timer put you onto?

I finally stopped trusting my eyes on a cracked circuit board after a $300 mistake on a King Air last Tuesday

Turns out the hairline fracture was hiding right under a conformal coating that looked perfect, and I only found it after dragging my meter probes across the board for 20 minutes has anyone else had a visual inspection totally fail on them?

Finally realized my crimp tool was set wrong for 2 years

I was getting intermittent signal loss on a 737 nav install and a senior tech pointed out my coax crimps had a slight bump. Turns out I had the die set for RG400 instead of RG142 the whole time. Anybody else catch a basic mistake way later than they should have?