A lead mechanic at Frontier pulled me aside after my first engine swap

I was fresh out of A&P school, working at a small MRO in Boise. This old guy, Mike, saw me struggling with a torque wrench on a Pratt & Whitney PT6. He just said 'slow down, you're fighting the bolt, not turning it.' That single line changed how I approach every fastener now. Has anyone else had a mentor give you that one piece of advice that stuck?

2 comments

2 Comments

loganburns14d agoMost Upvoted

Man that hit home for me. I had an old line mechanic in Seattle tell me the same kind of thing about my first engine swap. He said "the tool doesn't know how fast you are, it just knows how hard you push." Changed my whole mindset. Still think about it every time I start getting frustrated with a stuck bolt. Sometimes the best advice is the simplest stuff that just makes you stop and breathe.

torres.jason14d ago

Read something online about how patience is basically a skill you have to train. Like a muscle. Every time you fight that bolt instead of stepping back you're just burning yourself out. The good mechanics I know all have that same quiet way about them. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. That old timer in Seattle knew what he was talking about.