TIL a pilot's offhand comment about his old plane's wiring saved me a day of work.

I was at a small airfield in Bend, Oregon, finishing up a nav light fix on a Cessna 172. The owner, a retired airline guy named Frank, was just watching. He said, 'You know, on the old 150 I flew, the ground for that circuit liked to hide behind the panel support, right where the bundle turns sharp.' He was just making talk, but I checked. Sure enough, a green wire had rubbed through on that exact edge, shorting to the frame. It wasn't even the issue I was there for, but it would have failed a check. He didn't know the system, just remembered a quirk from flying it. How often do we ignore the guy who just flies the box? Ever had a pilot give you a tip that actually panned out?

2 comments

2 Comments

barbara39915d ago

Yeah, that's the thing, those old quirks are real. I was chasing a weird fuel gauge issue last month, and this crop duster pilot just mentioned his old plane would read wrong if the tail was up on a stand. Sounded nuts, but we leveled the plane and the gauge worked fine. @lisa_jones21 I get the superstition thing, but sometimes it's just pattern recognition from a thousand hours in the seat. They see the same weird symptom pop up. Saved me from pulling the whole sending unit for no reason lol.

lisa_jones2115d ago

Honestly though, how many of those old tips are just superstition? Sometimes you get lucky.