Found out my old shop's wiring was 30 years past its life expectancy

Honestly I was going through some old manuals from a place I worked at back in 2002 and stumbled on a maintenance log. Turns out the main harness in the Cessna 172 we used for training had been installed in 1974 and was rated for 15 years max. I called my old boss about it and he just laughed and said they replaced it last year finally. Has anyone else run into ancient wiring that slipped past inspections?

2 comments

2 Comments

alex5242d ago

Hold on, 2002 you're looking at a manual for a plane built in '74? That harness probably wasn't 30 years past its life, it was 40. So your old boss let it slide for almost 30 years after it was supposed to be toast?

tessa_kelly2d ago

Right but was he even aware it was supposed to be replaced or did he just never crack the manual after 1975? Feels like there's a difference between knowingly ignoring a 30 year old deadline and just having no idea the thing was supposed to be swapped out at all. I guess either way the harness was still ancient and he was still signing off on it, but the thought process matters for how bad it really was. Did he ever mention knowing about the life limit or was it more like he just fixed what broke and called it a day?