c/avionics-technicians

Burned a Saturday morning on a bad crimp tool

I wasted $40 and three hours trying to fix a D-sub connector with a cheap tool that mangled every pin. What's your go-to crimper for those tiny contacts?

I finally had to pick a side on the whole fiber optic vs copper debate for a retrofit

Got a job last month on a 737 classic needing a full comms upgrade, the spec gave me a choice. I could run new copper bundles or switch the whole run to fiber. I went with fiber, spent two days learning the new crimp tool. It cut the wire weight by 60 pounds and testing passed first time. Anyone else made that jump and found the initial hassle worth it?

Showerthought: I think we're too quick to trash old test equipment for the new digital stuff.

Honestly, I had to choose between buying a brand new digital spectrum analyzer for the shop or keeping our old, but perfectly good, Tektronix 2710. Everyone said to get the new one, that the old box was a boat anchor. I picked the old one. I spent about $500 getting it fully calibrated and fixing a minor power supply issue myself. It works just as well for 90% of our comms checks, and the guys learned to read the analog display, which I think gives you a better feel for signal noise. The new unit would have been over eight grand. I'm not saying new gear is bad, but sometimes the old tools just do the job if you know how to use them. Has anyone else held onto an older piece of gear that still pulls its weight?

Update: A pilot at my hangar in Mesa told me something about autopilot that stuck with me

We were talking about a recent squawk on a G1000 system, and he said, 'You guys fix the magic, but you also have to trust we know when it's lying.' He meant that even when the box says it's fine, a pilot might feel something is off. It made me rethink how I explain my troubleshooting steps to the flight crew. Has anyone else had a pilot's gut feeling point you toward a problem the diagnostics missed?

Finally got a clean signal trace on that stubborn comms box

I used to just swap the whole unit after a quick check, but after a 3-hour ground delay last month, I started using the manual's full step-by-step. Found a corroded pin in connector J4 that was causing the intermittent fault. What's your go-to method for chasing down a ghost signal?

Had a weird intermittent fault on a G1000 PFD during a pre-flight check

It was on a Cessna 172 at our small field in Boise. The screen would flicker and go black for about two seconds, then come back, but only when the master was on and the engine was cold. I swapped the display with the MFD to see if the fault moved, and it did, so it's the unit itself and not the wiring. Has anyone else had a Garmin GDU 620 act up like this, and did you find a fix besides sending it out?

Changed my mind about using a cheap crimper for coax connectors

I always bought the $25 generic crimp tool for BNC ends, thinking it was fine. Then I had a job on a Citation in Denver where three connectors in a row failed continuity tests. My lead handed me his $150 Klein tool and said 'just try it'. The difference in the crimp quality was instant, no more cold joints. Anyone else find a specific tool that made you stop cutting corners?

Just read a report that made me rethink the whole 'glass cockpit' safety boost

I was looking through an NTSB study from 2022 about general aviation accidents, and it said planes with glass panels had a 7% higher rate of loss of control incidents in certain conditions. I always thought more tech meant less pilot error, but the data shows it can create new problems if people rely on it too much. Has anyone else seen pilots get too focused on the screens instead of flying the plane?

Shoutout to the guy who told me to trust the new fiber optic testers. I thought it was just more junk.

Had to pick between a full avionics rack swap or a targeted component fix on a King Air 200 last Tuesday.

I went with the component fix using a spare Garmin GNS 430 from our parts cage, which got the plane back in the air in 4 hours instead of 2 days, but now I'm second-guessing if that was the right long-term call for the whole system's health.

Shoutout to the old head at the Denver MRO who said he still trusts his Simpson 260

Overheard him telling a new guy that for basic continuity and voltage checks, his old analog meter from the 80s is faster than any new auto-ranging digital one. He said he's caught three bad diodes in the last year just by watching the needle swing. Makes me think we rely too much on the fancy gear sometimes. What's the oldest piece of test equipment you still use every week?

Shoutout to the guy at the hangar who said 'just bypass it'

I was pulling a wire run for a new transponder install on a Cessna 172 last week, and I overheard a guy telling a new hire to just bypass a faulty ground sensor on the landing gear with a jumper wire to get the light off. He said, 'The plane won't know the difference.' That kind of talk makes my skin crawl. I spent two hours on a King Air once chasing a weird voltage drop that turned out to be from a 'simple' bypass someone did years before. It's never just a light. That sensor is there for a reason, and if you skip the real fix, you're just handing a bigger, more expensive problem to the next person, or worse, to the pilot. It's lazy and it's not how you build a safe aircraft. How do you guys handle hearing that kind of shortcut talk on the line?

Question about using a thermal camera for intermittent faults

I always thought those handheld thermal cameras were a gimmick for our line of work, just another shiny tool to sell. Then, about two weeks ago, I was stuck on a Citation's autopilot that would drop out only after an hour in the air. We spent three days on the ground swapping boxes with no luck. A guy from the next hangar brought over his Flir One and we found a single voltage regulator on a board in the FCC that was running 30 degrees hotter than the rest under load. Replaced that one chip and the problem was gone. Has anyone else had a thermal camera save them from a real headache?

