Hot take: Had a chat with an old A&P that flipped my whole view on troubleshooting

Was working a gremlin in a King Air pitot-static system down in Savannah last Friday. Old timer named Dave walked over, saw me chasing a bad connector, and just said 'you're looking at the wire, not the problem.' Hit different because he was right I spent 2 hours testing a perfectly good harness when the issue was a corroded junction block 3 feet away. Anyone else ever had a senior guy drop a line that made you totally rethink your process?

2 comments

2 Comments

jordancoleman13d ago

That thing about "90% of troubleshooting is checking the right connection first" is spot on. In my experience, it's almost never the part you think it is. I had a similar wake up call on a Cessna 182 a few years back. I was tearing my hair out over a mag drop that wouldn't go away. New plugs, new wires, even swapped the mag itself. After three days a crusty old guy walks up, taps the ignition switch, and says "you sure it's not that?" Sure enough, the switch was making a bad connection inside. I felt like an idiot, but he was right. I had been so focused on the engine that I skipped the simple stuff. Your mileage may vary, but now I always start with the connections and the switches before I touch anything else.

nancy_davis13d ago

Read something similar about how 90% of troubleshooting is checking the right connection first.