Talked to a 30-year vet who said my troubleshooting was backwards

Was working on a King Air 200 at the hangar in Wichita last Thursday and this old timer walked over while I was chasing a nav fault. He watched for like 5 minutes then said 'you're looking at the box first, but the wires fail way more often.' Handed me a schematic and pointed to a connector at the wing root that had corrosion I'd missed completely. That conversation made me totally rethink my process for avionics faults, and I've been doing this for 12 years. Anyone else ever get humbled by someone who just knows the common failure points better?

2 comments

2 Comments

drewsullivan21d ago

Did your old timer explain why wires usually go before the box? I run into that same pattern on my own gear and it feels like there's some physics reason nobody ever taught me in school. Kind of makes you wonder what else we're all missing because we just default to the expensive parts first.

the_john21d ago

Watched a guy half my age show me a trick on a Cessna 421 autopilot issue I'd been chasing for two days. He just tapped the gyro with a screwdriver handle and it started working again. Said the gimbals get sticky in cold weather and a little percussive maintenance fixes it 90% of the time. Felt like an idiot but I've used that trick at least a dozen times since then.