My lead tech told me to always check the cannon plug first on a comms fault

I was working on a King Air 200 last month with a broken VHF radio. The logbook said 'no transmit, audio panel shows TX but no signal'. I spent a good two hours pulling the radio tray, checking the antenna cable run, even swapping the control head with a known good one from the shop. Nothing fixed it. My lead, Mike, walked over, saw me sweating, and just said 'Did you pull and reseat the cannon plug on the back of the box?'. I hadn't, because the fault seemed more complex. I did it, and the radio came right back to life. It was just a tiny bit of corrosion on one pin causing an intermittent ground. Felt like a total rookie move. How many hours do you think we all waste by skipping the simple stuff first?

Had a nav system go dead right after a pit stop in Dallas

Was finishing up a pit crew check on a regional jet. Everything looked good on the ground test. The plane pushed back, then the captain called back immediately. Said the whole FMS screen was black. No route data, nothing. My stomach dropped. Ran back out with the tow crew. Found a main avionics cooling fan had failed quietly. Overheat warning didn't trip fast enough. Had to pull the whole unit, swap in a spare, and reload the database from our truck. Took about 90 minutes. Captain was cool about it, but it was a close one. Ever had a cooling fan fail without the usual warning signs?

Just realized I've been too trusting of old wiring diagrams

I was talking with a retired tech from the old Northwest Airlines crew at a meet-up in Minneapolis. He told me about a 737 classic where a 1992 manual update changed a single wire's color code from blue to blue with a white stripe, but the original paper copy in their hangar never got the sticker. They spent half a day on a no-comm issue because of it. It hit different because I've been using the same digital PDF set for five years, assuming it was the final version. How do you guys make sure your manuals are actually current?

Heard a pilot on the ramp say 'just reset it' about a nav display fault

I was doing a walkaround on a King Air in Denver last week and heard the pilot tell his co-pilot that. It was a G1000 system with a blank PFD. That phrase just stuck with me. We all know a simple power cycle might clear a fault code, but it doesn't fix the root cause. It feels like that attitude pushes the real troubleshooting onto us when it comes back a week later with the same squawk. How do you guys handle it when the flight crew suggests a shortcut that you know just kicks the can down the road?

I finally picked a new wire stripper for the shop and it's been a game changer

I was stuck between the Klein 11055 and the Ideal 45-616 for our main bench. Went with the Klein because the blade change looked easier for the new guys. After two weeks, we've cut prep time on 22-gauge shielded cable by almost half. Anyone else have a favorite stripper for small-gauge stuff?

A chat with a new guy at the hangar made me see a simple job differently

We were swapping out a comm radio on a Cessna 172 last week, just a routine R&R. The apprentice, Mike, asked why I was checking the antenna cable run before powering up the new unit. I told him it's just what you do. He said his old instructor called it 'listening to the airplane' and that stuck with me. It wasn't just a step, it was making sure the whole system was ready to talk. Anyone else have a phrase that changed how you do a basic task?

TIL my stubbornness about the old 6000 series test set was costing me time

After a buddy in Tulsa showed me his results with the new portable unit, I shaved 30 minutes off a standard comms check. What piece of gear did you finally upgrade that made a real difference?

Can we talk about the jump in quality after switching to fiber optic testers?

Our shop swapped out our old copper cable testers for a pair of Fluke fiber optic inspection scopes about six months ago. The before and after on our fault-finding time is crazy. We used to spend maybe 30 minutes tracing and verifying a single intermittent comms fault on a data bus. Now, with a direct visual on the connector end face, we're finding contamination or damage in under five minutes. It's cut our average troubleshooting time on those systems by more than half. Has anyone else seen this kind of time save, or did we just have really bad gear before?

I just read a report from the FAA's 2023 data that made me rethink our wire harness inspection habits

It said that in over 60% of general aviation incidents linked to avionics, the root cause was traced back to connector pin issues, not the actual black boxes we spend so much time on. I found this in their annual safety review while looking up something else. Are we maybe focusing too much on swapping units and not enough on the simple pin and socket checks first?

My old foreman told me to always check the cannon plug first on a nav system fault

I spent two hours tracing wires on a Citation's GPS dropout issue last month. He said, 'Nine times out of ten, it's just a pin backed out in the connector.' I finally listened, pulled the D-sub at the MFD, and sure enough, pin 14 was barely hanging on. Crimped it back, system came right up. Anyone got a better method for checking those things without pulling the whole rack?

A talk with a retired guy at the hangar made me rethink my whole approach to wire diagrams

He said 'If you can't trace it with your eyes closed, you didn't draw it right,' and that stuck with me. How do you all organize your schematics to make troubleshooting faster?

Had to choose between a new multimeter or a better crimp tool for the shop budget. Went with the crimper.

The boss gave me a $400 allowance to get one new piece of kit for our bench. It was a tough call between a fancy new digital multimeter with more functions or a high-quality, ratcheting crimp tool set for D-sub pins. The old crimper we had was just a cheap hand tool, and I was tired of fighting with it on harness repairs. I figured a solid connection is the foundation of everything we do, so I ordered the crimp set from a brand called Erem. It showed up last Tuesday. Used it on a G1000 audio panel harness job, and wow, what a difference. The crimps are perfect every single time, no more cold joints to chase. Has anyone else made a similar choice? What's the one tool you'd pick if you could only get one?